Events: NMBS 2 - NOVA National XC

Wicks and Trebon Photo courtesy of Kona

The second round of the 2008 National Mountain Bike Series, The NOVA National event, landed in McDowell Mountain Park, Arizona last weekend. This is paired-down NMBS stop consisting of only cross country, short track and time trial events plus a stage event combining all three.

U.S. Olympic hopeful Georgia Gould (Luna Chix) and Canada's Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) dominated the KENDA Cross Country, the finale of round two of the National Mountain Bike Series. These two also won the three-day stage race. Both won Friday's time trial; and Kabush won Saturday's Short Track while Gould finished second in the women's race. Kabush and Gould now lead in the National Mountain Bike Series standings, with two of six rounds completed.

Men's XC
Kabush worked with a lead group of five over three fast laps of the technically challenging, yet relatively flat, 10-mile course. With an abundance of embedded rocks throughout, many riders with superlight tires on hard-tail bikes suffered flats. Kabush had no such problems, the 2007 NMBS series champion went to the lead on the first lap. Four others joined him including Adam Craig (Giant), Barry Wicks (Kona), the 2006 US Under-23 champion, Sam Schultz (Subaru-Gary Fisher), and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) On the second lap, Schultz, followed Craig through an alternative line full of sharp rocks. Craig floated while Schultz flatted. Craig was doing a lot of pace setting as the end of the race drew near. Kabush eventually grew restless and started to attack the group as they crested the repetitive 15-second climbs that reared up from among the cacti. The effect of these repeated attacks took its toll as Wicks and Horgan Kobelski lost touch with the battling Craig and Kabush. Finally Craig could no longer pull back the Canadian on the descents and so the finishing order was decided. Horgan-Kobelski took third at 50 seconds and Wicks rolled in fourth at 1:30. Another 45 seconds later, Liam Killeen (Specialized) of Great Britain outsprinted Canada's Mathieu Toulouse (Maxxis), and Carl Decker (Giant), Bend, Oreg. to claim fifth spot.

"The course was twisty and techy with sharp corners and rocks everywhere. It was about riding your bike: knowing how to corner well and float over the rocks. It was super-fun, with berms and small jumps everywhere," said Adam Craig.

Women's XC
Georgia Gould blasted off at the start of her two-lap, 20-mile race and was not seen by her rivals until the end, which she reached one minute, forty-seven seconds ahead of her teammate Katerina Nash. Nash, a Czech native who now lives in Truckee, Calif., might have ridden with Gould all the way had she not gone down hard at the first corner and injured her left knee requiring stitches after the finish. A group of eight riders formed to chase Gould, which later reduced to four as the race progressed and riders succumbed to double flats. Canada's Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher), was in fourth place when she double-flatted. Wendy Simms (Kona), and Catherine Pendrel (LUNA) were two other highly-placed riders stopped or delayed by flat tires - a spate of which came in the second half of the final lap. Australia's Dellys Starr (Dale's Pale Ale) took third place, ahead of Kelli Emmet (Giant), in fourth and Kathy Sherwin (SOBE-Cannondale), in fifth.

"It was hard, it was so fast: only 1:20 for 20 miles. I rode a hard tail with tubeless tires, which gave me a lot of confidence, after seeing the rocks in the course last year I definitely wanted a stronger tire," said Georgia Gould.

The next stop on the NMBS calendar is May 17–May 18
UCI C2 Santa Ynez National presented by Platinum Performance
Ted Chamberlin Ranch
Los Olivos, California
XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D

To see the complete 2008 NMBS calendar, visit www.mtbnationals.com.