LAKE PLACID — As the Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Biking World Series is slated to kick off on Friday, Sept. 27 at Mount Van Hoevenberg, this village is gearing up for a big weekend.

The UCI Mountain Bike World Series, which is being put on by UCI and Warner Bros. with the help of the state Olympic Regional Development Authority, is the first of its kind in Lake Placid.

Mount Van Hoevenberg is one of 15 stops for the series, which spans 10 countries on three continents. Vice President of Cycling Events at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe Chris Ball, who has been running cycling events for around 20 years, said the excitement for hosting this event is really genuine.

“I think Warner Brothers Discovery and the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, we have really big ambitions for the U.S. but especially for Lake Placid,” he said. “We found our local team to be really incredible, and we can’t wait to experience that with the local community as well.”

Mount Van Hoevenberg was chosen as one of the host sites in 2023, one year after Warner Bros. signed a contract with UCI to put on the event. Ball said with mountain biking growing in popularity, they were looking to find a place that could host an event of this magnitude.

“Lake Placid’s been well known to us as a company, New York is a key state, the experience locally has been incredible and understands what we want to achieve,” he said. “Even though we haven’t yet started, we’re building the event to start this weekend over multiple years. It’s been a really coming together of a shared mindset.”

The contract is a three-year deal, with World Cup events scheduled for 2025 and 2026 as well.

This year’s event in Lake Placid will kick off on Friday, Sept. 27, with a cross-country short track World Cup for both men and women’s U23 division. On Saturday, Sept. 28, the men’s and women’s elite division will race in a cross-country short track World Cup, followed by the U23 division in the UCI cross-country Olympic-distance World Cup.

The event will wrap up on Sunday, Sept. 29 with the a marathon distance World Cup and an Olympic distance World Cup race between the men’s and women’s elite division. Ball said Sunday’s races are the “real flag pole events.”

“That warms up with a short track event (on Saturday), which is a short high energy version of it,” he said. “It’s a 1-kilometer course and it takes place over 20 minutes. The main race on Sunday is an hour and 20 minutes. For the short track, it’s super high energy and it’s really designed to get the crowd going.. Obviously, the marathon, exploring all the great terrain around and has an amateur component, too.”

With tickets having gone on sale in March, ORDA Communications Director Darcy Norfolk expects more than 4,000 spectators per day on both Saturday and Sunday. Those interested can purchase a ticket at https://tinyurl.com/49552vxv.

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Pro riders

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Haley Batten, an American rider from Park City, Utah, who earned a silver medal in women’s cross-country mountain biking at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games, arrived to Lake Placid on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

She hadn’t seen the course yet as of Wednesday, but she’s already taken her bike riding around the area.

“We got in a nice ride in yesterday evening,” she said Wednesday. “And this morning.”

While its Batten’s first time Lake Placid, she’s excited to be here one of the last World Cups this year. Batten, 26, has had one of the best seasons of her career so far.

“There have definitely been some up and downs during the season, but that’s part of racing and being an athlete,” she said. “I won a World Cup in Brazil early in the season, and medaled at the Olympics, which was really my ultimate goal and to be able to finish the season in the U.S. and North America is really special and I’m excited to feel that energy — not home — but it definitely feels like you’re a part of Team USA and it’s special because we don’t get that a lot with World Cup races because we race in Europe so much. I know that everybody from the U.S., it means a lot to them.”

Batten isn’t the only U.S. rider with high expectations.

On the men’s side, Chris Blevins, who won a silver medal on Sunday, Sept. 22 in the UCI Marathon Mountain Bike World Championships in Snowshoe, West Virginia, is slated to race this weekend.

“The U.S. has really been able to level up year-after-year, and I think this year has shown how much depth we have as a nation with so many talented athletes from the junior category to the under-23 and the elite category,” Batten said. “Everybody is flying and getting these podiums nationally which is amazing. To bring that strong team here and to be able to represent, I know it’s a big goal for everybody that races for Team USA and USA cycling.”

For Batten, the World Cup atmosphere is something special because of the spectators.

“I think you really feel that when you’re racing. With your competitors there’s a lot of respect, and true passion for racing, we love what we do and you can usually feel that from the spectators as well.”

Back home, she grew up on mountain biking as her family would go riding on their camping trips.

“In Park City, there is obviously such an incredible mountain bike trail system and cycling community, so I really fell in love with it there,” she said. “Then just started doing local races and then domestic races across the country, then I started racing for a living.”

When she was 14, she earned her first national title and later became a professional rider. She has achieved three national titles as a junior and another in U23, won a U23 world cup and was part of the U.S. team relay at world championships that earned a silver medal.

Batten said being a professional mountain bike racer is a lot of work.

“It’s really a 24-7 job. It’s 365 days a year,” she said. “Everything that you do as an athlete is making sure your body is healthy and primed for performance, and it’s not just a fitness sport; it’s a skilled sport. You have that technical aspect of riding that you have to prepare for alongside days of intervals and days in the gym and eating well and working with maybe your mental performance coach or a nutritionist.”

To Batten, all of the hard work is worth it. She encourages others — or even those that may want to be in her shoes one day — to just get out and ride your bike as far or short as they want.

“Once you start riding on the road or to school, it’s only more fun if you go off the road or a path,” she said. “You find yourself on the cool trails and you can really explore the outdoors in such cool ways. That’s why I love this sport, because every place we go is this amazing.”

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BETA’s Community Bike Jam

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With the anticipation for the UCI Mountain Biking World Series, the locally-run Barkeater Trails Alliance will host a Community Bike Jam on Friday, Sept. 27 on Main Street in Lake Placid.

The event will take place in two locations, with one at the parking lot across from the NBT Bank, as well as Mid’s Park. The Community Jam will run from 4 to 7:30 p.m.

BETA Executive Director Glenn Glover said the event is the perfect opportunity to draw spectators from Mount Van Hoevenberg to Lake Placid to help highlight the community and help bring some traffic to the local businesses and restaurants.

“Once we knew that wanted to do something that would help bring spectators there, we started talking about ‘How do we do this?’ and ‘How do we create the most impact and benefit to the community?'” he said. “Anything that we can do to build excitement particularly with the younger crowd for biking and mountain biking specifically fit right in our wheel house.”

Doug Haney owner and founder of Bike Adirondacks, who was hired by BETA to organize the event, said the bike jam is designed for families and kids.

“We envision this event as something that is accessible to everybody to come out and see people do really cool things on bikes, listen to some good music at Mid’s Park and learn a lot more about the mountain biking community and what’s available like the different clubs and organizations that are here to really work to get more kids involved into cycling,” he said.

The event will kick off with a Krusher Stunt Show at the parking lot across the street from NBT Bank.

“It’s professional BMX riders who will be launching themselves up a ramp, and then up another ramp doing incredible aerial maneuvers, pretty much 15 or 20 feet above the ground and landing on air bag out run,” Haney said. “The cool thing about that venue — the parking lot — is people will be able to watch them at ground level and will also be able to go on that upper parking lot where there is a railing there and see the cyclists essentially at eye-level as they fly through the sky.”

There will also be live music at Mid’s Park from the local band Spring Street starting at 5 p.m. There will also be a chance for people to engage with UCI teams and competitors.

During the event, the lower parking lot across from NBT Bank will be closed to vehicle parking for this event and there will be bike racks available. The upper lot will be open for permit parking only and viewing for the Krusher Stunt Show. The Lake Placid High School parking lot will be open starting at 4 p.m. for public parking.

“So we’re encouraging people to park there starting at 4 and to walk or ride their bike to downtown,” Haney said.

With the UCI Mountain Bike World Series being the first of three, Glover hopes to expand on the bike jam the next time around.

“This is sort of a crawl-walk-run, think big and start small,” he said. “‘Can we get an obstacle course set up? Can we get demo bikes out there? Can we do things that are more hands on?’ We’d love to do things that are more active and set up an obstacle course for kids and things like that.”