USAC Cross-Country Mountain Bike National Championship heads to Bear Creek Mountain Resort

After three years in the thin alpine air of Colorado, USA Cycling is moving the cross-country mountain bike national championships back east.

This year and in 2024, cross-country MTB nationals will be held at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The 2023 event will be held July 5-9.

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Bear Creek Mountain Resort was home to the 2013 and 2014 USAC Cross-Country Mountain Bike National Championship, where Lea Davison, Todd Wells, Kate Courtney, and Christopher Blevins all claimed national titles.

After three years of battling for oxygen at Winter Park Resort, athletes will instead be faced with the new challenges of rooty and rocky East Coast riding.

“Riders have asked us to look for a venue at sea level, and many have been hoping we’d bring the event back to the east coast,” said Tara McCarthy, USAC’s director of national events. “Returning to Bear Creek Mountain Resort allows us to build upon the success from our 2013 and 2014 partnership and gives us access to over a third of the population of the United States.”

Bear Creek is situated in eastern Pennsylvania, just 1.5 hours by car from Philadelphia and 2.5 hours from New York City.

In December, USA Cycling announced the venues and dates for all 2023 BMX, road, track, and cyclocross national championships.

The governing body now has dates for downhill (July 12-16 or July 19-23) and collegiate (October 12-15) mountain bike nationals, as well, but those venues are still TBD. Gravel nationals will occur in “fall 2023” pending venue confirmation.