It's all about old-school mingling with new-school, Mammoth Mountain combining the best of both worlds at its annual rite of summer mountain bike race. Host of mountain bike races since before the day ('87?) this year the venerable ski resort again rolled out the course tape for a full weekend of NORBA cross-country and downhill tom-foolery. Starting with Friday's XC race and ending with Sunday's DH finals, the town was awash in amateur and pro racing alike.

"With her win in Mammoth, Matthes now wears the leader's jersey, ahead of Ann Trombley and headed for perhaps another national title..."

The field in Mammoth looked more like a World Cup than an NCS event, and the venue (as well as the crowds) made this as good an event to watch as the recent Big Bear WC double event. Great courses, awesome organization and did we mention how good the field was? We wrote a little story about it. Wanna hear it? Hear it go...

FIRST THERE WAS THE LONG XC
Ruthie Matthes and Bart Brentjens won Friday's long-format XC event, kicking off the weekend's competition with a leg-busting, lung-searing pair of races. Similar to last season's course, but with more singletrack, Mammoth's XC course starts at 8,300' and is chock full of open climbs, thin air and bright sun piercing the deep blue sky. All this set against the dormant volcano that is Mammoth, it makes for classic XC racing that this weekend featured champion winners.

	Ruthie Rules America

Matthes is the U.S. Champion, but this season has been a bit off in her performances as she works both the World Cup and NORBA circuits. She put it all together in Mammoth though, riding away from Russian Alla Epifanova and U.S. honcho Alison Dunlap. With her win in Mammoth, Matthes now wears the leader's jersey, ahead of Ann Trombley and headed for perhaps another national title.

Men's racing was all about Olympic Gold Medalist Bart Brentjens, who has experienced his own dry spell of late. While he did finish second in the recent Dutch national finals, he hadn't won a major event since (we believe) the '97 Tour VTT. But, with the World Championships fast approaching and next year's Olympic Games likely on his mind, "Sir" Bart rallied to win a NORBA race for his American sponsors this weekend.

Brentjens beat an attacking Steve Larsen, who also wanted another win to go with his round two victory in Red Wing. He couldn't catch Bart, but kept Peter Swenson at bay and finished second. Larsen now sits in the overall lead, with Travis Brown in second overall. Jimi Killen continued his outstanding season for 4th after riding in second for a spell, while world cup honch Filip Meirhaeghe rounded out the podium.

THEN THERE WAS THE SHORT TRACK CROSS-COUNTRY
Just one day after the long endurance that is cross-country racing, the same pros lined up again for this season's new addition to the lineup; the STXC. Short in length but big in entertainment value, the short track event awards its own points and championship and usually brings out strong fields of racers.

"Alla Epifanova gave her US sponsor a win in the women's event, beating Alison Dunlap in a close battle off the front that saw the two powerful women swapping the lead often during the high-paced contest..."

Mammoth's course was a spectator-friendly figure-eight, winding around the pit area and race venue, living up to the sport's goal of faster action for TV and fans. Laps only took a few minutes to complete and had viewers lining the entirety of the track for two races — each taking less than an hour each.

First, Alla Epifanova gave her US sponsor a win in the women's event, beating Alison Dunlap in a close battle off the front that saw the two powerful women swapping the lead often during the high-paced contest. Both race on the road, and used the pacing and tactics to drop the chase field, leaving it to each other's legs to settle the score at the paved finish line. And, at the end, it was Epifanova who had the reserves to take the win over Dunlap, Matthes leading a chase group.

	Randolph Rocked The STXC

Greg Randolph absolutely ruled the men's STXC race, going off the front in a solo effort that yielded him a full minute's gap by the end of the 40 minute chase. Series leader Roland Green is Greg's teammate, so Randolph dutifully went off the front early to help Green move forward. But what Randolph soon discovered was that it was he that had the goods for this particular race.

Randolph soon had a 10 second gap, while Steve Larsen, Luca Bramati and others tried to rally a chase effort. Each chase seemed to implode upon itself, so Randolph's lead became bigger... and bigger. Soon he was 40 seconds clear when Larsen mustered one more scathing attack for the gap.. but all it succeeded in doing was increasing Randolph's lead! It was soon clear that the race was lost, so the pack slowed, regrouped and prepared for its own sprint to the silver. Larsen won that sprint, against world-class riders Filip Meirhaeghe and Bramati.

DUAL SLALOM
Just hours after the STXC, the full suspension crowd finally got their turn, rolling up the small hill at the venue to close out day two with the weekend's biggest draw - the DS. The sun was low, the music loud and the fields ready to roll - 32 men and 16 women. A short course at approximately 19 seconds, the Mammoth DS track had all the elements - including a huge table-top jump just after the timing lights to wow the large crowd.

Nicole Grant was the first star of the evening, fulfilling her potential for a win by beating multi-champion Leigh Donovan in a great women's finals. Grant is now riding for Donovan's former sponsor Mongoose, so it made for an interesting scene with Grant sneaking past Donovan in the best-of-two format used by NORBA.

	Shaun Palmer

World Cup champion and series leader Katrina Miller won the consolation round, beating fellow Aussie Tai-Lee Muxlow in their battle. At the same time the women were turning and jumping for cash and prizes, the men were also narrowing their larger field to its eventual victor.

The question was who that man would be. Brian Lopes is the undisputed king of the Dual and DS, with more titles and heat wins than anyone can recall. So when he ended up facing the stylistic Shaun Palmer [click here for the Palmer interview] in the final heats, it was a match up of tactical precision and brute force coming down the hill.

"Brian Lopes is the undisputed king of the Dual and DS, with more titles and heat wins than anyone can recall..."

Amazingly, Lopes washed out his front wheel in the first of the two heats, crashing on the faster red course just before the final jump. Amazed at his dumb luck, Lopes headed back up with Palmer for the second run. He'd need to make up a 1.5 second deficit if he hoped to win his second event of the season.

Palmer had made it past David Cullinan in an earlier round, as Cully still smarted from his many injuries sustained this season - most notably a shoulder injury sustained in Seven Springs. So Palmer met Lopes in the final and, in a close second run, took a quick look to his right in mid-air - just to make sure Lopes was behind him, winning his first DS of the season.

Lopes and Donovan currently find themselves in the very familiar positions of leading the national standings in the DS.

— Ari Cheren, working the stateside tour for MountainZone.com