Mountain biking first came to Mt Van Hoevenberg (MVH) in Lake Placid in the early 1990s. It has come a long way since then, but this summer it is scheduled to make a giant leap forward.
With the WHOOP UCI (International Cycling Union) Mountain Bike World Series coming September 27-29, images of the world’s best mountain bikers racing at MVH will soon be beamed around the world, and that requires a whole new standard of trail design and development specific to the sport at this high level. Trails built on a full knowledge of the athletes and the sport itself.
Accomplishing this still involves a lot of tough, manual work, but those who do it best are creative sculptors and architects with a keen understanding of art, science, and sustainability. Course designers and developers need sensitivity to the bike handling skills needed to negotiate every obstacle. Their objective being to balance keeping riders safe while injecting fun and excitement into the course. They appreciate the flow and rhythm of the sport. They need to grasp the very real limits not only of the riders but also of the bikes themselves.
Going behind the scenes at MVH this summer, we can see all this knowledge put into action. Using only natural materials from the site itself, the course designers are creating a wonderland of burms and turns, jumps, drops, rock gardens, and rhythm sections, all deliberately designed and graded to ensure they’re erosion resistant.
Teams Putting Knowledge into Action
Planning the courses and trail features is a collaborative effort between three main entities – the experienced MVH staff Kris Cheney-Seymour and Allan Serrano, the teams from UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery Sport (WBD Sport), and Max Van Wie, a professional homegrown trail builder originally from Elizabethtown, New York. As the founder of Backslope Trails, Max brings the experience and crew necessary to turn all the great ideas into the gnarly features beloved by racers, spectators, and event organizers alike.
In agreement with DEC and APA, some features are designed and developed as temporary structures. Because all features are built with natural materials onsite, they can be easily deconstructed after the races. Other appropriate elements have been approved and will remain legacy features of this historic venue.
The main courses for both the Cross-Country World Cup (XCO) and Short Track World Cup (XCC) mountain bike races are laid out crisscrossing the Nordic racing trails. There, the collaborators and developing a whole new world of fantastically fun mountain bike racing trails with innovative features. Importantly, these trails are already equipped with the sophisticated plug and play infrastructure necessary for broadcasters to set up cameras and beam race images to viewers around the world.
Beyond giving the world’s best riders suitably challenging terrain on which to race, the goals of the course design include giving spectators a festival atmosphere complete with expo and party areas in addition to an array of easily accessible locations from which to take in all the excitement of the races.
Welcome to the Fan Zone
One area known as the Fan Zone will be a hub of intersecting trails that climb, descend, turn, and twist to give spectators an incredibly lively place from which to witness the beginning, middle, and final stages of every race. At a similar location next to the MVH snowmaking reservoir, spectators can see a total of seven different portions of the same race. Trails come together before pulling apart again, offering a unique vantage point for witnessing moments of big drama and major changes in position within the races.
Another goal of top-notch trail design for the XCO and XCC World Cup race formats is giving riders options. Alternative lines of travel within the same width of trail let the racers decide on the best path to follow. Importantly, this gives them opportunities to pass. These options are built into numerous areas of the trails, including especially the spectator areas near the lodge and vendor and sponsor tents. Racers will choose the specific pathways that suit their needs throughout these areas.
“There are a lot of features on this course, and the features are connected with open riding,” says Cheney-Seymour. “When riders do their course checks in the days prior to the race, they look carefully at all of the different options, and it’s the choices that make the race much more interesting.”
With Options Come Risk and Reward
“Each area of the course with multiple options will offer risk and reward,” he notes. “There may be less of a climb but a tighter turn with one option. On another line, a rider may choose more climbing but an easier transition forward. Throughout the XCO and XCC courses, there are lines with more speed or more potential hazards than other options. This forces racers to choose between paths with more or fewer technical features, so although one route may be easier, it’s also likely to offer competitors opportunities to pass.”
One feature Cheney-Seymour points out that lends the course a regionally authentic flare is two Adirondack lean-tos. Just in front of MVH’s Mountain Pass Lodge, riders will go through each lean-to and make a jump out the front. From there a clearly delineated course takes them across the stadium grass through the tunnel and across the biathlon range and up the steep burm on the other side. Within the biathlon range will be a tech zone where each team will have a tent, and riders can be provided mechanical assistance, fuel, or other needs.
In another part of the XCO and XCC courses, old contours of a former bobsled push track that had long been wiped out are new being re-created to add authentic and historically significant turns to this modern mountain bike race. Says Cheney-Seymour, “In many respects, we rebuilt that original track.”
The design of the Marathon World Cup (XCM) course is decidedly different. The course designed for this longer race travels over MVH’s 55 km of legacy ski trails, plus existing single track mountain bike trails. MVH staff member Blaine Doyle, who is experienced in numerous sports, brings a passion for racing and sustainability to his work of delineating a challenging yet safe Marathon World Cup course for this grueling 100 km race.
A true test of racers’ endurance, this course is far longer. It forces riders to adapt to different terrain over and over again. At the same time, they will still be racing in packs on tight trails.
The New Standard of Trail Design
The work being done on these trails in advance of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series is part and parcel of a new standard for trail design and construction at MVH. It’s a standard that stresses authenticity and cost savings while also prioritizing sustainability. Materials are all sourced onsite, eliminating transportation costs and carbon emissions. The deconstruction of select features afterward can be done easily with materials being returned to where they came. Weather proofing is another major consideration, one that prevents erosion and preserves the integrity of trails through time.
Ultimately, the teams collaborating on the design and development of these new, world-class mountain bike trails are seeking a thrilling experience for riders and spectators that also always in consideration of rider safety. While doing so, they strive to maintain a sense of flow and rhythm, too.
In the old days, trails were simply an interpretation of the best way to cross a section of landscape. Today, as Olympic Authority teams work to fulfill the mission of creating economic and social benefit at our venues, we are also fully dedicated to maintaining our commitment to environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility, and delivery of world-class events, programs, and experiences to everyone. In striving to achieve these goals simultaneously, trail design rises to a higher level of responsibility and integrity.
Now, in bringing this incredibly exciting new event to the region and creating the trail infrastructure to host it, the Olympic Authority team is fulfilling its mission and mandate in new and impactful ways. This singular event is one in a series of events and infrastructure improvements that demonstrate our global leadership in sustainable sport and recreation.
Get ready for the excitement to come September 27-29. See full event details and get your tickets here.