May 16, 2004 – Alison Dunlap (Colorado Springs, Colo.) continued her winning streak this afternoon while Frank Mapel (Durango, Colo.) notched his first-ever NORBA National win in the short track cross country event on the final day of the 2004 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series stop at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Cailf. Following yesterday's dominant victory, Dunlap outsprinted Kerry Barnholt (Boulder, Colo.) in today's race after the duo opened up a slight gap on the final lap of the twenty-minute timed event. Mapel narrowly edged out Carl Decker (Bend, Ore.) in a photo finish of a bunch sprint that included ten riders.
Dunlap's win netted her an additional 20 UCI points, an important factor in determining Olympic selection. Today's course was fast and technical as most of the terrain was pavement except for a 300-meter descent on a gravel road that led into a fast series of turns before the final finishing stretch. In fact, several combinations of equipment were used today from traditional mountain bikes with knobby tires to road bikes with slicks. And for some, a simple choice of equipment dictated their performance early in the race.
The women's race was aggressive from the gun with several attacks but windy conditions and the nature of the course disallowed any significant breakaways to stick. That is until Dunlap attacked up the only climb on the course during the last lap. With a group of twenty women still together on the bell lap, Dunlap made her move to which only Barnholt could respond. The duo opened up a slight gap and maintained it throughout the ensuing downhill section and technical turns that followed before Dunlap took the sprint ahead of Barnholt. A few seconds behind, Jimena Florit (ARG) took third ahead of Katerina Hanusova (CZE) and Ford Cycling's Melanie McQuaid (CAN).
Dunlap's two victories over the weekend in yesterday's UCI E1 categorized cross country race and today's E2 short track event gave her 60 points for the weekend, a confidence booster heading into next weekend's first round of the UCI World Cup series, where a race win is worth 150 UCI points.
In men's competition, pre-race favorites Todd Wells (Durango, Colo.) and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo.) hoped to take advantage of a field that was missing several key players as many foreigners chose to travel to Europe a week early in preparation for the World Cup. After Wells abandoned yesterday's race after a mechanical problem, a set of fresh legs was his ally and his odds to win today increased after the opening lap when Horgan-Kobelski dropped out following a flat tire. Horgan-Kobelski, who chose to ride road slicks on his mountain bike suffered the unfortunate dilemma near the bottom of the gravel descent on lap one.
Shortly after Horgan-Kobelski's flat, the brisk pace created a natural selection of 13 riders that included Wells and several other strong riders. As time ticked away, riders began falling off the pace one by one until nine riders remained together on the front for the bell lap. The unusual sprint between nine riders was claimed by a matter of centimeters as officials declared Mapel the winner ahead of Decker after reviewing photographs of the finish.