Leading a strong Canadian showing that has typified the NORBA series for several years now, Alison Sydor and Seamus McGrath posted the top time-trial times at the National Mountain Bike Series opener on Friday in Waco, Texas.

In a flip-flop of usual protocol, the men kicked off the day’s racing, which was held on the twisty trails of Waco’s Cameron Park. The course was a three-mile circuit that started on pavement, but quickly gave way to tight single-track that kept riders on their toes the entire time.

“There wasn’t much climbing, but it was really sketchy and loose in a lot of the corners,” said McGrath (Haro), who clocked a day’s best 12:23, three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher).

“We’ve never really had a course like this before,” added McGrath. “There’s so much single-track. It’s really cool to be on something different, instead of the usual ski hill.”

Great Britain’s Liam Killeen (Subaru-Gary Fisher), reigning U.S. national champion Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX Ralph Lauren), and 19-year-old Canadian Max Plaxton (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) completed the men’s podium.

McGrath was fastest among the men

Photo: Tom Moran/Singletrack Photo

In the women’s race American Alison Dunlap set the early standard, posting a 14:36. But Dunlap (Luna) would end up settling for third after Canadians Kiara Bisaro (Gearsracing.com) and Sydor (Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) slipped in front of her, with Sydor taking the win in 14:23. Luna’s Katerina Hanusova and Sue Haywood (Trek-Volkswagen) completed the top five.

“It was really challenging, I don’t ride this kind of terrain that often,” said Dunlap, who was racing in her first mountain-bike race since crashing out of the NORBA stop at Snowshoe, West Virginia, last June.

Last year’s overall NORBA cross-country series champion, Jimena Florit, had a slow start, ending up 11th, 1:08 behind Sydor.

The three-day stage race in Texas continues Saturday with the short track, before concluding Sunday with the cross-country.

Race notes
Sydor’s win and the strong showing by Plaxton was some much-needed good news for the Rocky Mountain team, which had its team truck and trailer involved in an accident on the way to Texas. According to team manager Leslie Tomlinson, the accident happened in Montana last Saturday, when icy roads and a gust of wind led to a jack-knifed trailer. Team mechanic Keith Yip was at the wheel at the time. Tomlinson said Yip was okay, but the track and trailer were both badly damaged.

Fortunately for the team, the trailer’s contents escaped damage, and all the team bikes have arrived.

USA Cycling’s new under-23 development team had an auspicious debut in Waco, with Alan Obye placing 10th and John Devine 11th.

Originally the plan at Waco was to run the men’s and women’s cross-country races concurrently, but after getting a closer look at the course organizers decided it was too tight to ensure plentiful passing opportunities. The new schedule has the women slated for 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by the men at 3. The women will do three laps around the seven-mile circuit, while the men will do a short start loop, then four full laps.

In the ongoing points-chase saga, there has been some talk of an accord between trade teams to minimize some of the extra travel for the riders involved in the contest for Olympic selection. RLX Ralph Lauren team manager Dave Wiens says he had a discussion with the Trek-Volkswagen camp, and they seemed agreeable to taking a pass on the Pan Am Championships in Ecuador. But Wiens had his doubts about whether the other two parties involved, Giant-Pearl Izumi and GT-Hyundai, would also agree.

“It’s probably not in their best interest,” Wiens admitted. “We’re going to try to talk to them, but they’ll probably tell us to take a hike.”