Why Korea Is Mountain Biking's Most Exciting New Stage

South Korea doesn't immediately come to mind when you picture world-class singletrack, but with South Korea being mostly mountains, it makes sense that there would be plenty of mountain biking to uncover. When Giant Bicycles athlete Sascha Kim touched down in Seoul, he found himself connecting with a mountain bike scene bursting with life, a tight-knit community, and some seriously great trails.

The MTB scene in South Korea shouldn't really be that shocking, seeing as the 2026 UCI MTB calendar starts in Mona YongPyong, South Korea, which will host the first-ever Asian UCI Cross-country Olympic and UCI Cross-country Short Track World Cups, and the first UCI Downhill World Cup on the continent in 25 years. South Korea is about to land on the global MTB map in a massive way, and riders like Sascha and influential local creator Sikss Lee have been quietly laying the groundwork.

The new mini-doc from Giant follows Sascha, who is half Korean, on a deeply personal trip to connect with a culture he hadn't fully explored before. That connection point? Bikes. And it's a reminder of just how powerful two wheels can be as a universal language.

From street riding through Seoul's layered collision of ancient temples and neon-lit modernity, to organizing an open-invite shred day at Tarzan MTB Park near Incheon, Sascha dove headfirst into the scene. What he found wasn't a fledgling community struggling for identity — it was a passionate, dedicated crew of riders who already knew how to send it.

The riding itself? No joke. Gochang Bike Park is South Korea's first dedicated downhill park, dropping over 500 vertical meters of purpose-built gravity trails. The trails at the Baekbong Bike Festival delivered the kind of flow that makes you forget your name. Sascha even raced the final event of the season in Chilgok and finished second behind a fast local, Park Jong-yun. That tells you everything.