The Fox US Open of Mountain Biking has a new home this year, and it’s not a subtle change. Four straight years at Killington Resort in Vermont, and now the event lands on Bald Eagle Mountain at Deer Valley, Utah, for the first time ever. Pro seeding wrapped Friday. Nate Kitchen and Aletha Ostgaard sit on top. Finals go off this afternoon.

That’s the short version. Here’s the rest of it, including why an event with over two decades of history decided a mountain on the opposite side of the country from its old venue was worth the move.

Quick Take

Dates	September 10–13, 2026
Venue	Deer Valley Resort, Bald Eagle Mountain — first year hosting
Previous home	Killington Resort, Vermont (2022–2025)
Series context	Finale of the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series and the Official US National MTB Championship series
Men’s seeding leader	Nate Kitchen, 2:41.942 — 0.350s over Aaron Gwin
Women’s seeding leader	Aletha Ostgaard, 3:06.072 — 0.528s over Anna Newkirk
Pro finals	Saturday, Sept 12, estimated 3:00pm MT, Snow Park base area
Attendance estimate	~10,000 across the weekend
Spectator access	Free with a reserved ticket, or paid Pro Downhill Course Scenic Ride for chairlift access
Best for	Anyone within driving distance of Park City who’s never seen a National Championship-level DH race in person
Skip if	You wanted the Killington course — that venue’s off the calendar this year

Why Deer Valley, Why Now

The move needed a permit, and Park City wasn’t a rubber stamp about it. According to the Park Record’s coverage of the vote, the Park City Council unanimously approved Deer Valley’s special event application back in June — and the same reporting put the economic estimate at roughly $1.25 million in local business activity and around 237 supported jobs for the weekend, the kind of number that makes an unopposed vote easier to understand.

There’s history behind that vote, too. TownLift’s report on the original announcement notes this marks the first time elite professional downhill racing has returned to the Wasatch Back in nearly two decades — the area last hosted events at this level around 2008. Not “first time at Deer Valley.” First time in the region, full stop, in a long time.

The resort had its reasons for wanting it now. Deer Valley’s built out a National Championship Series-caliber trail network over the past few seasons, and the US Open needed a course capable of hosting the country’s best after Killington ran its four-year stint. Marketing lined up with infrastructure.

None of that changes what actually matters to riders and spectators: an entirely new track, raced for the first time under real competition pressure this weekend.

What Makes This Debut Different

1. It’s the first time this specific race has run at Deer Valley — not a returning venue, not a rotation back to an old course, a genuinely new track on Bald Eagle Mountain built for this event.
2. It doubles as the finale of two separate series — the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series and the Official US National Mountain Bike Championship, so Saturday’s results carry season-long weight, not just a single-race trophy.
3. The region hasn’t hosted elite pro downhill in nearly two decades, per reporting on the Park City Council approval — this isn’t Utah adding another stop, it’s a return after a long gap.
4. Deer Valley is estimating roughly 10,000 attendees in year one, a big number for a venue with zero prior data on how this specific race draws a crowd.

We’ve covered a handful of “first-ever” venue moments already this season — Whistler hosting its first UCI Downhill World Cup despite decades of gravity racing pedigree is the closest comparison. Deer Valley’s situation is almost the opposite: a venue with no downhill racing history at all, inheriting an event with over two decades of its own.

Pro Men’s Seeding: Kitchen Holds Off Gwin by a Hair

Nate Kitchen posted the fastest run of Friday’s seeding on the Bald Eagle Mountain track, going 2:41.942. That’s not a comfortable margin. Aaron Gwin — a five-time UCI Downhill World Cup overall champion who’s been racing this sport since 2008 — sat second at 2:42.292, just 0.350 seconds back. Asa Vermette rounded out the top three at 2:42.965, with Nikolas Nestoroff and Bode Burke filling out the top five.

Here’s the detail that makes the top three more interesting than a simple time sheet: Gwin and Vermette are teammates. Gwin signed a two-year deal with Frameworks Racing/TRP for 2026 specifically to race alongside — and mentor — Vermette, a first-year elite rider. Two riders from the same program sitting second and third in seeding, separated from the top spot by barely a second combined, isn’t a coincidence born of one good day. That’s a program working.

We wrote up Frameworks’ 2026 DH frame when it hit the market — a $3,999 gravity chassis that undercut most of the field on price without cutting the spec sheet. Watching Gwin and Vermette both push it inside a second of the seeding leader is a better real-world data point than anything a spec sheet can offer.

Pro Women’s Seeding: Ostgaard Extends Her Streak at This Event

Aletha Ostgaard topped the women’s field at 3:06.072, a 0.528-second gap over Anna Newkirk in second. Kailey Skelton took third, with Gloria Scarsi and Kallie Stewart rounding out the top five.

Ostgaard and this event have history that predates the move to Utah entirely. She became the youngest rider ever to podium the US Open at just 14 years old, back when the race still ran at Killington. She’s also no stranger to winning big at a venue hosting its first major downhill event — she won at Whistler’s Canadian Open DH by several seconds earlier this year. New track, new state, same result on top of the seeding sheet.

There’s a sibling thread worth pulling too. Her older sister Taylor Ostgaard finished second in the Elite Women’s field at Crankworx’s finale at Mont-Sainte-Anne this season. Two sisters, two podium-level results, two different disciplines within the same summer of gravity racing.

Newkirk’s second-place seeding time is worth flagging for the same reason as Vermette’s on the men’s side — she’s also a Frameworks Racing/TRP rider, meaning the team has three of the top five seeded spots across both fields heading into Saturday.

How Does the Fox US Open Fit Into the 2026 Season?

The Fox US Open closes out two separate championship structures on the same weekend:

1. The Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series — Deer Valley is the fifth and final round, following stops at Ride Rock Creek (NC), Mountain Creek Bike Park (NJ), Solitude Mountain Resort (UT), and Big Bear Lake (CA).
2. The Official US National Mountain Bike Championship series — the US Open serves as the national championship finale, meaning Saturday’s results settle more than just event bragging rights.

That double duty is part of why the Park City permit process mattered so much. This isn’t a regional race changing venues; it’s the season-ending round for the country’s top domestic downhill series, and it needed a course capable of standing in for Killington’s four years of built-up reputation on short notice.

Finals Schedule and What to Expect

Pro Downhill Finals run Saturday, September 12, with an estimated 3:00pm Mountain Time start and awards immediately after at the Snow Park base area. Amateur finals follow Sunday, giving age-group and citizen racers their own moment on the same rebuilt course pros raced a day earlier. The track itself starts near the top of Bald Eagle Mountain, off the Homestake Express and Carpenter Express chairlift terminals, and finishes down in Snow Park — a start-to-finish layout the series rebuilt specifically for this debut rather than repurposing an existing bike park trail.

Open Class pro/am format means the $80,000 purse gets split across the professional field while amateur racers compete on the same weekend for national ranking points, not a separate afterthought event bolted onto the pros’ schedule.

Spectator Guide: Getting In and Watching

Admission is genuinely free, but it’s not walk-up-anytime free. A reserved spectator ticket gets you into the Snow Park base area with viewing access to the finish. If you want to see more of the mountain, the Pro Downhill Course Scenic Ride ticket adds chairlift access via Silver Lake Express and Homestake Express, putting you higher on the course before you walk or ride back down. Deer Valley’s bike park and lifts stay open to the general public all weekend regardless of race schedule, so a US Open ticket isn’t required just to ride the mountain yourself.

Given the estimated 10,000 attendees and a venue running this event for the first time, expect some first-year friction — parking, shuttle timing, and RSVP logistics that a four-years-practiced Killington crew would have ironed out already. Nothing in the reporting we’ve read suggests it’s disorganized, just untested at this specific scale on this specific mountain.

Who Should Go

Anyone in driving range of Park City who’s never watched National Championship-level downhill live. This region hasn’t hosted a race at this level in close to two decades. That’s a long wait for a home date.

Fans following the Frameworks Racing/TRP story. Gwin, Vermette, and Newkirk sitting inside the top three of both seeding fields on a brand-new track is a legitimate proof point for a program that’s still building its reputation.

Anyone curious how a rebuilt National Championship Series course rides under full race pressure. Friday’s seeding times are the first real data anyone has on this specific track — Saturday’s finals push that data further.

Who Should Skip This

Riders expecting the Killington course they know. That venue is off the 2026 calendar. If the East Coast track was the draw, this is a different race in a different state on a track nobody has multiple years of history with.

Anyone wanting a fully dialed-in, veteran-venue spectator experience. First-year events have first-year kinks. If you’ve been to Killington’s US Open in past years and expect the same operational polish, temper that a notch for year one at Deer Valley.

The Bottom Line

The Fox US Open of Mountain Biking spent four years at Killington before Park City’s council cleared the way for a move to Deer Valley — the first elite downhill event this region has hosted in almost twenty years. Nate Kitchen and Aletha Ostgaard lead a seeding field that’s tighter than the times suggest, with Frameworks Racing/TRP’s Aaron Gwin, Asa Vermette, and Anna Newkirk all inside striking distance heading into Saturday’s finals. It’s the finale of both the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series and the US National Championship series, on a brand-new course nobody’s raced more than once. Whatever else changes about this event in year two, year one is happening this afternoon on Bald Eagle Mountain.

---

Reporting sourced from Deer Valley Resort’s official Fox US Open event page, TownLift’s seeding results coverage, TownLift’s original venue announcement, Pinkbike’s seeding results report, the Park Record’s coverage of the Park City Council approval, Cycling West’s season-finale preview, and Bikerumor’s report on Aaron Gwin joining Frameworks Racing/TRP.