Saturday's short track cross-country delivered big. The event NORBA developed to rile the crowds brought some of the most exciting racing that Mammoth had to offer. Both fields enjoyed the prime weather, the positive crowds, and a fast, criterium-style course that lent itself well to those who could excel on the asphalt. The women's race went down very much as expected, with the established champs dominating a tactical race, while the men's field entertained a series of explosive breaks, until one man would emerge as the fastest of them all.

Women
Yesterday's cross-country action stoked the crowd on the women's field, who were to roll 20 minutes plus three laps on what had been called a "roadie's course." Many were there to see if Mary Grigson (AUS, Gary Fisher-Saab) would pull for a repeat of Friday's victory, or if GT rider Alison Dunlap would apply her recent road training to a course which resembled a criterium, more than a mountain bike loop. Perhaps it was this factor which caused the women's race to play out very much like a traditional road comp, with the field largely laying low, utilizing standard road team tactics, and waiting for a final break and sprint to decide the victor. Dunlap's road cred would eventually prove valuable, as she worked the field until her final stride to first.

The race began with your standard rev-up, which, strangely, produced a level of speed one would have expected from a practice lap instead of the series final. It seemed as though the field was hesitant to go hard on a timed event, but Dunlap had other plans. Busting out from the right at the end of lap one, Dunlap launched a ferocious attack on the flagging pace, and set her intentions right up front. Grigson answered with a blast of her own that placed her solidly at the front for the next two laps, while Dunlap countered efforts by Argentinean Jimena Florit (Polo-RLX).

Grigson still led at lap three, though Dunlap and Florit switched to team mode to begin reeling her in with the help of Rachel Lloyd (US/VooDoo Cycles), who put on a fabulous performance. Lloyd rode with a power and determination we really haven't seen from her this season, and I have to wonder if she was staking a claim on membership in next season's leaders group.

The coalition brought Grigson back to the pack by the end of the race, and the field set up for a sprint into the finish. Again, Dunlap sprinted from the side in a blistering display of power that left the field back, and took first, leaving second and third for Florit and Grigson, respectively.

Men
The men were charged. They rode fast, chased fast, and when the time was right, one of them broke fast and took it all home.

A very fast start is pretty typical of the short track cross-country, but the start was fast to the point of looking like a sprint. Right off, a hard drive from the right by Jimi Killen (USA/Schwinn-Toyota Rav4) mixed it up from the get go, and at the first lap the field was led by Killen, Seamus McGrath (CAN, Haro Lee Dungaree), and Ryder Hesjedal (CAN/Gary Fisher-Saab). Carl Swenson (USA/RLX-Polo Sport) took a turn at the front, and then relinquished it to Frank Mapel (USA/Trek-VW), who would go on to dominate the front end of the pack for the next three laps.

Mapel clearly enjoyed the limelight while it lasted, as he pulled hard while the announcers couldn't get enough. I'd have guessed that Mapel was paying someone in the booth with the way they went on, though it was really nice to see someone other than the standard favorites taking a strong lead.

Jeremy Kobelski (USA/Specialized-Nantucket Nectars) jumped up to get beat down. Still high from yesterday's 2nd in the XC, her was reeled in and dropped as Hesjedal and Pavel Tcherkassov (RUS/Gary Fisher-Saab) dropped the hammer and led a break from the outside, at 14:53. The Haro/Lee Dungarees boys did their best to harry the Fisher-Saab riders, and the inter-team rivalry allowed Swenson to surge to an amazing lead of almost 15 seconds.

The time was right for Swenson, and his break at the 20-minute mark allowed him just enough time to keep the lead while Hesjedal and Tcherkassov attempted to reel him back to the fold. By the last lap they'd diminished the lead to just seven seconds, but it was Swenson's lucky seven, and he rode home a short track cross-county champ. McGrath had kept up with the Fisher machine, and went for third, just behind Tcherkassov's second place.

— Mike Wolfson, going large, for MountainZone.com