The cross-country team relay is due to the first race to be held,

This has been won by France or Switzerland since 2013, with the French regaining the title after three years of Swiss dominance at Leogang in Austria in 2020.

Italy, three-times winners since the team relay first ran in 1999, are also well-fancied.

The elite cross-country short track races is scheduled to be held on Thursday (August 26), with qualifying heats for the men’s event taking place today (August 24).

Short track has featured at Mountain Bike World Cup events since 2018, and this will be the first time it has been held with a rainbow jersey at stake.

Dutch rider Mathieu Van der Poel triumphed on the 20-minute circuit at the 2019 World Cup in Val di Sole, but has had to pull out of the men’s elite competition with injury.

Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Mathias Flückiger of Switzerland is taking part, with his compatriot Nino Schurter are likely to be in contention.

In the women’s race, Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot and Loana Lecomte of France and American Haley Batten have all won UCI World Cup cross-country short track events, while Switzerland’s Jolanda Neff, the newly-crowned Olympic cross-country champion, will be a contender.

Friday (August 27) is due to to feature two elite finals in the e-mountain bike and four cross disciplines.

Jérôme Gilloux of France, runner-up to Tom Pidcock of Britain - who misses out as he is competing in the Vuelta a España - in the men’s e-mountain bike race in 2020, and tops the current UCI World Cup standings.

Mélanie Pugin, also of France, is the reigning women’s champion in this event and leads the way in the UCI World Cup standings.

The four-cross is returning to the World Championships having not featured last year, with France’s Romain Mayet and the Czech Republic’s Romana Labounková triumphing in 2019.

The elite Olympic cross-country finals are scheduled for Saturday (August 28), with the circuit four-kilometres in length and including 190-metres of elevation gain.

Neff and winner at the last two World Championships, Ferrand-Prèvot, will be expected to be among the frontrunners in the women’s race, though could face a strong challenge from Lecomte, 2020 World Championships silver-medallist Eva Lechner of Italy, and the United States’ 2018 world champion Kate Courtney.

In the men’s race, eight-time world champion Schurter has won six of the last eight World Cup legs held at Val di Sole since 2008, although his five-year reign was ended at the 2020 World Championships by France’s Jordan Sarrou.

Flückiger and Olympic bronze medallist David Valero Serrano of Spain add to what looks a very strong field.

The last finals are set to be in the elite downhill discipline on Sunday (August 29).

The track is known as the "Black Snake", and is 2.4km long with an average elevation loss of 22 per cent.

Britain’s Reece Wilson won the men’s 2020 World Championships race, while his compatriot Laurie Greenland won the most recent event on the track.

Fellow Briton Danny Hart has won the downhill World Championships race twice, while France’s Loris Vergier is the current European champion, and his compatriot Loïc Bruni has been world champion four times in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In the women’s race, France’s Myriam Nicole was world champion in 2019, and triumphed in the most recent World Cup event in Maribor in Slovenia, while Italy’s Eleonora Farina came second.

Switzerland’s Camille Balanche clinched the world title in 2020, and came in third in the World Cup event at Maribor.