Streb Struts her Stuff, Gracia Grabs Win

Mt. Snow, VT (June 22, 2003) The downhill event at the third round of the NORBA National Championship Mountain Bike series saved the drama for the very end as the last riders down the mountain, Marla Streb (Los Osos, CA; Luna Chix) and Cedric Gracia (FRA; Siemens-Cannondale) erased the previous marks set by their competitiors to win their respective downhill events.

Gracia, who lost his saddle with a quarter of the course remaining, still managed to post a time of 4 minutes 21 seconds, just .3 second ahead of second place rider, Nathan Rennie (AUS; Iron Horse). Greg Minnar (RSA; Haro-Lee Dungarees) snatched the third spot, just .2 second behind Rennie.

Due to inclement weather conditions, the popular ‘Yard Sale’ section of the course was eliminated because of safety concerns. A crowd favorite, the ‘Yard Sale’ was a technical section of large boulders that challenges riders to pick the right line, an added mental challenge. With overnight showers and looming rain throughout the day, it was deemed too slippery to include it in today’s finals. The course still challenged the riders, who for the most part applauded the officials’ decision to axe the ‘Yard Sale’

“I did really good on the rocks”, Gracia noted, referring to his practice runs through the ‘Yard Sale’, “but I didn’t want to crash today with a World Cup next weekend.”

In the women’s event, it was Streb, inspired by her teammate Katerina Hanusova’s (CZE) victory in the short track event earlier in the day, who collected her second NORBA NCS downhill victory in as many weeks after taking the win at Snowshoe Mountain, WV. Streb notched a time of 5:16, just .5 second ahead of runner-up, Mio Suemasa (JPN; Trek-Volkswagen). Kathy Pruitt (Berkeley, CA) added to the day’s success for the Luna-Chix team by taking home third place with a time of 5:26.

Streb, agreed with the decision to change the course, “70% of the people would have crashed”, she claimed. “The course was still a little loose, at one point, my rear wheel was ahead of my front wheel, I was basically riding backwards,” she said. “I had a couple of close calls, but ended up finding great success.”

Be sure to check out photos of all the action at www.usacycling.org/gallery.

With round three of the NORBA NCS in the books, the current points leaders include, Jimena Florit (ARG; RLX-Ralph Lauren) and Ryder Hesjedal (CAN; Subaru-Gary Fisher) in the cross country and Sue Haywood (Davis, WV; Trek-Volkswagen) and Jermey Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, CO; RLX-Ralph Lauren) in the short track. In the gravity events, Jill Kintner (San Jose, CA; Staats), and Eric Carter (Temecula, CA; Mongoose-Hyundai) sit atop the mountain cross standings while Streb and Chris Kovarik (AUS; Intense-Fox) lead the downhill.

Round four of the NORBA NCS takes place at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, ID; July 24-27.

The NORBA National Championships Mountain Bike Series is North America's premier off-road cycling series. The series crowns USA Cycling's Mountain Bike Champions. USA Cycling is the national governing body for cycle sport. GaleForce Sports Marketing is the series management and promotions company, and is recognized as the USA's leading cycling and events management group.