ORDA employee Nick Zachara, front, rides down a rock garden at Olympic Sports Complex at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Friday, with fellow state Olympic Regional Development Authority employee Blaine Doyle trailing behind. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
LAKE PLACID — Elizabethtown native Max Van Wie was all smiles speeding down the upcoming Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Biking World Series course this past Friday at the Olympic Sports Complex, at Mount Van Hoevenberg.
While Van Wie, who built and designed the course, has taken some test rides of his own, Friday marked the first official time riders tested out the course. He was joined by a select few local mountain bike riders, professional rider Greta Kilburn and former pro rider and two-time Olympian Lea Davison, both of Vermont.
The entire course, which is not open to the public, is about 95% completed, according to Van Wie.
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series will take place here from Sept. 27 to 29 and will the first of its kind in Lake Placid. The event will feature multiple different mountain biking levels, including some top level athletes like Kilburn.
The Lake Placid course is one of 15 stops for the series, which spans 10 countries on three continents. The state Olympic Regional Development Authority, which managed the Olympic Sports Complex, will also host events in 2025 and 2026.
ORDA employee Nick Zachara, front, comes down the hills with two-time Olympian and recently retired rider Lea Davison trailing behind on Friday.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
This year’s competition 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.
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How it started
– For the past few years, Van Wie has been working with Vermont-based trail organizations to build mountain biking trails. He recently returned back to the area when the Barkeater Trails Alliance had him build a jump trail on its Craig Wood Trails.
“I think that’s how ORDA heard about me,” he said. “They came over, looked at it and said ‘Hey what do you think about building a World Cup course?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ I didn’t really know where that was going to go and the next time they came and visited, they had some UCI guys from South Africa. I was like, ‘Well that’s got to be pretty serious, if they’re bringing these guys in.’”
After several meetings with UCI, Van Wie completed his design for the course. There weren’t any changes during the building process. Van Wie said his creativity was really only stunted by the limits of the property.
Despite being hired to build and design the course, Van Wie doesn’t have a cross country biking background, which is the competition that will be held in Lake Placid. He’s more into building mountain bike and dirt bike trails. He said he normally builds flowy berms and flow trails.
When building this project, he wanted visualize the course. He’s taken some test rides, but some parts of the course he has never rode, including over by the snow-making reservoir.
“I know that’s going to ride fine,” he said. “That’s a straight trail.”
On Friday, most of the area riders stuck to the dual slalom, which is essentially two parallel tracks with similar small obstacles. Van Wie said the dual slalom was both his favorite and most hated feature, because of the process it took to build it.
“The dirt that these trails are built out of have a lot of residual stuff from past construction,” he said. “We were finding wood chips 2 feet down, there was water flowing because there is a lot of ledge here.”
Since then, the water problem was fixed. Much of the area is now hardened and dried up.
“That was a big undertaking that wasn’t really necessary to do, he said. “We could have have this race and put three berms there and no one would know the difference. But I was like, ‘No, I want to do something that is above and beyond,’ that and the reservoir feature turned into those kind of bigger things, and then everything else we tried to go above and beyond with what they are, they’re just smaller projects.”
Van Wie said there were some minor tweaks left, but nothing major. He was just happy to finally see people ride the course, the largest project he’s ever worked on. The whole project has taken him about two months and one week to complete.
“We’ve never had more than four guys working here at a time,” he said. “Normally it’s three, but a lot of times it’s just been myself and Andrew Gogan, my one employee who has worked for me for a couple of years. I’m pretty proud of what we have accomplished with that few people.”
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Professional reaction
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As a long-time pro rider on the UCI Mountain Biking World Series, Lea Davison says it’s special anytime there’s a race in North America.
“To have this one so close to home is essentially a dream come true,” she said. “I wish it happened when I was still racing.”
Even before taking a test ride herself, she said she was loving what she was seeing. She said it’s unique in terms of a World Cup course.
“What I think is unique to Lake Placid are the gorgeous views of the High Peaks, and also these features kind of emulate a bobsled track, which is right next door,” Davison said. “That seems very Olympic and Lake Placid-like. There’s a lot of climbing, it’s challenging, there’s a lot of technical sections, so you really need to be an all-around great rider with a lot of skills to thrive on this course.”
Greta Kilburn, who will be competing in her first-ever World Cup in Lake Placid, said she loves how there’s a bit for every type of rider.
“There’s the climb, which has technical sections, but also a double track where you can pass, which is definetly going to benefit a strong climber,” she said. “Then there’s rugged downhills which are pretty quintessential of the North American riding. Then also the machine built downhills and crazy berms.”
Kilburn, 19, was a part of a Vermont-based group called Little Bellas, which helps young girls get into mountain biking. The 501c3 non-profit organization was co-founded by Davison and her sister.
“I knew she was going to be fast from the very beginning and we did a couple races in Vermont together over the past couple of years, and she was sticking with me. She was really growing up and becoming a real talent in this sport and also in Nordic skiing. It’s really a dream come true as part of the Little Bellas program to see a Little Bella grow up and take part in a World Cup that’s really close to the base.”
Kilburn said she’s stoked to race here in September and hopes that walking and testing out the course may give her a competitive advantage.
“This is amazing getting to come here,” she said. “I get to see the whole course and be ready for the event. I’m so excited, my friends are going to come from (University of Vermont) and my family will be here, it’s going to be huge.”
