Bob Saffell and his three partners aren’t trying to step on anyone’s toes. But they are trying to create another avenue for mountain bikers to compete in a unique series format.

This Saturday, the second of the four-part Utah State Championship Series, a new MTB event, will take place here in Park City as the Round Valley XC race is set to kick off at 4 p.m.

The first event was a dirt-circuit ride in Alpine in late spring. Following the Round Valley XC race, the series will return to Park City on July 9 for a 50-mile marathon race. The final race is a super XC race to be held in Draper.

Saffell and his partners, Drew Free, Shannon Boffeli, and Ty Hansen, decided to found the organization a year ago. This is the first year of the series.

“We just started talking about putting a few mountain-bike races together,” Saffell said. “It’s a little mixture of everything on mountain bikes.”

Saffell said the series directors chose Park City for two of the four events largely because of its extremely biker-savvy culture.

“The trail system in Park City is amazing,” he said. “In my mind, it’s one of the ideal places to ride. We made use of all of our connections up there in the mountain biking community all of them across the board.”

Saffell said he expects 200 to 250 racers to partake in the unique XC race Saturday. He said the late start time is due to a multitude of other local events Saturday, but said it should be a nice twist compared to the typical early-morning start.

He said the series is trying to form its own path.

“We actually have a 5-to-10-year plan to grow on. We don’t want to compete with other race series; we’re likely to grow slowly. We don’t want to impede on the same weekends as other established events. Eventually, we’d like to bring high-caliber events to the state. But there’s a lot of work to be done to get to that level.”

Every race in the series will be a fundraiser designed to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Saffell said one of the series’ founders’ wives was diagnosed with breast cancer in January.

“We wanted to give something back tangibly, other than helping to build the sports,” he said.

Saffell said he is excited to come to Park City and thinks this location will be one of the strongholds of the series for years to come.

“The first year is really the hardest in getting locations and all the routes set up,” he said. “Once we get all the appropriate relationships set up, we want to come back.”

A pre-registration fee for all adult categories for Saturday is $30. Juniors ages 13 to 18 are $20. Day-of registration includes a $10 additional fee. For kids 12 and under, there is only day-of registration which is $5. To register go to www.raceuscs.com . The series’ registration system is unique in that it has no online fees.