Bike event comes to MOmentum Friday and Saturday

The 2026 Velosolutions/UCI Pump Track Qualifier comes to Joplin's MOmentum Bike Park Friday and Saturday. Joplin is one 23 cities around the globe to host a regional and one of four in the United States. The North Carolina qualifier is set for September; qualifiers in Colorado and California are done. Winners advance to the 2026 Velosolutions UCI Pump Track World Championships, which take place Oct. 16-17 in Beijing’s Mentougou District, China. Pump track requires cyclists to navigate rollers, berms and jumps without pedaling. Competitors race head-to-head in knockout rounds for the win. Practice sessions for riders begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday; qualifying rounds begin at 6:15 p.m. Friday. At 9 p.m., the park will reopen to the public. Practice sessions resume at 11 a.m. Saturday, with qualifying rounds beginning at noon. Finals are set for 7:15 p.m. Saturday. There also will be adult races — ages 17 and older — open to all skill levels and youth races for ages 16 and younger. According to the city of Joplin, categories are broken down into two-year age increments (male and female, placing three deep as long as there are four riders in the bracket.) All participants will receive an event T-shirt, a finisher medal and a racer goodie bag. Joplin is on track to be the largest qualifier in the United States, Sawkins said, with 120-150 racers, including 35 professional cyclists. Joplin’s MOmentum Bike Park, with accesses on Lone Elm Road and Zora Street, opened last November. It is the largest municipal bike park in Missouri, featuring more than 132,000 square feet of formal bike park elements alongside 10 miles of purpose-built mountain bike trails on 95 acres. The $5.8 million project was funded through the parks and stormwater quarter-cent sales tax, the hotel-motel tax, and a Missouri Department of Economic Development local tourism ARPA grant of $1.5 million to expand and improve the project. The bike park is at the former site of the Dover Hill soccer fields. The Joplin Parks & Recreation Department has partnered with Joplin Sports Authority and Rufus Racing for the event.