June 9, 2004 – After a two-week hiatus, the 2004 NORBA National Mountain
Bike Series returns this weekend with round #4 at Snowshoe Mountain Resort
in West Virginia. Snowshoe has become a mainstay on the NORBA calendar as
it prepares to host its fourth consecutive year of world-class mountain
bike competition June 10-13. And like last year, Governor Bob Wise has
declared June the official Mountain Bike Month in West Virginia.

After three rounds of diverse event schedules that included stage race
formats for cross country riders and “downhill mania” for gravity riders at
some of the earlier stops, the events at Snowshoe will take on a more
traditional flavor. For the first time in 2004 the four core disciplines
of mountain bike racing in this day and age grace the same event schedule.
Competition begins on Thursday with the marathon event while Saturday sees
mountain cross and cross country action. The racing concludes on Sunday
with the short track and downhill contests.

After three rounds of NORBA series events, the overall standings have
taken on a significantly different look as many of the world’s best cross
country athletes skipped round three in Big Bear Lake, Calif. to compete
in a World Cup event last month. That opened the door for other talented
mountain bike athletes to steal the limelight after being in the shadows
for a while. Leading the cross country standings are Travis Brown (Durango,
Colo.) and Jimena Florit (ARG) in the men’s and women’s categories
respectively while Chris Sheppard (CAN) and Katerina Hanusova (CZE) lead
the short track events.

With many of America’s top riders pursuing their goal of making the
Olympic team, the NORBA National at Snowshoe plays a key role in
selection. The U.S. team is partly decided based on accumulated UCI points
and with Snowshoe holding an E2 classification in both the cross country
and short track events this year, the event will factor into the tight
race that exists among the upper echelon of American mountain bikers in
the chase for UCI points.

Highlighting the cross country start list for the weekend is hometown
favorite and one of the current leaders amongst Americans in the UCI
standings ranked sixth in the world, Sue Haywood (Davis, W. Va.). Haywood
is also the defending U.S. national champion in the short track. Alison
Dunlap (Colorado Springs, Colo.) also returns to Snowshoe, the place where
her chances to make the Olympic team took a turn for the worse last year.
In 2003, Dunlap crashed during a descent in the cross country race and
separated her shoulder. The injury required surgery and ended her 2003
mountain bike season.

For the men, the current leaders to grab one of the two Olympic start
positions are Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo.), Jeremiah Bishop
(Harrisonburg, Va.), and Todd Wells (Durango, Colo.).

The gravity events over the weekend will also feature a different looking
start list as many of the world’s top pros have decided to remain in
Europe to contest the second round of the World Cup series in France.

Thursday’s marathon race, an ultra-distance affair, will be used for
selection for the Marathon World Championships next month in Austria. The
winner of the men’s and women’s race each receive an automatic nomination
to the team that will represent the United States.

One of the weekend’s main features for families is the Shimano Kids Race,
which takes place at 1:00 p.m. Sunday.