Jeremiah Bishop (Trek-Volkswagen) and Georgia Gould (Luna) won the fifth round of the 2007 national mountain bike cross-country series, held July 28 at Sugar Mountain resort in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

"I had an awesome race, and initially I was thinking that I wish I could have felt this good last weekend [at the USA Cycling national championships]," Bishop said. "But this was a great consolation prize. I got to win the only race of the season that my mom got to go to, my wife, Erin, was here and I had great fan support."

Bishop took the third NMBS cross-country race of his career after two days of rainfall drenched the course. Rain began falling 45 minutes before the men hit the muddy track and continued throughout the race.

Bishop, a native of Harrisonburg, Virginia, attacked at the onset of the four-lap race, opening up a gap with Adam Craig (Giant) on a chase group containing NMBS series leader Geoff Kabush (Maxxis), Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Barry Wicks (Kona-Les Gets).

Kabush charged up to the two chasers on the third lap, catching Craig, with Bishop still 20 seconds up ahead. The Canadian needed to finish in front of Horgan-Kobelski to wrap up the 2007 NMBS crown.

“The course had the most technical descents we’ve seen on the whole NMBS circuit — you had to ride them really cautiously,” Kabush said. “It feels good to be in the driver’s seat going into finals.”

Craig picked up the third spot, with Horgan-Kobelski and Wicks rounding out the podium.

Gould continued her undefeated streak on the 2007 NMBS cross-country circuit, but not after enduring a challenge from newly crowned Pan American Games champion Catherine Pendrel of Canada. As she has done all season in NMBS cross-country races, Gould attacked on the opening climb, but she could not shake Pendrel.

“Catherine came around me on the first part of the climb and drilled it and it was all I could do to stay with her,” Gould said. “It doesn’t surprise me — she’s been right there on the World Cup. It was a very painful race — we were doing short-track pace.”

Gould managed to distance herself from the Canadian after the course’s long descent, and then opened up the gap on the second of three laps. While the sun shone for the women’s race, muddy sections still prevailed on the course.

“For me I know I’m going to make some mistakes on the descents, so it’s all about trying to be as smooth as possible and recover,” Gould said. “I try not to let the little mistakes get me psyched out.”

A hard-charging Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher) caught and passed Pendrel to secure second place. The Canadian, newly crowned Czech national champion Katerina Nash (Luna) and U.S. champ Mary McConneloug (Seven-Kenda) wrapped up the top five.

“It feels good to still be riding fast,” Gould said. “It’s been a long season and some people thought that maybe I started the season out a little too hard — so it’s good to see that my fitness is still there and I haven’t burned myself out.”

2007 National Mountain Bike Series
Banner Elk, North Carolina
Cross country
Men (preliminary results)
1. Jeremiah Bishop, Trek-Volkswagen
2. Geoff Kabush (Can), Maxxis
3. Adam Craig, Giant
4. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Subaru-Gary Fisher
5. Barry Wicks, Kona-Les Gets

Women (preliminary results)
1. Georgia Gould, Luna
2. Willow Koerber, Subaru-Gary Fisher
3. Catherine Pendrel (Can), Norco
4. Katerina Nash (Cz), Luna
5. Mary McConneloug, Seven-Kenda