After a day where he started off feeling like "he could have been in a body bag," Geoff Kabush rallied in the final lap of Sunday’s short-track competition to score his 10th win in that category during the second round of the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

During their approximately 20-minute/10-lap jaunt, the quartet of Kabush (Maxxis), Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen), and Ryan Trebon (Kona-Les Gets) passed around the lead while maintaining a 20-to-30-second gap on their nearest competition. Considering how he felt early on during the day, Kabush made sure not to expend all his energy until the last few nail-biting twists and turns of the course. Then he made the winning move.

"I took the lead on the climb, and then Jeremy caught up on the downhill. I passed him again during one of the last chicanes and was just hanging on there for the last few seconds. It was pretty exciting."

Horgan-Kobelski agreed that the run was exactly what "great short-track racing is all about" and was content with his win during Saturday’s arduous cross-country effort.

The situation in the pro women’s version of Sunday’s race, however, was an entirely different story. Making a decisive effort from early on in the competition, the heavy hitters on the Luna squad displayed a complete domination of the field.

Initially led by Jimena Florit, 2005 NORBA short-track champion Katerina Nash overtook her teammate as she rounded the final corner of the last climb and went on for the win. Florit gladly took second, while third and fourth place wound up in the hands of Luna’s Georgia Gould and Shonny Vanlandingham, respectively.

The only other rider to significantly contest the Luna train was local favorite Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher ) who got the fifth-place spot on the day’s podium.

The NORBA series now heads north up the East Coast to Vermont’s Mount Snow resort.

NORBA National Mountain Bike Series
Banner Elk, N.C.
Short track
Men
1. Geoff Kabush (Maxxis)
2. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher)
3. Ryan Trebon (Kona-Les Gets)

Women
1. Katerina Nash (Luna)
2. Jimena Florit (Luna)
3. Georgia Gould (Luna)