Big news today as UCI MTB World Series announces that the World Cup will return to Asia for the first time since Arai Mountain in the early 2000s.
PyongChang, South Korea, hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics and will host a triple-header World Cup to kick off the 2026 season. It will be the first time that XCO and XCC has been to Asia and the first time in 25 years that a DHI race has taken place on the continent.
If we’re correct, this will be the first Asian World Cup since Arai Mountain back in the early 2000s. PyonChang is relatively close to the South Korean capital Seoul, has Olympic-level infrastructure and decent elevation beyond the 1000m mark. The 2018 Winter Olympics used several outdoor venues and the press release does not specify which venues the World Cup will use in PyonChang.
