While it may not look like a lot to someone just passing through, to him it marks a big step forward for mountain biking in this community as the state Olympic Regional Development Authority prepares mountain biking trails for the upcoming WHOOP Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Bike World Series.

The UCI Mountain Bike World Series, which will take place here from Sept. 27 to 29, will the first of its kind in Lake Placid. The event will feature multiple different mountain biking levels, including some Olympic athletes who just competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Cheney Seymour, the recreation sport and event coordinator at the state Olympic Regional Development Authority’s Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg and its Olympic Jumping Complex, says construction is about 60% completed.

The entire course will be finished at the end of the month following a final run-through by UCI inspectors. Once that inspection happens, there will three weeks until the event actually happens.

The first rock garden on the outskirts of the biathlon stadium at Mount Van Hoevenberg.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

“If there’s things that are identified at the end of August that need to be adjusted or changed then we need to do that,” Cheney Seymour said.

Mount Van Hoevenberg is one of 15 stops for the series, which spans 10 countries on three continents.

The 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 U23 division will compete 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.

–

The bike path on the side of the reservoir at Mount Van Hoevenberg. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The course

–

The entire course will be 4-kilometers — or around 2.5 miles — with nearly every section of the course on pre-existing ski trails from the 1980 Olympic Winter Games or beforehand, according to Cheney Seymour. The start and finish will be inside the biathlon stadium area.

“The course, once you leave the stadium, is 100% in the easement lands,” he said. “The stadium is what it is, it’s bisected by the Forest Preserve and that’s all well known.”

Cheney Seymour said one of the biggest goals during construction on the course was to not import non-native materials.

“So far, everything that we have done and built has been used with materials that have been on-site and already available,” he said. “There hasn’t been any mining efforts or anything like that to achieve that. It’s really been like taking a boulder that has been sitting over there and bringing it over here for that function.”

The soil that has been used has come from other projects nearby, according to Cheney Seymour. With that soil, the construction crew has been able to build unique features.

Parts of the course showcase heritage to the Olympic sliding track; parts of the track reference the Lake Placid sliding track.

“The descent into stadium is 100% intended to simulate the experience of a sliding track,” Cheney Seymour said. “I think it was fun to go through that conversation with Warner Bros. and the build team of, ‘How can we take this something on this site that is part of (our) heritage, and how can we take and mimic that into something in a World Cup mountain biking course?'”

The course has a bit of playfulness as well. Right at the center of the stadium are two lean-tos, which come race day will have a door cut into the back so riders will have to go through them and jump out the front.

“(We) came to the idea that this is an important type of structure in the Adirondacks and part of the trail environment,” Cheney Seymour said. “We went through five or six ideas on what we could do with lean-tos. Riding over the top, linking them together. These were two lean-tos that (ORDA) already owned and now they’re two features.”

In front of the lean-tos, there will be a group of marshals, who will be there keeping the area safe.

“The plan is that there a bonfire here with Adirondack chairs around it, and the marshals are hanging out, roasting marshmallows and monitoring these, and the crowd is looking over at it,” Cheney Seymour said.

The course does have some difficult elements. Most of the sections of the course are broken down into multiple lines, or essentially two different options for the riders, each one has a risk-and-reward. There are also two uphill climbs that riders can take, which one hill steeper than the other.

“If you hit the (steep one) with speed and have a good transition, it’s much quicker than (the other one) is, and if you don’t it’s much slower,” Cheney Seymour said.

–

Fan experience

–

The expectation is that there will be around 1,000 to 1,500 people on Friday; 2,500 to 3,000 people on Saturday and 5,000 people on Sunday, according to Cheney Seymour. One of the biggest factors when determining the course was making sure that the spectators can fully experience every part of the race.

“If you watch the Tour de France on uphills, you can see that the fans are quite close to the riders and that is the goal, that (the fans) have access to the riders all of the time,” Cheney Seymour said.

Nearly every part of the track will be visible for spectators. The hiking trails to Cascade and Porter mountains, which begin at the Mountain Pass Lodge, will be used for spectators and the reservoir will be on the best viewing points, allowing spectators to see most of the course.

“Everywhere except for the race course is more or less open for the fans to be watching, spectating and engaging with what happens,” Cheney Seymour said.

Even when racers leave the podium, they’ll have to walk through a fan zone just to get back to their team’s paddock — or tent area.

“The fan experience at the World Cup mountain bike race at Mount Van Hoevenberg is going to be stunning for people,” Cheney Seymour said.

During race weekend, there will be fan engagement zones and potentially even live music. There will be food vendors on the sides of course as well.

“Down where the wax cabins are in the winter (Lot 1), is going to be where the expo area is,” Cheney Seymour said. “So local vendors, regional vendors and companies that are coming to share their stories, their products and their information.”

Tickets for the WHOOP Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Bike World Series went on sale on in March. Those interested can purchase a ticket, at https://tinyurl.com/49552vxv.

With the expectation of so many spectators, there will a shuttle system to Mount Van Hoevenberg from the North Elba Show Grounds on race day.

–

Children’s drive

–

When the athletes roll into Lake Placid in September, Swedish athlete and Olympic gold and bronze medalist Jenny Rissveds, who won her bronze medal in the women’s cross-country mountain biking event at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics on July 28, is hoping to make a mark on the community.

Rissveds is planning on partnering with ORDA to set up a children’s drive during the race weekend. While the project is very much in the early stages, Cheney Seymour said her goal would be to find 30 children around elementary and middle school age.

“And spend an hour with the team,” he said. “That includes being in tents (with the pros), talking to them about good decisions and then going on a bike ride.”

Cheney Seymour said she likes to pull in other professional riders to help her out.

“She usually gets the podium from the day to be out with her,” he said.