The World Cup mountain-biking circus makes its return to North America Saturday, as the world’s best gravity riders take on the steep vertical of Grouse Mountain just outside Vancouver, British Columbia. Action commences at 11 a.m. PST with the downhill semifinals. The downhill finals follow at 2 p.m., then it’s the dual finals at 6 p.m.

The downhill course, which was designed by North Vancouver native and Ford-Devinci rider Andrew Shandro, is short by World Cup standards at just 1.5 kilometers, but that doesn’t mean it will be an easy ride. Already the twisty, tree-lined track has claimed the UCI’s No. 1 ranked rider, Steve Peat. The British GT man crashed into a tree during training on Thursday and suffered a separated shoulder that will keep him out of this weekend’s action.

Peat’s teammate, Fabien Barel, also got dinged up Thursday, suffering a gash in the calf that required stitches. But Barel was back out training on Friday and should be able to race tomorrow.

Shandro looks for the winning line.

Photo: Jason Sumner

Shandro figures the winning time will come in at just under two minutes, about 60 seconds less than the top times at the first two World Cup downhills in Maribor, Slovenia, and Vars, France.

"We made it as long as we could," said Shandro, who was under the gun from the beginning because Grouse Mountain was only awarded the event after the original venue, nearby Whistler Resort, ran into financial problems and had to back out. "We didn't get started until March, so we didn’t have a lot of time."

With as-to-now-unbeaten Peat out of the competition, the role of favorite falls to reigning World Cup champ Nicolas Vouilloz. Vouilloz is yet to win a World Cup race this year, but looked very fast during training, posting the fourth best time of the day.

Others to watch include Global Racing’s 17-year-old phenom Mick Hannah who had the fastest training run Friday, Intense’s Chris Kovarik, and of course Shandro, who has better-than-intimate knowledge of the course.

"I think tomorrow’s winner could be a surprise," said Shandro, stopping short of making a more specific prediction.

On the women’s side Anne-Caroline Chausson will -- as usual -- be the one to beat. The last time she lost a World Cup downhill was stop No. 4 last year. Since then she’s taken six-straight races, plus the title at world’s.

If Chausson does slip, look for Global’s Missy Giove, Leigh Donovan (Schwinn) or surprising U.K. rider Fionn Griffiths to step up.

In the men’s dual it will be the usual suspects vying for the podium led by World Cup leader Brian Lopes. The GT-Fox rider won the season opener in Maribor, but hasn’t raced a dual since because bad weather forced the cancellation of the event at Vars.

Lopes has all but owned the dual over the last couple years, winning seven of the eight races in 2000. But he’s looked slightly vulnerable this year, going 0-for-3 in NORBA races thus far. In Friday afternoon's qualifying at Grouse Lopes was second behind Kovarik. Global's Hannah was third, followed by Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai) and Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen).

In the women’s dual Chausson will again be the one everyone is chasing. Since first taking on the discipline at stop No. 2 last year, the Volvo-Cannondale rider hasn’t lost a World Cup race, going 8-for-8, and she was Friday's fastest qualifier. Donovan was second, followed by Tara Llanes (Yeti-Pearl Izumi), Katja Repo (GT) and Tai-Lee Muxlo (Dirtworks).

Racing at Grouse continues Sunday with the cross-country races. The women start things off at 10:30 a.m. The men follow at 3:30 p.m. Racers will do multiple loops of a very tight and technical 4.9km track, but the exact number of laps has yet to be released by the UCI.

Check back to VeloNews.com all weekend for full reports, results and photos.