Border Battle MTB 2026 — Illinois State Championship
Wisconsin's WORS mountain bike series crosses state lines for the Illinois MTB state championship, back-to-back with Wisconsin's Treadfest the day before.
The vibe
Wisconsin's biggest series crosses the line
Border Battle is proof that state lines don’t mean much in mountain biking. Wisconsin’s WORS series — one of the biggest MTB race circuits in the Midwest — crossed into Illinois for the first time in 2025 after 34 years of staying put, and Atwood Trails in Rockford Park District has hosted it since. The race doubles as the Illinois Mountain Bike State Championship, which pulled in 50+ teams and over 1,500 riders and spectators in its debut year.
The format leans into the crossover appeal: WORS runs Treadfest in Wisconsin on Saturday, then Border Battle in Rockford on Sunday, so racers can make a full weekend of it without much of a drive between venues.
Atwood Trails offers the kind of varied Midwest singletrack WORS races are known for — enough technical terrain to reward skill, without punishing newer racers out of the field entirely.