The 2007 National Mountain Bike Series concludes this weekend at Snowmass Resort near Aspen, Colorado. The high-altitude mountain recreation area, which tops out at just over 12,000 feet, will treat cross-country and gravity racers alike to their thinnest air of the season.

The weekend will include the full schedule of NMBS events, with cross-country and mountain-cross being held on Saturday, August 11, and short track, downhill and Super D rounding out the weekend on August 12.

Many eyes will undoubtedly be focused on Coloradan Georgia Gould of the Luna women’s mountain-bike team this weekend. The 27-year-old has dominated the NMBS women’s cross-country series since the season opened in March, and already has the series overall wrapped up. But should Gould take the Snowmass cross country, she will be the first woman to sweep the NMBS cross-country series (formerly the NORBA series) since the great Julie Furtado did in 1993. Furtado won nine of the 10 World Cup races that year as well.

Gould has posted impressive international results as well this year — she took the Pan American championships gold and scored her first-ever podium finish at a World Cup, the June 23 round in St. Felicien, Quebec.

Like Gould, Canadian Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) comes into the Snowmass weekend with the cross-country series overall in hand. With wins at the opening three NMBS cross-country races, the Canadian sealed his third-career cross-country overall with a second-place finish at the July 28 NMBS in Sugar Mountain, North Carolina.

Kabush has also posted impressive 2007 results outside of the NMBS, including his third-straight Canadian cross-country national title, the Pan American championships win and a third-place World Cup finish at the June 16 round at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec.

Trek-Volkswagen rider Jeremiah Bishop is on the short list to win in Snowmass — Bishop took the win at Sugar Mountain and also took the Snowmass cross-country victory in 2006. The West Virginian will likely be challenged by Coloradans Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Todd Wells (GT).

Horgan-Kobelski and Kabush will also duke it out to decide the NMBS short-track crown — Horgan-Kobelski holds a slight 27-poiunt advantage over the Canadian, who holds the most career short-track victories in the history of the sport.

Barring a disaster, Czech Katerina Nash (Luna) should take her third-straight short-track series title.

For North American cross-country riders, the Snowmass race is the last major competition before the September 3-9 UCI World Championships in Fort William, Scotland. Americans Bishop, Horgan-Kobelski, Wells, Wicks (Kona-Les Gets), Adam Craig and Carl Decker (Giant) will use the Snowmass as a final tune-up race for world’s. On the women’s side, Gould, Heather Irmiger, Willow Koerber (both Subaru-Gary Fisher), Lea Davison (Trek-Volkswagen) and Kelli Emmett (Giant) will tackle both races.

As a UCI Category 1 event, the race is also important for deciding the number of slots North American countries will receive for the 2008 Olympics. The winning rider will receive 60 UCI points, and the top-15 riders will also earn points.

The UCI ranks nations based on the UCI point totals of each nation’s top three male and female riders, and the top five nations will earn the maximum slots for the Games (two for women, three for men). The latest UCI rankings have the American women ranked first, with Canada in fourth place. In the men’s rankings, the United States is ranked sixth, only 110 points behind fifth-place Canada.

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Check in with www.velonews.com for news from the 2007 NMBS finals in Snowmass, Colorado.2007 National Mountain Bike Series Finals
Snowmass, Colorado
August 11-12, 2007Saturday, August 119:00 a.m. – pro women’s cross-country12:00 p.m. – pro men’s cross-country6:00 p.m. – pro mountain cross finals
Sunday, August 1212:00 p.m. – pro women’s downhill finals12:30 p.m. – pro men’s downhill finals3:00 p.m. - pro women’s short track3:30 p.m. – pro men’s short track5:00 p.m. – Super D