Mountain Biking World Cup: Organizers gear up for Lake Placid event

As part of the series this September, Mount Van Hoevenberg to build new mountain biking course

By Mike Lynch

Lake Placid has hosted a wide array of international sporting events over the years, and it is starting to gear up for the latest competition: World Cup mountain biking. 

From Sept. 27 to 29 , Mount Van Hoevenberg is hosting the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, which will feature three styles of cross-country races. 

The event is expected to draw Olympic bikers and thousands of spectators. It will require months of planning and preparations by the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) and local stakeholders. 

Knowledge of the event went public last fall. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office made an official announcement in early March, when tickets went on sale.

The Olympic venue is one of 15 stops for the series that visits 10 countries on three continents. About 130 cross-country biking competitors are expected to attend the Lake Placid event. 

Kris Cheney-Seymour, who manages the host venue, said his staff has been working with three main individuals —  including Martin Seddon who designed the 2012 Olympic course in London — to create mountain biking courses at Mount Van Hoevenberg. 

The Olympic venue is set up for biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions but not mountain biking. The course currently lacks natural features, such as logs, berms, dual slalom courses and rock gardens. 

Crews are expected to start constructing the course in mid-May and be finished in late summer. The price tag for the design and construction work is $300,000.

Some features, such as the dual-slalom course, will be taken down in time for the Nordic skiing season. Other sections will be improved in future years.

“It’s going to change slightly by design next year when we see how certain things work and then likely by the third year will be kind of closer to hopefully to a final design,” Cheney-Seymour said. 

ORDA has contracted with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, global promoter managing the broadcast, promotion, and organization of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, for a three-year deal that requires the Olympic organization to pay a total of $1.26 million. ORDA will consider adding downhill competitions at Whiteface Mountain in future years. 

The anticipation builds

Organizers have high hopes for the event. ORDA spokesperson Darcy Norfolk told the Explorer they expect to draw between 5,000 and 8,000 each weekend day and slightly less on Friday. About 120 tickets have been sold so far, but the marketing campaign touting the event hasn’t officially begun, according to ORDA officials. 

Those estimates are similar to what they have drawn recently for World Cup ski jumping competitions. 

In an effort to accommodate spectators, ORDA, the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism (ROOST), local officials and stakeholders have been meeting to plan for the event.

One of the stakeholders, Barkeater Trails Alliance (BETA), expressed concern last winter that the influx of riders could harm area mountain-biking trails and the associated infrastructure, but BETA’s Executive Director Glenn Glover told the Explorer planning has gone well recently.

“We had things that we wanted to ensure were addressed to best utilize the community assets and also provide the best user experience to visitors, and I would say, I am actually pretty pleased with the partnership that is developing, particularly, I would say with the towns and ROOST,” he said. 

Months of planning ahead

Glover said his organization is working on a visitor information plan for spectators, which also targets summer users.. The plan includes partnering with ROOST to create a website that would highlight mountain biking options in the five towns where BETA now builds and maintains trails, including Harrietstown, Lake Placid, Keene, Elizabethtown and Wilmington.

The website could be launched as early as late May. It will complement and highlight information already available on Trailforks, a mapping app commonly used by mountain bikers. 

ORDA is also expected to provide spectators with information about local biking opportunities and amenities as part of the registration process. 

“Basically you’re just trying to ensure that people that are coming here have the best experience possible,” Glover said. 

Another part of that equation is parking at bike trails and for camper vans that many cyclists use for traveling and overnight stays.

North Elba Supervisor Derek Doty said the town and stakeholders are still evaluating the parking needs, but it shouldn’t be an issue. The town-owned Craigwood Golf Course parking lot, where there are bike trails, has been expanded and there are other spots in town for vans.

“We have ample parking,” Doty said. “We have a huge parking lot at our lacrosse fields. We have 500 to 600 cars for well over a week during the big lacrosse tournament in early August, so we have the ability to certainly accommodate any group that wants to park, that’s for sure.”

He also anticipates it won’t be an issue that the event is taking place during a weekend that is often busy for fall foliage season. He said the region offers enough lodging at traditional hotels and short-term rentals. 

But Doty does think this event will show off the region’s biking assets.

“I would bet they don’t even realize the extent of all the mountain trails that we have here,” he said. “I mean, look at everything there is to do for a biker.” 

Doug Haney, owner of the touring company Bike Adirondacks in Saranac Lake and a participant in the planning meetings, echoed those thoughts. 

“The UCI World Cup is tremendously exciting to the bicycling community as a whole, in being able to bring world class, World Cup and Olympic level mountain bikers to the place that we call home and ride our bike,” he said.