Mountain

With 11 mountain bike races in four days, it’s a sizable challenge to keep up with all the comings and goings at the Sea Otter Classic. It’s also next to impossible to fit every little tidbit you pick up along the way into the magazine, but that’s the great thing about the old Internet — unlimited space. So… go grab your cup of coffee, this is a long one. Let’s start this ode with young Walker Ferguson. Back in 2000 the Colorado-native was the toast of American mountain biking after he won the junior cross-country title at the world championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain. Four years later,

With two separate gravity events on the agenda for Sunday, the pro men and women were scheduled to tackle the characteristically short Sea Otter downhill course at an early 9 a.m. start time, with Aussie Mick Hannah (Haro-adidas) and American Marla Streb (Luna) atop the podium as the day's downhill runs finished up. On short course, with sub-three-minute times for both men and women, small mistakes could cost riders a lot, a point underscored by the sub-one-second-time-gaps separating first and second places in both categories. Early on it looked as though Eric Carter’s (Hyundai-Mongoose)

Veteran Tara Llanes (Giant-Pearl Izumi) and newcomer Donny Robinson (Avent) capped off the weekend's gravity racing at the Sea Otter classic with victories in Sunday afternoon's mountain cross event. Racing on what many riders said was one of the most exciting courses ever constructed for the four-up gravity discipline, Llanes earned her win in a dramatic pass over the course's final obstacle: a six foot wide water-filled moat, while BMX pro Robinson scored his in a three-up sprint for the finish. Most impressive is the fact that, until this trip to the Sea Otter, Robinson had never ridden a

On a dual-slalom course considered a very technical lung-burner, the Sea Otter Classic saw its first gravity competition of the weekend on Saturday afternoon. As the sun set on the Laguna Seca Raceway, it was Australian Mick Hannah (Haro-adidas) and Frenchwoman Sabrina Jonnier (Intense) taking the opening event of the three-race gravity omnium. It came as no surprise to find the two fastest qualifiers of the day - Hannah and Wade Bootes (Trek-Volkswagen) - going head-to-head in the men's final. What did come as a surprise was to see crowd favorite Shaun Palmer (Palmer Snowboards) out of the

After a one-month respite following the NORBA season opener in Waco, America’s professional mountain bike circuit reconvenes this week at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. Racing commences Thursday with the opening stage of the four-event cross-country stage race. The gravity gang gets into the act Saturday with dual slalom. The opening XC event is the new-for-2004 super cross-country, a hybrid criterium-style race where competitors will split time between dirt trails and the Laguna Seca Raceway tarmac. The women will race for 75 minutes, while the men will be out there for 90

There have already been showdowns in Cyprus, Waco, Puerto Rico and Italy,and now comes word that the battle for spots on the U.S. Olympic team willhead to South America for the 2004 Pan American Championships in Baños,Ecuador, April 22-25.On Wednesday USA Cycling announced that all the main players in theOlympic MTB team chase have been named to the U.S. Pan Am team, and withbig UCI points on the line, one can only assume that everyone will show.For the record, America’s female contingent will include Alison Dunlap,Mary McConneloug and Sue Haywood, while Adam Craig, Jeremy

Alison Dunlap (Luna Chix) won the Maxxis Cup International in Gouveia, Portugal, on Sunday, giving the 2001 world champion a boost in her efforts to secure the only American spot in the 2004 Olympic mountain-bike race.After winning the cross country event and placing second in the shorttrack at the 2004 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series opener in Waco, Texaslast weekend, Dunlap and her Luna Chix teammate, Shonny Vanlandingham madethe trip to Europe to compete in a series of UCI E1 classified events inan effort to earn UCI points. The U.S. has only been allotted a single spot in the women’s

After an offseason that saw America’s premier mountain-bike racing series undergo a host changes in hopes of reviving the struggling property, it’s time to see if things are really any different. The site for the opening exam is Waco, Texas, where round No. 1 of the renamed NORBA National Mountain Bike Series kicks off Thursday morning. Day one of the four-day event brings the marathon at 9 a.m. The ensuing three days will feature a stage race, with a time trial Friday, short track on Saturday and cross-country on Sunday. There is no gravity racing on the schedule in Texas. Bolstered by a

Brian Lopes had been at his buddy’s house all of 20 minutes when the accident happened. The former world four-cross champion was on the last leg of a fun/work trip that had taken him from Michigan to Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, when he jumped aboard a four-wheel ATV, just to have a little fun. “My friend’s house had this big grassy area and I was doing some donuts,” Lopes explained. “Then I don’t know, the thing must have gotten caught up in some dry stuff. I was probably only going five miles per hour at that point, but when it started to tip I went to step out [and] the roll cage just

It seems as though the off-season may be the most dangerous part of the year for the world’s top gravity racers. First Chris Kovarik broke his ankle in September, then Brian Lopes snapped his leg in late February. Now comes word that British downhill star Tracy Moseley has broken her wrist. According to a report issued by Moseley’s Kona-Les Gets trade team, she was riding back home in England when she came up short on a set of double jumps and landed badly. The result was a “clean break of her radius.” At the time Moseley was with friend and fellow pro Scott Beaumont, who looked after her

Former world four-cross champion Brian Lopes suffered a compound fracture of his left leg Sunday while riding a four-wheel ATV vehicle in Savannah, Georgia. According to a report on the Web site www.stiksandstones.com, the vehicle lost traction and rolled over, catching Lopes’s left leg between the vehicle’s roll cage and the ground, breaking his left tibia. Lopes is currently undergoing surgery at a Savannah hospital. Doctors expect him back on his feet in three months, the report added. This incident continues a brutal run of bad luck for Lopes, who missed most of the 2003 season after

If last weekend’s results from Cyprus are any indication, give Jeremiah Bishop and Mary McConneloug the early nod as favorites in the chase for spots on the U.S. Olympic mountain-bike team. Each grabbed victories at the Voroklini International, a UCI E1-rated race on the island nation that sits off Turkey’s south coast in the eastern Mediterranean. The win was McConneloug’s fourth straight. She also took victories in the final three races of the four-race E2 Cyprus Winter Cup series contested in February. According to the official event report, the men’s race saw a group of four riders —

Team GT Africa won stage two of The Cape Epic mountain-bike race in South Africa on Sunday, as the South African duo of Jacques Rossouw and Shan Wilson outsprinted Team Focus-Rocky Mountain (Mannie Heymans of Namibia and Karl Platt of Germany) and overall leaders Team Fiat Rotwild (Andi Strobel of Germany and Silvio Wieltschnig of Austria). The 123km stage, which began in Saaslveld/George, crossed the famous Montague pass and the arid, extremely hot Klein Karoo desert before winding up at Calitzdorp Spa. U23 World Cup champion Liam Killeen of Great Britain pushed the big ring on Montague

USA Cycling has announced the formation of its U23 national mountain bike team. The program is an effort to develop top American espoir mountain bike athletes. The ultimate goal of the new U23 team is to generate gold medal finishes at world championships, the Pan American Games, and the Olympics. “By providing valuable coaching and preparation resources, and exposure to top domestic and international competition,” said team director Matt Cramer, “we hope to nurture the development of these athletes to help them become top international competitors.” Team members were selected through

The mad dash for UCI points officially got underway in mid-February, as a small group of American cross-country pros made the long trek to Cyprus to contest the first UCI-sanctioned races of the year. UCI ranking (based on UCI points) will determine who represents the U.S. at the Olympic Games this summer in Athens. The first rider to get on the board was Mary McConneloug, who touched down on the island nation set in the far eastern reaches of the Mediterranean Sea two weeks ahead of her peers, then took victories in the second and third races of the four-race E2 Winter Cup series. The Seven

Who says you can’t buy happiness? Bolstered by the addition of a pro prize purse, the NORBA National Series events in Waco, Texas, and Sonoma, California, have both been bumped from E2 to E1, doubling the number of UCI points that will be on offer for the first two events of the U.S. mountain-bike racing series. At the season opener in Waco, March 11-14, pro riders will be vying for $12,000 ($10,000 in the cross-country, and $1000 each for the time trial and short track). There will also be $10,000 in gift cards on the line for the semi-pros and experts, while the sports and beginners will

Following an offseason that nearly saw the Maxxis mountain-bike teammerge with the Giant squad, the orange-and-black, tire-maker sponsoredteam is back with a new line-up that includes Canadian cross-country honchGeoff Kabush.The merger never did happen, but with Kabush and Colombian climbingspecialist Cesar Grajeles coming on board to join gravity racing holdoversColin Bailey and John Kirkcaldie, Maxxis has a balanced squad that cancontend in almost any race.The team also added former Volvo-Cannondale and Trek-Volkswagen teammanager Eric Wallace. April Lawyer, a mainstay with Maxxis over the

A lot more will be known next week, but it is looking more and more like downhiller Chris Kovarik will miss a significant chunk of the 2004 race season after shattering his ankle in a motocross accident last fall. According to an e-mail from Scott Sharples, Australia national team downhill coach, “Chris is still wearing his ‘roll cage’, or steel support frame. His next check up is on February 16, and he hopes to get [the leg halo] off then.” Next up, Kovarik will be outfitted with a normal cast. The length of time he has to wear that will depend on what his doctors find when they take the

Honda Racing Corporation announced on Thursday that as part of its global activities program, it is launching Team G Cross Honda, a downhill mountain-bike team that will contest the world championships, NORBA series and selected World Cup races. HRC has entered into a multi-year contract with Spanish based sports management company 23 Degrees to manage the team, which will include reigning world downhill champion Greg Minnaar and young French rider Cyrille Kurtz, who was third in the junior downhill race at world’s. The team will also have two mechanics, a soigneur and a team director. The

As part of a renewed push into gravity events, Specialized has signed 16-year-old Californian Kyle Strait to a season-long contract to race national and international events. Strait, the 2003 NORBA’s junior 4X national series champion is expected to ride the company’s new Demo 9 in downhill races and a selection of free ride events in the coming year. Strait has an option to continue riding the company’s bikes at least through 2006 “Specialized has such an amazing history,” Strait effused in a release issued Monday. “They were building a name in racing before I was born! To be at the head of

Depending on how things shake out, downhiller Chris Kovarik’s 2004 racing campaign could be spent in either Intense or Haro team kit. But both of those scenarios depend on the 25-year-old Aussie making a full recovery from a motocross accident in September that left him with a badly broken ankle. According to Intense president Jeff Steber, Kovarik cased a jump on his motocross bike, breaking his ankle so badly that he’s been outfitted with a leg halo and pins just to hold his bones in place. “My understanding is that it’ll be another month before they can even put a cast on him,” said

The UCI released the start spot list for next summer’s Olympic cross-country races on Tuesday, making it official that the U.S. will be sending just two men and one woman (see "Dunlap a long shot for Athens?"). Canada will have five riders total, three women and two men. All told 32 countries were on the list that included nations from six continents, North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.On the men’s side 48 of the 50 starting places have been allocated. The women’s field is full, with all 30 of the spots accounted for. According to UCI rules, those final two places

In what appears to be a classic case of not enough limelight to go around, 2003 world cross-country champion Sabine Spitz has left the German-based Merida team. Last year, Spitz and Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle dominated women’s cross-country racing, with Dahle sweeping all five of the World Cup races and Spitz taking the world’s win in Lugano, Switzerland. But apparently all that success could not offset what Spitz called an “environment that did not allow me to concentrate fully on my races. The internal situation became such that I could not stay and continue to develop as an athlete.” No

Try this on for size: Barring what would amount to a small miracle, 2001 world cross-country champion Alison Dunlap will probably not be at the start line for the 2004 Olympic cross-country race. "Say what?" you ask. Well, the chain of events is a bit convoluted, so put on your thinking caps and follow along. The story starts back in June when Dunlap took a nasty digger during the NORBA cross-country race at Snowshoe, West Virginia. That crash resulted in a badly separated shoulder and put an end to her 2003 mountain-bike racing campaign. The obvious consequences were to Dunlap, but her

Santa Cruz Bicycles and DSD have announced the formation of the Santa Cruz Syndicate team, which will compete on the 2004 mountain-bike racing circuit. Comprised of top athletes in gravity racing, street, urban, free ride and ultra-marathon, Santa Cruz Syndicate is not the typical factory racing effort. One of the details that sets Santa Cruz Syndicate apart from standard teams is that all riders are allowed to sign individual sponsors for personal items, such as clothing, goggles, helmets and shoes. Riders with individual clothing sponsors will be flying them in Syndicate colors, and have

Big team news this week came courtesy of the Kona camp, which unveiled its 2004 squad as well as a unique new sponsor. But it was the one name missing from the roster that grabbed most of the attention. After spending the previous seven years aboard a Kona, Canadian cross-country pro Geoff Kabush will not be back with the team in 2004. The reason for the parting of ways depends on whom you ask, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t the most harmonious ending. “I spent a little time checking to see what else was out there, then decided that I wanted to be back with Kona,” explained Kabush. “But

Gary Houseman, who won the rain-soaked UCI World Cup downhill July 12 at Grouse Mountain, British Columbia, has accepted a one-year suspension after testing positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) at that race, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced Friday. THC, a metabolite of marijuana, is a prohibited substance under UCI regulations. The suspension for the 23-year-old ITS-Santa Cruz rider, from Temecula, California, began on July 12. All results that occurred on or after that date – including his Grouse Mountain downhill win – are declared invalid. Houseman also was fined 2,000

The changes just keep coming for the 2004 NORBA National Series. This timeit’s the pro and semi-pro downhill format for the third stop in Big BearLake, California. Instead of a traditional time-trial format, race organizershave decided to bring back downhill mania where four racers will take onthe track at the same time. "The course will be wider so there’s more passing potential and shorterthan a traditional downhill,” explained Team Big Bear’s Tom Spiegel. “We’llstart with a qualifying run, then put everyone in brackets.” And yes, points awarded for the downhill mania race will countin

You knew he’d be back to defend his Olympic cross-country title, but nowMiguel Martinez has bagged road racing all together and will once againbe a full-timer on the fat-tire circuit. According to a recent report inthe French sports daily l'Equipe, Little Mig has grown tired ofhis role as a support rider and is planning a return to the stage thathas given him his greatest glory. “Nothing went as I hoped [this year with Phonak],” explained Martinezof his second year on the European road circuit that started in 2002 withMapei. “Perhaps the leaders of [Phonak] thought that I could give

Costa Rica’s Marvin Campos won the latest edition of La Ruta de Los Conquistadores November 14-16, keeping the host country’s record intact – a Costa Rican has won every edition of the 11-year-old mountain-bike race. Campos staved off an unrelenting field in the three-day, 212-mile epic, including Diego Garavito, a top Columbian rider, and Germany TransAlp champion Karl Platt. Campos completed the grueling coast-to-coast race in 15:43:19,12 minutes ahead of Garavito. Fellow Costa Rican Eddy Perez was third in 16:20:38, with Platt fourth in 16:28:24. The women’s race was an intense

What had been rumored for months finally became official on Tuesday, when it was announced that world downhill champion Greg Minnaar was leaving Haro-Lee Dungarees to ride for Honda. In a news release issued by Haro, company president and CEO Jim Ford said “Greg is both a great person and a great athlete, but we choose not to match an offer presented to Greg to ride for Honda in 2004. Although the financial terms of the offer were significant, money wasn’t the real issue. Greg and I talked and after hearing his desire to work with Honda on this project, I felt that it was best for both of us

There’s still no word as to whether or not the folks running the 2004 NORBA series are going to be able to come up with enough sponsorship support to offer a pro prize purse next summer, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any money on offer for mountain biking’selite.Organizers of the Jeep King of the Mountain series have confirmed thatthey will again be putting on three events next summer. And while datesand locations have yet to be set, they’ve said the prize purse will be at least what it was last summer ($100,000).Next comes word that an event billing itself as the U.S. Open Of

With the recent departure of Jose Antonio Hermida to the Merida squad, the Bianchi mountain bike team had a void to fill. Not anymore, though. On Thursday, the European-based team announced that it had signed Kiwi cross-country rider Kashi Leuchs for the 2004 season. This follows Leuch’s season with Maxxis-Trek, where he won his first ever Swiss Cup and was seventh at the world championships. The ’04 Bianchi team will also include reigning World Cup overall champ Julien Absalon and marathon specialist Thomas Dietsch. “I'm very excited about this opportunity,” Leuchs said in a prepared

Quick, name the year in which the NORBA National Series had its most stops. Well, right now there are six right answers (1989, ’90, ’93, ’95, ’97, ’98 all with seven), but if all goes according to plan next summer, the new right answer will be 2004. Following the initial series unveiling at Interbike in mid-October, VeloNews has learned that the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California will play host to the second stop of next summer’s NORBA National Series, bringing the circuit’s total to eight. That event, which will include cross-country, short track, mountain cross and dual slalom, but no

The UCI Management Committee has ratified the World Cup mountain-bike calendar for 2004, and there is not a single U.S. event on the schedule. The calendar consists of seven cross-country rounds beginning May 22 in Madrid, Spain, and six downhill/four-cross rounds beginning June 5 in Fort William, Great Britain. World Cup 2004XC #1: May 22-23, Madrid, SpainXC #2: May 29-30, Houffalize, BelgiumXC #3, DH/4-X #1: June 5-6, Fort William, Great BritainDH/4-X #2: June 12-13, Sestrière, ItalyXC #4, DH/4-X #3: Schladming, AustriaXC #5, DH/4-X #4: June 26-27, Mont-Sainte-Anne, CanadaXC #6, DH/4-X

You can take Sam Hill’s name off the list of mountain-bike free agents. The two-time reigning junior downhill world champion has re-upped with the Iron Horse-MadCatz squad, signing a two-year deal with the East Coast-based team. “Sam has a really bright future in the sport,” said Iron Horse’s Todd Seplavy about the 18-year-old. “We’re looking to grow the Iron Horse team and Sam together and give him a solid home. We didn’t want to see him out there looking for a new ride every year.” Hill’s signing put an end to rumors that the young Aussie might be jumping from the Iron Horse ship and

Coming on the heels of the unveiling of the 2004 NORBA National Series schedule, USA Cycling revealed next year’s American Mountain Bike Challenge slate on Thursday. The 33-stop, 2004 AMBC series kicks off in North Miami, Florida on January 18, with the Oleta Fat Tire Festival, and then runs throughout the year, culminating with the Florida State Championship Series on November 21, also in North Miami. During the ten months in between, the AMBC series will be contested in 18 states, and welcomes 12 new events to the calendar. In addition to the senior, master, and professional races, some

Neither side was much interested in going into the details of what led to the sudden resignation last week of longtime USA Cycling staffer Eric Moore, but both agreed that Moore’s nine years with the organization were productive and positive. “Eric served this organization well for a lot of years,” USAC president Gerard Bisceglia told VeloNews. “When you lose a long-term guy like him it’s a scramble to find a fill in.” For Moore’s part, he said he held no ill will to his near-decade-long employer. “USA Cycling is being run as well as it ever has right now,” he said. “They’ve got a new and

A whole lot of news from the mountain biking world this week, but beforeI get into that, just wanted to say a big thanks to the folks who put onthe 24 Hours of Moab last weekend in Utah. After bailing on plans to hitthe event a year ago, I finally got out there and competed in my first24-hour race. It was quite the eye opener for lots of reasons (first nightride excluding late-night beer runs), but the biggest was probably thesimple fact that — to me — this is what mountain biking is really all about. Instead of the typical gathering of five-day-a-week training, AthleteOctane gulping,

Following a troubled season that saw the NORBA National Championship Series run without pro prize money and diminished UCI status, the new management team promoting America’s most prestigious mountain-biking series has accomplished at least one of its goals for 2004. Next year’s NCS will be expanded from five to at least seven events with the possibility of an eighth. There will also be an Americans-only national championship event run independently of the series, slated for September 23-26 at Mammoth Mountain Resort in Mammoth Lakes, California. NCS racing itself will kick off in mid

The only woman to ever win Olympic cross-country gold is looking to keep it that way. Two-time Olympic champion Paolo Pezzo recently met with several key members of the Italian cycling federation and has committed herself to making a run at next year’s cross-country race in Athens, Greece. Pezzo, the winner at both Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, retired from high-level racing following the 2000 season, then gave birth to her first child — a boy named Kevin — in the fall of 2002. But now the 34-year-old Italian is feeling the lure of racing once again. “I am very happy with this choice,” said

The latest set of UCI mountain bike ranking came out Wednesday, and theyincluded some bad news for Canada. In the women’s cross-country nationrankings Switzerland has jumped into third place ahead of Canada, meaningif things stay as they are now, the Swiss would get three start spots forthe 2004 Olympic cross-country race while Canada would settle for two.But don’t count this race as over just yet. The gap between the twocountries is just six points and there is still a smattering of races tobe contested. Because of that, Canada has sent three of its best, AlisonSydor, Kiara Bisaro and

Call them the first fallen dominos in what will surely include many more. On Monday, mountain-biking’s “silly” season officially kicked off with the announcement that Rocky Mountain-Crystal Decisions had signed longtime mountain-biking star Alison Sydor to a multi-year deal. The agreement ends Sydor’s two-year relationship with the Trek-Volkswagen team. Prior to that the three-time world cross-country champion rode for Volvo-Cannondale. Elsewhere, former world junior cross-country champion Walker Ferguson has decided to forsake fat-tire racing for at least a year, inking a deal with the

With the mountain biking season all but done and the “silly” season yetto fully ramp up, things are pretty quiet in the fat-tire world. Of coursethere was last weekend’s Tour de Dewey here in Boulder, Colorado, but forthe most part I’ve been sworn to secrecy on that one, except to say thatwhen they put their minds to it, some of America’s top cross-country proscan sure throw down the beers. Things will get rolling again in earnest in two weeks when the cyclingworld descends on Las Vegas for the Interbike Trade Show. Expect lots ofteam/rider news and look for the unveiling of the 2003 NORBA

China clinched two tickets for the Athens Olympic Games next year and Japan took one after the cross country races at the Asian mountain bike championships ended Sunday in Aomori, Japan. Ma Yanping defeated Japan's Hiroko Nambu to win the women's race and earned a seat for China in the Olympics, covering five laps on the 6.4km course in 2:27:35 seconds to beat Nambu by 1:08.44. Gao Xiaoning was third in 2:29:44, followed by fellow Chinese Zhang Xinhua fourth in 2:31:05. In the men's six-lap race, Shinobu Noguchi secured a berth in the Olympics for Japan with his winning time of 2:19:04.24,

The four-cross has been canceled at the World Cup final. Despite using a helicopter to dump gravel on the lower part of the course on Friday, the officials decided that the course was still too dangerous at the top, where no gravel was spread. The decision was not well received – many riders had come to Kaprun just to race the four-cross only to find themselves left with no event. There have been problems with the course since it was built. The organizer simply removed the top layer of grass without packing down the topsoil underneath, and during the past week of rain the course degenerated

The international mountain bike season will slide to a wet and muddyfinish this weekend with the World Cup Final in Kaprun, Austria, site ofthe last year's world championships. Nearly all of the teams and riders have arrived from the world’s inLugano, Switzerland to pre-ride the courses. Unfortunately, it is raining,and been doing so for most of the week, with no relief in sight. Indeed,so much rain had fallen by Friday, that the UCI was still debating whetheror not to even run the 4-cross final, because course conditions were sobad. This does not bode well for the weekend - last year, rain

Roland Green (Trek-VW), the former world cross-country mountain-bike champion and World Cup champ, is heading home from Europe and will skip this week's World Cup final in Kaprun, Austria. According to his team manager, Eric Wallace, "the prostate infection he has had is not clearing up, and the course of antibiotics he is on means that he is tired and unable to sleep. We decided that it was best just to send him home so that he can get healthy for the road world’s." Green has been named to the Canadian time-trial squad for the world road championships in Hamilton, where he will join

Finishing second might be good enough for some riders, but not for three-timeworld champion Alison Sydor. The 37-year-old mountain biking legend missed the gold medal by a painfullysmall gap of 16 seconds behind rock solid German Sabine Spitz in Sunday's elitewomen's world championships. "It's the world championships I always want to win," said Sydor, whosuccumbed to Spitz in the final lap of the 36.9km race. "I'm not thinkingabout medals. I want to win." Sydor set a punishing pace early with two-time world champion MargaFullana but Spitz clawed back on with two laps to go to grab

In a season that saw Anne-Caroline Chausson step back from the international circuit, many thought the 25-year-old would be vulnerable in Saturday's women's downhill world championship. Chausson erased any doubts as to whether she's still the queen bee of the women's gravity circuit when she roared through the intermediate time check 12 seconds faster than runner-up Sabrina Jonnier en route to her record eighth consecutive world title. "I didn't think I was going that fast. That's when you know things are going well, when things seem too easy," said Chausson, who won in 5 minutes, 10.23

In the aftermath of the incident that saw American cross-country racers Todd Wells and Adam Craig ruled ineligible to race here in Lugano, Switzerland, at the 2003 world mountain bike championships, the finger-pointing has begun. Each of the four parties involved — the riders, the UCI, the trade teams and USA Cycling — are all looking elsewhere when asked who was at fault. But it’s more likely that all four bear at least a portion of the blame. So what caused the information disconnect that resulted in Craig and Wells making a wasted trip to Europe? Settle in, it’s complicated. The

Swiss rider Balz Weber's legs held out just long enough to win Friday's hotly contested under-23 world championship race. Weber had just reeled in Spanish pocket rocket Ivan Alvarez at the beginning of the fifth of seven punishing laps when his legs froze up with cramps. Germany's Manuel Fumic was hot on his tail and edged within nine seconds of catching Weber when his legs bounced back to life just in time to win the gold. "I went at my own rhythm when my legs cramped. I thought I was going to lose everything, but they felt better in the final lap and I could ride 100 percent again," said

You might have guessed that the tough and technical cross-country course would pose the biggest obstacle for the U.S. national team here at the world mountain bike championships in Lugano, Switzerland. But with three days of racing remaining, it’s the UCI’s mandatory medical monitoring policy that’s giving the Americans the biggest headache. First came word that under-23 medal contender Adam Craig had been told he couldn’t race after failing to get a battery of medical tests done during the spring. And now 2001 U.S. short track national champ Todd Wells has had the same ax fall on him.

If you think that getting older means going downhill, you just might be right. Of the 15 gold medals won by Americans at the 2003 World Masters Mountain Bike Championships, 10 were earned in the downhill, while just five came from the cross country. In all, Americans captured 39 medals at the masters world’s this past weekend in Bromont, Québec, Canada – 15 gold, 13 silver, and 11 bronze. World titles in cross country went to Isabelle Noe (women 35-39), Lydia Barter (women 50+), Steve Tilford (men 40-44), James Wagner (men 60-64), and Frederic Schmid (men 65+) World titles in downhill

There’s nothing that says what happened at the European championships will have any bearing on next week’s world championships. But there were certainly a few things that jumped out from the week’s worth of racing in Graz, Austria. For starters there was Gunn-Rita Dahle, who won yet another big race, and is on her way to putting together the greatest single season in women’s cross-country racing history. Right now that honor goes to Juli Furtado who in 1993 ran the table in the NORBA series and won nine of 10 World Cups. But one thing Furtado didn’t win was the world championship (Paola

After much deliberation, American Alison Dunlap has decided to take a pass on next week’s world mountain-bike championships in Switzerland, not wanting to risk further injury to the shoulder she separated in a crash at NORBA No. 2 in mid-June. “Technically it’s healed, but it’s only been nine weeks,” Dunlap explained. “It’s still slow and tentative. The big fear is crashing and re-injuring it. If that happened and I was out for the winter, then there go the Olympics.” Dunlap admitted that she struggled with the decision, and as late as Wednesday morning was still thinking about making the

Mountain-bike racing lost two of its greats last weekend in Durango when Mary Grigson and Missy Giove announced their retirements from full-time racing. Giove had already taken a big step back this year, skipping all but one of the World Cups and contesting just three of five NORBA stops. She’ll also be a no show come September’s world championships. Next season the legendary downhiller says she may “show up unannounced at a race or two,” but for the most part she’ll be focusing her energy elsewhere. “I want to promote the sport in some different ways,” Giove told VeloNews. “I’ll still be

When it comes time for the world championships in September, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more motivated racer than American Brian Lopes. And that’s assuming Lopes will be able to race at all. After breaking his left ankle at the Fort William World Cup in June, the Hyundai-GT rider has faced a longer than expected rehabilitation process that will keep him out of this weekend’s NORBA NCS finals in Durango, Colorado. That leaves only the world’s and World Cup finals for Lopes to contest this year “The plan had been to come back for Durango,” Lopes said. “I even had a plane ticket.” But

ITS-Santa Cruz team director Derin Stockton checked in with VeloNews on Thursday with an update on downhiller John Waddell. The 22-year-old Aussie spent nearly a month in a coma following a crash at the end of his run at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup downhill on June 28, when carried too much speed into the finish-area jump and overshot the landing. The majority of the impact was to Waddell's head, which led to an extensive stay in a Quebec City hospital. Waddell was checked out of the Quebec hospital in mid-July, and then flown home. It wasn’t until then that he came out of his coma and woke

After two straight years at the East Coast mountain-biking hotbed of Mount Snow, Vermont, the NORBA National Championship Series has come west for its series finale. The locale is Durango, Colorado, no stranger to big-time racing itself. The southwestern tourist town was the site of the first UCI-sanctioned world championships back in 1990, and has played host to both World Cup and NORBA stops over the years. It’s also the site of the annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. Pro racing begins Friday with qualifying for the mountain cross. The men’s and women’s cross country finals are Saturday

The TransRockies Challenge has lived up to its reputation of being the hardest mountain bike race in North America. Just getting here proved to be an epic adventure. Based on my years of experience managing a professional mtn bike team that traveled the globe, getting into Canada without my passport would be OK. Yes, I knew I needed it, but on the way out of Boulder, Colorado, I couldn't really ask the Super Shuttle driver to head back to my house. I have seen people get into Canada without a passport before, so I convinced myself it would be OK. Lugging our three bike boxes, three

After the agony of day one we thought there would be some reprise. We have come to find that the theme of the TransRockies is to give us as little information as possible about the day ahead of us. Conflicting reports seem to be the norm. You'll ask how many kilometers to the finish and One person will say "30", one person would say "10km", and another person would say, "Oh you don't want to know". Usually going with the last option would leave you with no surprises. Masochistic behavior seems to excite the TransRockies staff. On Monday, Calvin and I both did the longest bike ride of our

There are still lots of details to be worked out and some contracts to be signed, but all indications are pointing to a dramatically revamped NORBA National Championship Series in 2004. The biggest change will come in the determining of U.S. national champions. Instead of the season-long series format that’s been in place since 1989, next year’s stars-and-stripes winners will be decided at a one-day, American-riders-only national championship, which will be contested at Deer Valley, Utah in August. That event will be part of a nine-day cycling event that will also include road national

The TransRockies Challenge, a wilderness mountain-bike race traversing the Canadian Rockies, will begin with a detour when the 600km endurance event kicks off August 10. “As most of you are already aware, Southwest Alberta (Crowsnest Pass) is under a serious state of emergency with forest fires,” said race director Chester Fabricius in a recent e-mail. “The area is in complete lockdown, and there is no sign of any rain in the near future.” As a result, Fabricius said, organizers are devising an alternate route for the first three days of the seven-day race. The race will still begin in

Okay, time to play a short game of word association. If I say (write) “national championship,” what comes to mind? I’ll give you a hint. Usually it involves a high-level sporting competition where athletes from a specific country compete against each other to determine who is that nation’s fastest runner, strongest swimmer, best football team or whatever. Simple enough, right? Well, not in the case of next week’s NORBA National Championship Series finals in Durango, Colorado. Yes, the event will finalize the U.S. national mountain bike champions (instead of a one-day national title like

A week after automatic qualifiers were revealed, USA Cycling named its remaining selections for the 2003 mountain bike world championships in Lugano, Switzerland. Among the riders getting discretionary nods were Carl Decker, Jimi Mortenson and Carl Swenson in men’s cross country, and Alison Dunlap, Shonny Vanlandingham, Gretchen Reeves and Dara Marks in women’s cross country. In the under-23 ranks, the final additions were Nick Waite and Alan Obye. Junior cross-country racers making the team includedPerry Paolini, Sam Schultz, Bryan Fawley and Grace Koerber. In downhill, four men and five

Looking for a moniker to attach to this year’s mountain-bike season. How about the summer of suffering? Like no campaign in recent memory, 2003 has served up injured riders in spades, ending promising seasons and tipping the power balances in several title chases. The most notable downfalls have been those of Americans Brian Lopes (broken ankle) and Alison Dunlap (separated shoulder), but others who’ve spent at least some time on the disabled list include Roland Green, Tara Llanes, John Waddell, April Lawyer and Dustin Adams. Green’s been back for a while now, and Lawyer and Llanes made

Looking for a moniker to attach to this year’s mountain-bike season. How about the summer of suffering? Like no campaign in recent memory, 2003 has served up injured riders in spades, ending promising seasons and tipping the power balances in several title chases. The most notable downfalls have been those of Americans Brian Lopes (broken ankle) and Alison Dunlap (separated shoulder), but others who’ve spent at least some time on the disabled list include Roland Green, Tara Llanes, John Waddell, April Lawyer and Dustin Adams. Green’s been back for a while now, and Lawyer and Llanes made

For one rider, the Schweitzer NORBA downhill win was a breakthrough victory;for another, simply par for the course.French 25-year-old gravity sensation Cedric Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale)won a close race at the Schweitzer Mountain NORBA downhill Sunday, justedging out Sam Hill, 18, of Australia by 1.4 seconds over the long 2.5-milecourse. In the women’s event it was American Kathy Pruitt with a breakthroughwin, beating out Sabrina Jonnier (Intense-Fox).For Pruitt, the win comes as confirmation after placing qualifying firstbut placing third at the Grouse Mountain World Cup in Vancouver two

On a day many called the most exciting day of short-track racingyet, overall series points leader Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (RLX-Ralph Lauren)crossed the finish line alone after breakaway companion Seamus McGrath’sfront tire washed out with two laps remaining at Idaho's Schweitzer Mountain NORBA event on Sunday. In the women’s race, three-time world cross-country champion Alison Sydor (Trek-VW) beat Subaru-Gary Fisher’s Chrissy Redden in a two-up sprint after spending much of the event off the front. The course — a flat, dusty, one-mile loop with a tricky bottleneckedS-turn section thrown in by

In a move that will bring much rejoicing on the gravity-racing circuit, the UCI has tabbed Fort William four-cross designer Phil Saxena as its new four-cross co-coordinator for the remainder of the 2003 season. Saxena will be charged with designing and building the 4X tracks at the world championships in Lugano, Switzerland and the World Cup finals in Kaprun, Austria. “I'm really happy to have been given this opportunity,” said Saxena in a press release issued by Rare Management, organizers of the Fort William World Cup. “I love the sport of mountain biking and I want to take four-cross to

Maybe a little home cooking was all John Waddell needed. Just days after leaving a Quebec City hospital and returning to his native Australia, the 22-year-old downhiller has come out of his coma. According to an update from ITS-Santa Cruz team director Derin Stockton, Waddell and his mother made the trip back to Australia where he was checked in to a hospital. His mom went home after the first day to spend a night at home. When she came back the next morning she was surprised to find her son awake, sitting up in bed and feeding himself soup. “While he was pretty groggy after being out for

Told you a little bit about pro freerider Dave Watson’s road-gap jump overthe Tour de France while I was up in Whistler, but on Wednesday I got thisofficial press release from the guys at Freeride Entertainment who supplieda little more detail on exactly how things went down. Here are the highlights.“Freeride Entertainment was recently on location at the Tour de Francewhere Kona Clump rider Dave Watson jumped the tour peloton during the Alpd’Huez stage of the tour,” read the release. “The jump took place justbefore the summit of the Col de Galibier. The set-up and preparation hadto be done in

The Slopestlye Expression Session capped off festivities on Saturday at the Whistler Gravity Festival where riders were judged in five categories during their runs down a jump/trick park at the base of Whistler Mountain. Canadian Darren Berrecloth emerged the winner, taking home $2000 and pricey Oakley watch. Second place went to Eric Porter, with Richie Schley in third. The only major casualty of the day was Gareth Dyer, who came up short on a back-flip attempt, and was taken off the mountain on a backboard with what was initially reported to be a broken arm. With digi-cam in hand,

If there is such a thing as mountain biking heaven, it may well be Whistler, British Columbia. Weather you’re a full-on freerider looking to huck the day away, a cross-country specialist in search of endless technical singletrack, a downhiller, a four-crosser or whatever other incarnations exist out there, this place pretty much has you covered. The mountain bike park, with its 30-plus trails and high-speed quad to get you to the top, is by most accounts the best there is. Unlike some resorts back the States — read Beaver Creek and Steamboat Springs — Whistler has embraced the two-wheeled

Two days removed from the World Cup downhill at Grouse Mountain, just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, a handful of the circuit’s best gravity riders made the two-hour trip north up Highway 99 to Whistler to contest a pair of races at the famous ski resort. First up was Monday’s Joyride BikerCross (same concept as mountain cross and/or four-cross), where Frenchman Cédric Gracia and American Jill Kintner earned wins on the track that snaked its way towards the main village underneath the Fitzsimmons chairlift. In the men’s final, Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) grabbed the lead early, then

After taking an unscheduled week off because of the cancellation of the Telluride event, the mountain bike World Cup circus is set to unfurl its tents this weekend on the steep slopes of Grouse Mountain near Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia. Racing action at stop No. 4 of 5 will be spread out over three days, with the four-cross specialists first out of the gate on Friday. Qualifying gets underway at 4:15 p.m. PST. That’s followed by the finals starting at 6 p.m. This will be the first World Cup four-cross held at the small ski resort, which overlooks downtown Vancouver. Originally

Following the World Cup at Mont-Ste-Anne, VeloNews decided to take a look at the current trend in downhill-course design. The track in Québec was far shorter than in years past and had a massive jump near the finish line, which is where John Waddell and Fabien Barel, among others, suffered grisly crashes (Waddell is still in the hospital). After conducting an informal survey of past and present riders, and some team representatives, it seems that the general consensus is that shorter courses are okay, but only in small doses. As for big jumps, they’re part of the game – just make sure

Ten days after a horrific crash near the end of the World Cup downhill at Mont-Ste-Anne, Australian downhiller John Waddell remained unconscious in a Québec City hospital. According to a report sent out by Waddell’s ITS-Santa Cruz team director, Derin Stockton, Waddell still needs no outside assistance for his breathing and is in stable condition. “He has been checked out by a few different neurosurgeons, and there are a few different opinions,” wrote Stockton in an e-mail. “One doctor thinks now that it could be up to a month until he wakes up. He could still wake up in the next few days,

Less than three weeks after teammate Tara Llanes broke her foot in a car accident, Giant-Pearl Izumi downhiller Dustin Adams has seen his season put on hold after he was hit by a car during a training ride in Kamloops, British Columbia over the weekend. Adams suffered a broken right wrist and says that the best-case scenario would have him back racing in time for September’s world championships in Switzerland. According to Adams the accident happened when a car ran a stop sign and came into the intersection Adams was riding through. With little time to react, Adams ran into the passenger