Mountain

The 2005 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships will return to Mammoth Mountain, California, the U.S. governing body announced Tuesday. The championships will be held September 15-18. More than 1400 athletes raced at Mammoth this past September as USA Cycling unveiled its new one-day format for crowning national champions. “We were very pleased with the outcome of the first one-day national championships in 2004,” said USA Cycling CEO Gerard Bisceglia, “Mammoth is an ideal location and we look forward to another great event in 2005.” The resort's management was happy,

Downhiller Chelsea Redwood has accepted a two-year suspension for testing positive for the appetite suppressant phentermine. Redwood, 34, of Big Bear Lake, California, tested positive September 26 during the U.S. Mountain Bike National Championships at Mammoth Mountain, California, U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials announced Saturday. She finished 14th in the pro women's DH, racing for Turner-No Brakes Racing. She told officials she used the substance for weight loss without knowing it was banned by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Under the terms of the suspension, Redwood was

After the usual post-season lull in the mountain-bike racing world, the second week of December saw the fat-tire news rolling in at a breakneck pace. Tops on that list, of course, was the news from Big Bear Lake, where it was announced that Snow Summit Resort – the Wrigley Field of downhilling – was shutting its doors to the gravity set. The initial explanation was that a combination of liability exposure and pressure from the Forest Service were to blame. And a source with knowledge of the situation told me that the liability concerns have reached their crescendo because of a $25 million

One of America’s most renowned mountain-bike racing venues has pulled the plug on downhilling. Snow Summit Resort in Big Bear Lake, California will no longer allow downhill bikes on its chairlifts during the summer riding season, and this means no more downhill racing either. According to Dick Kun, president of the resort, the change in policy stemmed primarily from the amount of liability exposure his resort was facing by allowing downhillers to ride on the mountain two hours drive from Los Angeles. “Even with the insurance that NORBA and Team Big Bear carried it wasn’t enough to protect

The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced last Friday that Chris Del Bosco of Vail, Colorado, tested positive at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships on September 26 at Mammoth Mountain, California. Del Bosco (Oakley-LenzSport-FoxRacing Shox), a semi-professional downhill ski racer who finished 18th in the NORBA downhill overall in 2003, tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a prohibited substance under World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list. Del Bosco, 22, received a public warning for a first offense. In addition, he is disqualified from his first

Racers never know what to expect when they make the trip to Northern Michigan in November for the Subaru Iceman Cometh Challenge. Last year, a blanket of more than four inches of fresh snow covered the trail at start time. The course was sloppy and slow, with frigid temperatures to boot. This year, the conditions were at the opposite end of the spectrum, with temps reaching into the mid-50s and partly sunny skies. The mild and dry conditions practically begged the 2000 -racers to reach for personal course records, and they did. In the end, it was Michigan native Brian Matter (PCW Cycling),

Fort Lewis College dominated both the men’s and women’s downhill events at the Collegiate Nationals at Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, securing yet another team omnium title in the process. Tough conditionsAlthough the sun finally came through Sunday morning, the previous day’s rain left the twisty single-track course in rough shape. A peanut buttery mixture of mud covered the trail’s many rocks, roots, and stumps. The Women’s Division II title went to Fort Lewis College freshman Leana Gerrard. While many of her competitors ended up carrying their bikes down large stretches of the

There’s still a long ways to go in mountain biking’s annual silly season, but the news of next year’s line-ups is slowly rolling in. Standing pat for 2005 will be the GT-Hyundai and Mongoose-Hyundai squads. GT will continue to feature cross-country Olympian Todd Wells and gated-racing specialist Brian Lopes, while reigning world 4X champ Eric Carter and Brian Schmith will be running the Mongoose colors. The one big change, according to team manager, Craig “Stikman” Glaspell is that Carter and Schmith will actually be “racing on genuine Mongoose bicycles” as apposed to the painted up

Josh Bezecny and Nick Ranno gave the University of Colorado a one-two finish in the Division I men’s cross country on Saturday at the National Collegiate Cycling Association’s Mountain Bike National Championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. Bezecny built a minute lead over Friday’s short-track winner, Matt Shriver (Fort Lewis College), on the technical 6.5-mile course and held on to take the win, with Ranno eventually overtaking Shriver for second. “I felt really comfortable on the first single-track section,” said Bezecny. “I got a gap and just kept going.” Meanwhile, Nina Baum

Perhaps the race announcer put it best when he said, “All Colorado, all the time,” during the men’s Division I short-track race at the National Collegiate Cycling Association’s Mountain Bike National Championships in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. Fort Lewis College and the University of Colorado at Boulder took seven of the top 10 spots during a damp day at the popular East Coast ski resort, with Fort Lewis’s Matt Shriver surging to a commanding lead halfway through the half-minute race as his teammates controlled the chase. “We just wanted to swarm the front,” said Fort Lewis coach Dave

It is quickly becoming the offseason of contraction in the world of mountain-bike racing. First came news that the German-based T-Mobile formation had folded up its tent, and now VeloNews has learned that the RLX Ralph Lauren team will not be back in 2005. The team’s status had been up in the air for some time, but after making two trips back to company headquarters in New York in hopes of securing another year of support, team manager Dave Wiens got word Friday morning that the up-scale clothing maker was opting out. “I think they really wrestled with it,” said Wiens about a sponsorship

Nat Ross (Subaru/Gary Fisher) and Kelli Emmett (Specialized) rode 450 miles and covered 40,800 vertical feet of climbing between them to claim respective wins in the men's and women's solo categories this past weekend at the 10th Annual 24 Hours of Moab. A long-time solo competitor, Ross arrived in the red rock desert south of Moab with a goal to win, but Emmett had only decided to enter the race less than 48 hours before the start. "I've never ridden my bike for longer than eight hours," said an anxious Emmett in a pre-race interview. "For me it was just the mental challenge of getting

Austrialia's Wade Bootes has been suspended for six months after testing positive to a banned stimulant. Bootes, a serious contender on the MTB 4-Cross and BMX circuits, tested positive for a banned stimulant at the Mont Sainte Anne Mountain Bike World Cup in Canada earlier this year. The 30-year-old from Queensland has contested the result, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport imposed the ban on Friday. Bootes is a former world champion in the now-defunct mountain bike discipline of dual and a former Australian mountain bike and BMX cyclist of the year.

If any question remained as to who the strongest cross-country racers in the United States were, recently crowned national cross-country champions Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Alison Dunlap erased those doubts Sunday with convincing solo wins at the national short track championships at Mammoth Mountain Resort, California. The wins brought the third national STXC titles for both: Dunlap took the stars-and-stripes jersey in 1999 and 2002, while Horgan-Kobelski took the title in 2001 and 2003.

Gravity racing took center stage at the NORBA national championships Saturday, held at Mammoth Mountain Resort, California, with veterans Brian Lopes (Hyundai-GT-Oakley) and Tara Llanes (Giant-Pearl Izumi) claiming stars-and-stripes jerseys in the mountain cross event. The national titles brought a touch of redemption to each of the winners, who both spent much of their 2003 race seasons sidelined with injuries. In the men’s final, Lopes, the top qualifier, beat out recently crowned world Four Cross champion Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai) with Chris Powell (Specialized) finishing third.

A new, one-day “winner-take-all” format for crowning national mountain-bikechampions enjoyed its debut under sunny skies Thursday at Mammoth MountainResort, California, with veteran Dave Wiens (RLX Ralph Lauren) and risingtalent Gretchen Reeves (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) taking the 65-milemarathon cross-country titles.For the first time since the implementation of the NORBA National Seriesin the late 1980s, American racers are contesting a national championshipsolely without competition from foreign riders. The marquee event of theweekend, the pro cross-country race, will be held

A pair of past national champions, Alison Dunlap (Luna) and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren), again proved themselves as the strongest American cross-country racers with convincing wins at the new, one-day “winner-take-all” NORBA national championships at Mammoth Mountain Resort, California. Both winners found themselves threatened by just one main challenger over the winding 11.8-mile loop, held at 10,000 feet elevation: for Horgan-Kobelski, the competition over the men’s three-lap course came from Giant’s Adam Craig, while Dunlap was forced to push the pace over the women’s

Let’s pretend that your mountain-bike racing plans for next season include marathon and cross-country events — and you’re going to take on both the NORBA and World Cup schedules. Well you better buckle up for a long year. Starting March 5 in Boerne, Texas, the 2005 pro schedule includes nine NORBA stops, eight World Cup marathons and eight World Cup cross-country races. The last event of the year isn’t until October 7, when the marathon World Cup series wraps up in France at Roc d’Azur. Throw in the fact that there are races in Cyprus (marathon World Cup No. 1), Brazil (World Cup

The World Cup series came to a close last weekend in Italy, with Swiss cross-country star Christoph Sauser and French downhiller Celine Gros locking up the only two overall titles that were still in doubt. As for the races in the high mountain town of Livigno, Belgian Roel Paulissen took the men’s XC, with Gunn-Rita Dahle of Norway continuing her unbeaten streak with yet another win. The Norwegian’s run is up to 11 straight World Cups dating back to the start of the 2003 season. Dahle is now the reigning World Cup, world and Olympic champion. In the downhill, Gros also got the win in the

Following an out-of-competition test two days before the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup, the then-reigning world cross-country champion Filip Meirhaeghe found out that he had tested positive for EPO on July 27. Meirhaeghe didn’t fight the result, immediately announcing his retirement from the sport. Since then he’s spent time working on his neighbor’s farm while he tries to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. Meirhaeghe also made a surprise appearance at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets, France, where he hoped to clear the air with some of his former sponsors and

Gunn-Rita Dahle almost didn’t start the world championships after coming down with a cold following her gold medal performance in Athens, but she’s glad she did. The Norwegian shook off a week in bed and post-Olympic letdown to become the first woman mountain biker to pull off the world title-Olympic champion double. And now she’s a week away from sewing up the World Cup and delivering an unbeatable triple. “Today was a matter of getting rhythm and being very careful with bike,” said Dahle, who covered the 30km course in 2 hours, 2 minutes, 12 seconds. “I felt good from the start and did my

There will not be a ninth elite world downhill title for Anne-Caroline Chausson this year. According to a team staffer the Frenchwoman crashed hard in Saturday morning’s downhill practice session in Les Gets, and will not be able to race in either the downhill of four-cross finals this afternoon. According to the team source, Chausson injured her shoulder and was taken off the course in an ambulance before being transferred to a helicopter for the trip to a nearby hospital. Coming into the day, Chausson was the overwhelming favorite to win both the downhill and four-cross titles, after

Following the path of greats such as Nicolas Vouilloz and Cédric Gracia, the French downhill machine churned out a new pair of potential stars on Saturday morning, as Romain Saladini and Florent Payet grabbed the top two places in the junior men’s downhill at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets. The No. 3 qualifier, Saladini blasted his way down the steep, 1.3-mile Mont Chery course, posting a 2:48.69, just 0.89 second ahead of countryman Payet. American Kyle Strait grabbed the final podium spot, finishing 2.46 seconds back of the winner. It was a one-place improvement for

Olympic silver medalist José Antonio Hermida tearfully defended his innocence of doping after failing blood tests with high hematocrit levels on the eve of Sunday’s world championship cross-country race. Hermida broke down in tears during a press conference Saturday evening as he tried to explain that he’s been fighting the UCI for years to certify his naturally high hematocrit, which hovers around the official speed limit of 50 percent. “I have not taken any drugs, I have not done anything wrong,” said Hermida as he choked back tears. “At the moment, I feel like my career is in the hands

If you like Hollywood endings, then the men’s downhill at the world mountain bike championships gets a big thumbs up. You had the classic hero in Frenchman Fabian Barel, who helped design the world’s course and is in part sponsored by the world’s host town of Les Gets here in the Rhone-Alpes region of France. And you had the villain, Great Britain’s Steve Peat, who at the end of the day was the only man separating Barel from a date with the rainbow jersey, not to mention the joy a Barel win would spread around a town the downhiller calls his second home. After posting a middle-of-the-pack

For the first time in nearly a decade, the elite women’s world championship downhill race started with an air of suspense. Downhill’s unrivaled queen of the piste and eight-time defending elite women’s champion Anne-Caroline Chausson was KO’d with injuries, and suddenly the women’s field was wide open. “I hate to admit it, but it’s true,” said American Marla Streb. “When we heard that Anne-Caroline had crashed out, then everyone else started thinking we have a chance. That’s how much she’s dominated this sport.” Chausson dislocated her shoulder and fractured her arm after crashing during

Eric Carter isn’t ready to retire just yet, but whenever the American does decide to call it a career he’ll do so a fulfilled man. After winning every other meaningful title on offer in the gated-racing world, Carter finally added the elusive rainbow stripes to his long list of accomplishments after winning the four-cross at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets, France Saturday night. In the final heat Carter made a daring inside move, pulling clear of 2003 world champion Michal Prokop and French veteran Mickael Deldycke. From there Carter ran for his life, holding his lead all

"Hora who?" That was the question on everyone’s mind Saturday evening in Les Gets when unheralded Jana Horakova of the Czech Republic literally came out of nowhere to win the women’s four-cross world title. “I’ve done four international events before this race, so it’s a bit of a surprise that I won,” said Horakova, who barnstormed to victory at the expense of Americans Jill Kintner and Tara Llanes, who took silver and bronze. “I honestly didn’t know what to expect. After practice I liked the course and I focused on the start and just hoped to make it to the finish without making a

For years it’s was the one thing that definitively separated mountain biking from its road-racing cousin. If you get a flat, you fix it. Bust your chain, get out the chain tool. But that will all change starting next year when the UCI introduces a rule that will allow outside technical assistance in cross-country races at World Cup and world championship events. The details of exactly how it’s all going to work are still a little murky, but Regis Alexandre, the president of the UCI mountain bike commission, says he envisions two or three pit zones where riders can swap out everything but the

It was almost like a home crowd for Nino Schurter after rowdy Swiss fans poured over the border into Les Gets to cheer the brawny 18-year-old to an impressive victory in the junior men’s cross-country race. Schurter trounced a 96-rider field under sunny skies Friday, leaving the hard-chasing French duo of Stéphane Tempier and Maxime Marotte fighting for leftovers after powering away in the first of five laps and never letting go of the lead. “I was worried before coming to the race because I was taking antibiotics for a sore throat and ears, but after Wednesday’s team relay I knew I was at

It’s definitely not the most technical test, but the cross-country course at the world mountain bike championships in Les Gets, France, isn’t a sleeper either. During the 6.3km trip up and around the Chavennes side of this quaint ski town, riders face three sustained climbs (660 feet per lap), lots of tight twists through the pine forests, and several steep drop ins that will be become treacherous with just the slightest bit of precipitation. Right now the forecast is for morning showers on race day. The women are slated to start on 11 a.m. Sunday, while the men will head out at 2:30

World championship events can seem a bit anticlimactic in Olympic years, but when it comes to mountain biking that’s hardly the case. Only one of the three fat-tire disciplines was contested in Athens. And with just 80 mountain bikers involved in the Olympic Games, this year’s world’s remained the focus for most pros. That means it’s time to deliver, as the 2004 world mountain bike championships get set to kick off in Les Gets, France on Wednesday. Racing begins with the cross-country team relay, where four riders from each country (elite man, elite woman, U23 man, junior man) take a lap of

South African Greg Minnaar (G-Cross) and Californian Kathy Pruitt (Luna)both pulled off the one-two punch of winning both the final eventin the NORBA national downhill series and taking the overall wins on Sundayin Durango, Colorado.Speed and technologyMinnaar backed-up his fastest qualifying time of the day with a 1.68second victory over Australian Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz Syndicate) and3.86 seconds over third place Joel Panozzo (Progressive/Intense/WTB) onan uncharacteristically dry course. In past years, competitors have come to the Durango Mountain Resortfully expecting rain and the

There were two very different impressive displays of power shown atthe NORBA National short track cross-country event on Sunday in Durango,Colorado: one involving the dominating performance of the Luna women’ssquad, which broke away on the first lap and stayed clear to the finish,and the other surrounding a solo effort by series leader Geoff Kabush (Maxxis),proving again, after winning Saturday’s cross-country event, that he wasthe strongest man of the weekend. Luna, Luna, LunaHeading into the event, held under hot sunny skies at the Durango MountainResort, Luna’s Alison Dunlap led recently

It took longer than anyone associated with French cycling would have liked. But after being shut out of the bike-racing winner’s circle for the first 14 days of the 2004 Olympic Games, France finally scored the big one with Julien Absalon taking a convincing cross-country victory on Saturday. The 24-year-old broke clear with a group of six early in the race, then slowly applied pressure until the lead was his alone. Behind Absalon, Dutchman Bart Brentjens and Spaniard Jose Antonio Hermida swapped the silver-medal position back and forth before Hermida finally shed the 1996 gold medalist on

The men's cross country on Saturday rang down the curtain on the cycling events at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson was on hand to catch the closing action.

Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai) and Jill Kintner (Yeti Cycles) rode to commanding victories in Saturday night’s mountain-cross finals at the Durango Mountain Resort. Carter, nursing a swollen ankle sustained in downhill practice, admitted before the race that he “didn’t feel that great and wasn’t sure if my ankle would hold up through the night.” Still, with a thorough tape job that he said “really limited my ankle movement, but allowed me to compete,” Carter managed to qualify for the finals with his trademark inside-line passing technique. Clearly, the bum ankle stunted Carter’s starts,

You can only imagine the thoughts going through Gunn-Rita Dahle’s head in the waning moments of the women’s cross-country in Athens on Friday. Just as she’s done for most of the last two years, the Norwegian shot out ahead of the 30-rider field early in the 31.3km race, and had built a commanding 1:34 lead ahead of Canadian Marie-Helene Premont. But this time, Dahle was having problems. “I couldn’t use my small gear anymore,” explained Dahle, who sideswiped a rock during the third of five laps around the 5.3km course. “My rear derailleur was bent and for a moment I panicked.” Can’t blame

VeloNews photographer Casey Gibson was braving the Athens heat once again on Friday, capturing the action in the women's cross-country race. Here's a sampling of what he saw.

USA Cycling’s fifth annual Colorado state championship MTB race for middle and high-school students is slated for October 30 at the Black Forest Camp and Conference Center east of Monument, Colorado. The race is open to private, public and home-school students in grades six through 12. The Black Forest camp is a 300-acre private venue with a wooded course; housing (75 beds available on Friday night with a meal package); RV hook-ups; and a post-race feed before the awards ceremony. For more about the event, see the host club’s website. For more about the camp, see www.bfccc.org. To

After warming up with a weeklong training camp in France, the American triumvirate of Todd Wells, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Mary McConneloug arrived in Athens on Monday and got their first look at the Mont Parnitha mountain bike venue on Tuesday. With only one sustained descent, and two sharp climbs, Wells said there wouldn’t be much time to rest. “You’re going to be pedaling most of the time,” said the GT-Hyundai rider, who qualified for the Olympic team behind a 10th place finish at the Calgary World Cup. “It’s really dry, kind of loose and pebbly. There’s two climbs and a couple of

Mountain-bike racer Janet Puiggros Miranda was kicked off of the Spanish Olympic team on Thursday after testing positive for erythropoietin (EPO), Spain's Olympic Committee said. Puiggros Miranda failed the test on July 17 at the national mountain bike championships in Candanchu in northern Spain. Puiggros Miranda is the second Spaniard to have been sent home from the Games after a positive test. On Monday, canoeist Jovino Gonzalez was also dropped for failing a random test for EPO. "After notifying the affected party, who waived the right to a 'B' test, the Federation informed the

The seventh round of the 2004 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series got under way with amateur racing Friday at Snowmass Ski Resort near Aspen, Colorado. As the second-to-last event before the finals in Durango (August 27-29), pro series leaders will be looking to solidify their placings at Snowmass over the weekend. Trek-Volkswagen pro Travis Brown, having his best NORBA season since he won the National Championship Series title in 1999, spent Friday inspecting the 12.3-mile cross-country course. The long climbs and rugged single-track will present riders with tough decisions on equipment.

For the second year in a row, the NORBA series ventured north to Idaho’s Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Sandpoint, Idaho. This time around it was stop No. 6 on an eight-race slate that will conclude at the end of August with the series finals in Durango. Here’s a look at all the action from Idaho. Hesjedal, Koerber finish on topCanadian Olympian Ryder Hesjedal and American Willow Koerber each took wins on a dusty and technical Sandpoint cross-country course to open racing in Idaho. Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher), who will be a surefire medal contender in Athens, took the lead early during the

After giving way to the World Cup and the final battles for Olympic team berths, the NORBA series is back this weekend with round No. 6 at Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Sandpoint, Idaho. Pro racing kicks off Saturday with cross-country and mountain cross action. The downhill and short track will be contested Sunday. This being an Olympic year, some of the regular NORBA series contenders have been off chasing UCI points elsewhere and that has opened the door for some new — and old — faces at the top of the overall standings. Former national champion and 2000 Olympian Travis Brown

Reigning world cross-country champion Filip Meirhaeghe has failed a test for EPO and announced he will retire immediately from racing. The 33-year-old Belgian won three World Cup races this year and was one of the favorites for the gold medal in the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens, but tested positive for EPO two days before the World Cup at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec in late June. At a press conference on Thursday in Nazareth near Gent in Belgium Meirhaeghe admitted his guilt and said it was time for him to stop racing. “I wanted to win them all, and in order to succeed I made the wrong

Sue Haywood has formally notified USA Cycling that she will challenge arecent ruling by the American Arbitration Association naming Mary McConnelougto the U.S. Olympic Mountain Bike Team on July 20, 2004.In a statement issued Tuesday, USA Cycling officials said that the governingbody "supports and respects both athletes’ rights to fully pursue all oftheir options in resolving this matter. USA Cycling will cooperate throughoutthis process and respect the decision of the court."

Sabrina Jonnier, the current leader in the World Cup downhill and four-cross series, will be on the sidelines indefinitely after lacerating her liver at a 4X event in Whistler, British Columbia on Sunday. According to her Intense team manager Jeff Steber, the Frenchwoman crashed hard in a high-speed section, taking her handlebars in the abdomen. “She already had one blood transfusion and there may be another,” said Steber, adding that Jonnier is being treated at a hospital in Vancouver and that on Tuesday afternoon doctors were still considering surgery. “With an injury like this you have

In a classic truth-is-stranger-than-fiction tale Mary McConneloug has won her arbitration case and been awarded the lone women’s start spot on the U.S. Olympic cross-country team. This was a reversal of Friday’s USA Cycling announcement, which had awarded the spot to Sue Haywood after a week of deliberation. But McConneloug appealed that ruling and after a four-hour conference call on Monday that included USAC staff, Haywood, McConneloug and their legal counsel, an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association reversed the decision on Tuesday. McConneloug challenged the original

Michelle Dumaresq (Santa Cruz) won her second consecutive national downhill title in the women's category at the Canadian National Mountain Bike Championships on Sunday at Mont Ste Anne, while Mathieu Laurin (Ironhorse) took the men's title. Rain through the week leading up to the Championships turned the 1.7 kilometer course into a muddy mess, causing almost every rider to crash. Some sections in the woods were under nearly a foot of water. Dumaresq, who took seventh two weeks earlier in the World Cup race on the same course, was the fastest woman in qualifying and in the final run, with

After a week of counting, recounting and recalculating UCI points, USACycling announced the formal nomination of Sue Haywood to the 2004 U.S.Olympic Mountain Bike Team.Haywood’s nomination comes after a dramatic year-long pursuit of UCIpoints resulted in her position as the top-ranked American in the world,but the West Virginian emerged in that position only after the the UnionCycliste Internationale issued its final tally of points standing as ofJuly 12.After counting UCI rankings and including points earned points fromthe July 2003 short track race at the NORBA National in Sandpoint,

The Tour de France isn’t the only race going on in the world, and it’s not the only one suffering through a bout of evil weather, either. Just ask Italy’s Massimo de Bertolis and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle, who fought through mud, ruts and bone-chilling rain to win the 2004 Mountain Bike World Marathon Championships Sunday in Bad Goisern, Upper Austria. In the men’s race, Dutchman Bart Brentjens took a solo flyer just 17km into the 106km race, building a lead of more than a minute over a five-man, Italian-driven chase group that finally caught the 1996 Olympic gold medalist just past the 50km

On paper the upcoming weekend’s worth of racing in Calgary is just another mountain bike World Cup. But if you happen to be one of a dozen North Americans still immersed in Olympic cross-country spot battles, stop No. 6 of the 2004 series could well be the most important race of the year. If things go well then that lifelong Olympic dream lives on. But blow up on the (ironically) Canada Olympic Park course and Beijing in 2008 becomes your best hope. On the men’s side there’s plenty of intrigue for both the Americans and Canadians, who each have two start spots in Athens. In the case of the

A few weeks off from competition clearly didn’t hurt Gunn-Rita Dahle (Multivan-Merida). The reigning World Cup champion, who skipped last weekend’s race in Schlamding, Austria, repeated her cross-country win of a year ago here at Mont Sainte-Anne with a win over hometown favorite Marie-Helen Premont (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects). Premont, who grew up only 15 minutes away from the race venue, pushed the pace on the opening lap, leading Dahle and teammate Alison Sydor up the opening climb. But it was on the climb that Dahle’s incredible form came into play. The 31-year-old Norwegian, who

If Steve Peat (Orange) could race all his races on the Mont Sainte-Anne downhill, he’d be a happy man. The burly Englishman collected his third Mont Sainte-Anne World Cup in as many years as the tricky course claimed more than a few potential winners, including world champ Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda), who crashed twice in his final run. Peat overcame a hard crash in yesterday’s final practice run and a slow start in Saturday’s final to motor down the final kilometer of the course just fast enough to take the lead from Australian Sam Hill (Iron Horse-MadCatz). The tight, technical

It seems that Sabrina Jonnier may have found a cure for jet lag: a ton of bike racing. Jonnier (Intense), who rode little yesterday because of acute jet lag, had been off the downhill awards podium for less than 30 minutes when she entered the gate for the opening heat of Saturday night’s four-cross event at Mont Sainte-Anne. Having just won her first World Cup downhill of the year, Jonnier had a ready-made excuse for skipping the evening's four-cross. But given a course with high speeds, some nerve-rattling jumps, and an alternate route thrown in for good measure, Jonnier could hardly pass

As recently as Wednesday, the folks at USA Cycling were still holding out hope that the UCI was going to award them a “kickback” start spot for the women’s Olympic cross-country race this summer in Athens, but now it looks like that won’t happen. Following an e-mail exchange with Régis Alexandre, the UCI’s mountain bike sports coordinator, VeloNews has learned that while one start spot in the women’s race has become available, the spot is “reserved only for a country without a place,” Alexandre wrote. That means the U.S. will not be getting back the spot it lost to the UCI’s special

Mount Snow drew a small women’s downhill field – only 26 riders – and Luna’s Kathy Pruitt made it feel even smaller. The former junior world champion smoked the course and the 25 other women, winning by an astonishing 18 seconds over runner-up Bernadita Pisaro (Red Bull-Michelin). Pruitt posted the fastest qualifying time and followed that up with a final run that would have put her in the top 50 of the men’s race. “This course was so fast, it suited someone who had raced motocross,” said Pruitt, who raced pro motocross as a teenager. “I was able to carry a lot of speed through the woods,

Paul Rowney (Yeti) took the adage of quitting while you’re ahead to heart in Sunday’s short-track race at Mount Snow, grabbing a solo win over Canadian Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) in the final race of his career. The 33-year-old attacked a lead group of nine with four laps to go and was quickly joined by Kabush. The duo worked together as the chasers failed to organize a concerted pursuit and pushed their gap out to nearly 10 seconds going into the last lap. Rowney attacked Kabush on the final run up the course’s small climb, and that was enough for the win. Rowney announced earlier in the year

The Mount Snow cross-country has gained fame for a couple of disparate, but perhaps not unrelated, qualities. First there’s the course: the infamous East Coast single-track makes Mount Snow one of the most grueling and technical races in the NORBA series. Second, there’s the history: the Vermont NORBA has been the first big win for many racers on the circuit. Today saw both course and history in full effect. Before today, Willow Koerber (RLX Ralph Lauren) had snagged a handful of NORBA top-fives, but had never broken through for a win. But from the start of today’s three-lap women’s race

It stands to reason that when you make a mountain-cross course with flat turns, a gradually sloping start and no massive jumps, the BMX racers in the field will have good days. The newly built Mount Snow NORBA mountain-cross course had all the aforementioned qualities, and as a result, BMX pros Jill Kintner (Yeti) and Michael Robinson (Intense) copped the top spots on their respective podiums. Robinson, in his first year on the NORBA circuit, got the best start in the finals, opening a small gap in the flat, 40-meter starting straight. On a course lacking super-fast sections, a good start

Alison Dunlap (Luna) exorcised some demons today by taking a dominating win in the Snowshoe round of the NORBA cross country series. Dunlap finished 15 seconds clear of teammate Shonny Vanlandingham, who was followed a minute and a half later by a third teammate, Katerina Hanusova, completing a Luna sweep of the top three steps of the podium. Last year, Dunlap was leading on the second and last lap of the Snowshoe cross country when she went down hard, a crash that resulted in a fourth-degree separation of her shoulder and the end of her mountain-bike season. This year, under nearly

Goeff Kabush (Maxxis) and Allison Dunlap (Luna) completed their domination of the cross-country events at the Snowshoe Mountain round of the NORBA national series by taking hard-fought victories in the short track competition on Sunday. Kabush emerged at the front of the short track after just three laps, but the field was not willing to give Saturday’s cross-country winner a long leash. Australian Trent Lowe (Yeti) was the first to latch on, followed by Chris Sheppard (Haro-Adidas) and Carl Swenson (RLX-Ralph Lauren). Just behind, Travis Brown (Trek-VW), using a ‘cross bike setup, led a

After giving way to the World Cup for two weeks, the NORBA National Series is back this weekend with stop No. 4 in Snowshoe, West Virginia. After three rounds of diverse event schedules that included stage-race formats for cross-country riders, and downhill mania and dual slalom for the gravity gang, this will be first time this year all four of the standard events — cross-country, short track, downhill and mountain cross — will be contested. Competition in West Virginia begins Thursday with the marathon, while Saturday sees mountain cross and cross-country. Racing concludes Sunday with the

Looks like the UCI has stirred up quite a hornet’s nest with its latest “proposed solution” to the woes of international mountain-bike racing. Faced with a shrinking World Cup series and an even-tougher sponsorship climate, the high priests in Switzerland are floating the idea of getting rid of the World Cup in favor of 16-20 events that would compose a slate similar to the Pro Tour that’s set to go into effect in 2005. According to sources with knowledge of the proposal, the events would include some of the successful World Cups, such as Mont-Ste-Anne, Houffalize and Fort William, along

With most of the top cross-country pros on the other side of the ocean giving some lesser names a chance to shine, the racing at Big Bear last weekend featured plenty of drama. But the highlight for me had nothing to do with results. It was the 15 minutes I spent interviewing John Waddell. The 23-year-old Aussie downhiller spent most of last July in a coma after a nasty crash at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup. In fact, things got so bad doctors were saying he probably wouldn’t be able to use the left side of his body again, or even go to the bathroom on his own. But Waddell is a fighter and

Two weeks ago, Filip Meirhaeghe (Specialized) was demoralized after national rival Roel Paulissen (Siemens-Cannondale) drubbed him in a Belgian national series race. This time around, it was Meirhaeghe dusting the field, taking a dramatic victory in the opening round of the 2004 World Cup. The World Cup win the Meirhaeghe’s ninth of his career and puts the 33-year-old back on top in the international men’s cross-country field. “I had some real problems before this race in my head and to win today is a nice surprise,” said Meirhaeghe, who won in 2 hours, 24 minutes on the six-lap, 48km

For the first time in seven years Snow Summit Resort did not serve as the NORBA National Series season opening venue, but that doesn’t mean America’s premier mountain-bike circuit is bypassing the kitschy charm of Big Bear Lake, California. Starting Friday the only venue to be on the dance card in all 15 years of the NORBA series will up its count to 16, as stop No. 3 of the 2004 series rolls into town. The cross-country stage race will kick off competition, as what’s left of the pro ranks will take on the stage 1 time trial. The reason for the thin upper tier of the XC fields is the event’s

Concerns about venue readiness at this summer’s Olympics have been well documented, but it appears that at least the cross-country mountain-bike course is ready to go. That was certainly the sentiment following this past weekend’s E1 test event at the Parnitha Olympic Venue where Frenchman Julien Absalon and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle each grabbed victories. Absalon outgunned a field that included reigning Olympic champ Miguel Martinez, and 1996 Games victor Bart Brentjens. Absalon’s final mark of 1:57:07 was 11 seconds better than Martinez, with Swiss rider Ralph Näf in third at 0:57,

Adding a short track win to her cross-country victory one day earlier, 2001 world cross-country champion Alison Dunlap (Luna) made a clean sweep of the weekend at the second round of the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series, held Sunday in Sonoma, California. Giant-Pearl Izumi’s Carl Decker took the men’s event, his biggest win to date, taking a tight bunch sprint aboard a borrowed road bike. The short track was but one component of the two-day California Outdoor Sports Championships at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway, which also saw the return of a NORBA dual slalom race, won by Sabrina Jonnier

Americans Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren) and Alison Dunlap (Luna) took solo cross-country wins at the second round of the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series, held Saturday in Sonoma, California. The cross-country race served as the marquee event for the first of the inaugural two-day California Outdoor Sports Championships at Sonoma's Infineon Raceway, which also hosted a NORBA mountain-cross event, won by Jill Kintner (Yeti) and Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen), and a pro-1-2 road circuit race held on the venue's motorway, won by Kiwi Glen Mitchell (Sierra Nevada) and Lisa Norris

Former world downhill champion Myles Rockwell was arrested on Tuesday in his hometown of Durango, Colorado, on suspicion of having a “very sophisticated” marijuana-growing operation in his home, according to a press release issued by the Southwest Drug Task Force. Rockwell, 31, was booked into the La Plata County jail on a class 4 felony after law enforcement officers seized 52 “high quality” sinsemilla plants from his Durango home. The former downhill pro, who last rode for the Giant team in 2002, was released on $10,000 bail. Rockwell’s arrest occurred following the execution of a search

Nutrition isn’t usually my department (love of brats and beer notwithstanding) but earlier this week the higher-ups down here at VN cube-land asked me to track down a few pros and find out what they eat during the races. The difference here is that the people I was talking to aren’t your usual cross-country specialists, but folks who prefer to drag their suffering out a little longer. Among the query respondents were reigning 24-hour solo national champion Chris Eatough, Iditarod Trail record holder Mike Curiak and 2002 La Ruta de los Conquistadores women’s winner Hillary Harrison. Now I

It’s fair to say that there has been more than a little animosity between some of America’s top cross-country pros and the organization that governs them. From the medical monitoring mess at last year’s world championships, to the single women’s Olympic start spot, to the way the U.S. berths in Athens are being chosen, riders have had plenty of reasons to point an angry finger at USA Cycling. But there comes a time when it’s best for all parties concerned to move on, and it sounds like that is just what happened during an impromptu meeting at the Pan American Championships last weekend in

An Albuquerque man was killed during the Tour of Canyonlands cross-country mountain-bike race near Moab, Utah, on Sunday. The Grand County sheriff’s department identified him as 33-year-old Samuel Hall. Authorities say he died when he collided with a Ford Excursion sport-utility vehicle that was towing a trailer. Officers say the accident caused a pile-up with other bicyclists. Hall died at the scene. Also injured was Robert Milne, 22, from Murray, Utah. He was airlifted to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, with a possible broken arm and a possible broken clavicle. According

Americans Sue Haywood and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski each scored wins at the Pan American mountain-bike championships in Baños, Ecuador on Sunday. Competing on a short, but technical course that also included a 1km section of road that meanders through Baños, Haywood (Trek-Volkswagen) grabbed the win ahead of countrywomen Mary McConneloug (Seven), with Alison Dunlap (Luna) settling for third. This was the first time this year that all three of America’s top women’s Olympic hopefuls had competed against each other. The Pan Am race was also the most valuable thus far in 2004, carrying 125 UCI

For years she was one of America’s best downhillers — male or female — and one of the sport's most outrageous characters. Missy Giove never had much time for convention; she did things on her terms. Like it or not, she was an out-of-the-closet, in-your-face badass through and through. Alas, all good runs must come to an end, and the leader in NORBA downhill wins has finally decided to call it a career. Giove may still do a race here or there, but the days of contesting a full NCS or World Cup series are over. Giove won’t disappear completely, though. She’s signed on as one of the lead

With 11 mountain bike races in four days, it’s a sizable challenge to keep up with all the comings and goings at the Sea Otter Classic. It’s also next to impossible to fit every little tidbit you pick up along the way into the magazine, but that’s the great thing about the old Internet — unlimited space. So… go grab your cup of coffee, this is a long one. Let’s start this ode with young Walker Ferguson. Back in 2000 the Colorado-native was the toast of American mountain biking after he won the junior cross-country title at the world championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain. Four years later,

With two separate gravity events on the agenda for Sunday, the pro men and women were scheduled to tackle the characteristically short Sea Otter downhill course at an early 9 a.m. start time, with Aussie Mick Hannah (Haro-adidas) and American Marla Streb (Luna) atop the podium as the day's downhill runs finished up. On short course, with sub-three-minute times for both men and women, small mistakes could cost riders a lot, a point underscored by the sub-one-second-time-gaps separating first and second places in both categories. Early on it looked as though Eric Carter’s (Hyundai-Mongoose)

Veteran Tara Llanes (Giant-Pearl Izumi) and newcomer Donny Robinson (Avent) capped off the weekend's gravity racing at the Sea Otter classic with victories in Sunday afternoon's mountain cross event. Racing on what many riders said was one of the most exciting courses ever constructed for the four-up gravity discipline, Llanes earned her win in a dramatic pass over the course's final obstacle: a six foot wide water-filled moat, while BMX pro Robinson scored his in a three-up sprint for the finish. Most impressive is the fact that, until this trip to the Sea Otter, Robinson had never ridden a