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Mary Grigson (AUS) and Chrissy Redden (CAN), teammates and friends, spend their rare moments of down time, laughing and relaxing under the bright yellow awning of their Gary Fisher-Saab team trailer. They sport the same jerseys as they line up in the start gate and have shared more than one bottle of celebratory champagne atop the podium. Riding as a team, the Fisher girls have been dominating the NORBA cross-country series all season long.

They were all about camaraderie today as well. They bombed the final descent of the cross-country course and entered the base of the Crystal Mountain with Redden tailing Grigson by mere inches. I was on my toes expecting a dash for the finish, but they were thinking as a team. The two had a plan of their own, and it went something like this:

"Going into the last lap, I had a bit of a gap on Mary and Ruthie (Matthes)," said Redden. "At the top of climb I had twenty seconds and I thought, 'I'll wait for Mary and we'll have fun on the descent.' So we were together and we were just hooping and hollering on all the little jumps...we decided this morning, if we were together, we were going to have fun."

Since Redden won't be racing in the NORBA finals next month, she isn't chasing points. She plans to spend the month of September preparing for the 2000 Olympics and the races at Mammoth Mountain aren't part of her schedule.

Grigson, on the other hand, has her eyes set on the title. She's the current NORBA points leader and a win in Washington would boost her well above Matthes who is tallying close behind. Redden was well aware of this, and to put it bluntly, she gave Grigson the race.

"I had to try and keep her in sight at the start," said Grigson. "The agreement was that she would stay with me in the finish so when I caught her at the end, she let me pass her."

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Redden was leading by 20 seconds with less than a mile to go. Barring a mechanical, the race was hers but she wasn't being selfish. Grigson was looking at a second, but certainly appreciated the tag team tactics.

"I suspect that she didn't have to try that hard to stay on my wheel. I suspect Chrissy could have just totally smoked me today, but she gave me the win. That's team," explained Grigson as she sported the gold medal.

Jimena Florit (ARG, RLX Polo Sport) was their only competion, but she was lagging behind by over a minute. Florit has been bold out of the gate lately but she held back a bit today.

"I felt really good from the start. I didn't want to lead the race after making that mistake last week. I was happy to be in the top four or five for laps one and two," said Florit.

Florit conserved her energy, hanging with the top five, waiting for her chance to pounce. On the last climb, she gunned it, racing past Matthes and into the single track where passing wasn't an option. Florit wove through the evergreens and came across the finish line 1:14 behind the Fisher girls for a third place victory.

The next time these women gather, they'll be in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, riding for their individual countries, hoping to grasp gold in the second-ever Olympic mountain bike race.

— Lucas Kane, stung and swollen for MountainZone.com