Mammoth Mountain cuts a unique profile among off-road cycling events. Its place in that realm has been secured by a number of factors; its location, its age, and its consistency all add to its reputation in part, but, by far, Mammoth made its reputation on the back of the Kamikaze.

The Kamikaze is a downhill run that begins at 11,000 feet, straight from the summit of the resort. It is well known as the oldest, and fastest, official run in off-road racing (the Repack at Mt. Tamalpais is possibly more famous, though it was never an official event). Mostly doubletrack, it's covered by smallish, dusty rocks, and snakes back and forth across the face of Mammoth, eventually dropping the rider off just to the west of the main lodge.

By all accounts, one wouldn't think too much of the route upon first visit; it has no killer drop-offs, no collar-crunching, technical rocks sections, and generally follows the path of a traditional access road. Bear in mind, however, that the average downhill speed these days runs to 35mph. Mammoth runs were clocking 55-65mph...in the late '80s, on rigid bikes.

The Kamikaze is fast. This weekend was Nathan Rennie's (AUS/Yeti) first ride down the run: "First impressions; you know 'It's slow, it's shitty, I thought they said it was fast,' until I figured out the lines. Then the lines you take are so critical, then you get going really quick. Like, last run I was just maching. And I was like 'yeah this is cool.'"

This year marked the return of the Kamikaze as an official event at Mammoth. In its absence, downhilling has become way more aggressive, and way more popular. Here's hoping the speed run will find an enthusiastic audience, and an active participant base in the new school.

Women
Alright, it has to be said. Marla Streb (USA/Yeti) is super-human. After badly hyperextending her leg on a practice run at Crystal (she severely damaged a major tendon), Marla worked hard on a speedy recovery, and won the Kamikaze. She even beat her nearest competitor, Lisa Sher (USA/White Bros.-Azonic), by 20 seconds. Streb wasn't worried about the Kamikaze, though. She knew it would be just as hard as any of the technical downhills.

"You can get hurt just as bad on the Kamikaze," said Streb. "It's a fireroad, it's very non-technical, but your going so much faster that I think that makes up for the lack of technicality and the jumping off cliffs. Of course, now we are pushing it because the competition has increased over the last five or six years. You can get in trouble on courses like this, but it's a different kind of trouble, maybe hitting some bad rocks or falling off a cliff or something. Nowadays, if you can get top to bottom with out taking your foot out of the pedal, you had a good run."

Kristina Nicholas (USA/Dirtworks-XMO) took 3rd, at 23.76 seconds behind Ms. Streb.

Men
In its first year back, the Kamikaze was not as well attended by the pros as we'd have liked. The event was not worth series points this year so many used the event as a warm-up for the Visa Velocity run, or just for fun. Jeremy Purdy (USA/Fox Shox-Intense) took 1st with a total run of 4:35.37. Next up was Jason Sigfried (USA/Yeti), back a frustratingly close .18 seconds. Jurgen Beneke (GER/Team Giant) came in at 1.43 seconds back, for 3rd. Other notable pros participating in the event were Jimmy Deaton (USA/Yeti), John Tomac (USA/Tomac), Joe Lawill (USA/No Fear-Intense), and Greg Herbold (USA/Scott SRAM).

— Mike Wolfson, for MountainZone.com