If you needed one more reason to love living and riding in the Wasatch Back, here it is: the world's best mountain bikers are racing practically in our backyard this month.
On September 19–20, 2026, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway will host a round of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, featuring both Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) and Cross-Country Short Track (XCC) racing. This is a full-blown UCI World Cup event, the same level of competition you'd see at the Olympics, landing about 50 miles from Salt Lake City and even closer to Park City.
Why This Is a Big Deal
Soldier Hollow isn't new to hosting big races. It handled the 2024 Pan American Mountain Bike Championships, and it's also on the list of venues for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But a UCI World Series stop is a different tier entirely. This is the same series that's been crisscrossing the globe all year, starting in South Korea in May and working its way through Europe and Asia before landing in North America. Soldier Hollow is one of the final three stops, right alongside Whistler and Lake Placid.
The local build-up has been serious, too. Trail crews spent the past year building out technical, feature-heavy sections designed specifically for World Cup–level racing, including a spectator-friendly "bowl" area on a hillside where fans can watch a huge chunk of the course without moving. Organizers are expecting thousands of spectators each day.
A Hometown Connection
There's also a local storyline worth knowing about. Soldier Hollow is the home training ground of Haley Batten, the Park City native who won silver in cross-country mountain biking at the Paris 2024 Olympics. For anyone in our community who's followed her career, watching a World Cup race unfold on her home trails is going to hit different.
What to Expect
- XCO (Cross-Country Olympic): The classic format — a mass-start, multi-lap race that runs 80–90 minutes for the elite fields. This is the discipline you know from the Olympics.
- XCC (Cross-Country Short Track): A shorter, faster, more intense format, with elite races wrapping up in 20–25 minutes. Great for spectators who want non-stop action.
- Two days of racing: September 19 and 20, with events for multiple categories throughout the weekend.
If you're local, get out to Soldier Hollow on the 19th or 20th and watch some of the best riders in the world tear up trails that were built with exactly this kind of racing in mind. And if you're planning to be there, keep an eye on our socials — we'll be posting more as the weekend gets closer.
See you on the trails.