A patient Geoff Kabush used his experience to win the Santa Ynez Valley Classic, the second round of the 2007 National Mountain Bike Series. The Canadian, suffering from admittedly bad legs, spent the day riding in the draft of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Barry Wicks (Kona), before out sprinting the two Americans for the win.

Kabush takes his pull.... when it counts.

Visibly dejected at the finish line, Wicks and Horgan-Kobelski slumped over their bikes shaking their heads. Both realized they had blown a chance to topple Kabush - two times the series champ and the winner of the opening NMBS round in Fountain Hills, Arizona - who was visibly having a sub-par day.

"I'm kicking myself, I should have used my brain more," said Wicks, the 2006 Santa Ynez Classic cross-country champion. "I was feeling really good but I never attacked on the course, I always just dialed up the pace and tried to drop people. I wasn't worried about Geoff at all and he saved it ‘till the very end."

It became evident halfway through the first of two 13.1-mile laps that the day's winner would come from the lead group of four, which contained Wicks, Horgan-Kobelski, Kabush and Max Plaxton (Rocky Mountain-Haywood). But with Horgan-Kobelski pushing the pace on the climbs and Wicks dialing it up on the flat sections, Kabush and Plaxton enjoyed a free ride.

The men completed two laps around the 13.1-mile course, which contained a handful of steep, lung-busting climbs and two speedy, winding descents, but no technical riding. A steady wind blowing from the west kept riders in groups, and helped quell attacks.

Horgan-Kobelski, looking for his first top cross-country victory of 2007, looked hell-bent on breaking away and put in numerous digs on his Gary Fisher 29er. His final break came inside the final kilometer, which succeeded in dropping Plaxton.

But Kabush slammed the door shut just before the finish, letting the American lead into the final left hand turn. Horgan-Kobelski tried in vain to sprint, but Kabush kept his bike in a big gear and easily brought home the win.

"It felt good to finally ride at the front of one of these things, but I thought Geoff was really hurting," Horgan-Kobelski said. "Nine out of 10 times that we go to the line together in a sprint, I'm going to lose."

Kabush's Maxxis teammate Mattieu Toulouse grabbed the final spot on the podium, finishing a minute up on Kris Sneddon (Kona), Andy Schultz (Bear Naked-Cannondale) and Ryan Trebon (Kona).

Gould heads up a Luna sweep
Crossing the line just after Trebon was women's winner, Georgia Gould of the Luna women's mountain-bike team. Gould and the rest of the women's field completed one full and one shortened laps around the course, bringing them to the finish line with the back half of the pro men's field.

SWEEEEP! Luna does it again

Indeed, despite enjoying a lead that bumped past five minutes at times, Gould said she never let up.

"You're supposed to go hard the whole time - this is a mountain-bike race," she said. "It's not like I'm a road racer."

Vanlandingham held on to second, while Luna's Katerina Nash rebounded from an early crash that sent her into 30th position to ride into third place by the race's midpoint. Nash's effort gave Luna a 1-2-3 sweep for both the short track and cross-country races.

2007 Santa Ynez Classic NMBS
Cross country
Men
1. Geoff Kabush (Can), Maxxis
2. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Subaru-Gary Fisher
3. Barry Wicks, Kona
4. Max Plaxton (Can), Rocky Mountain-Haywood
5. Mattieu Toulouse (Can), Maxxis

At just 22, Canadian cross-country rider Max Plaxton (Rocky Mountain-Haywood) already owns palmarès worthy of envy. He is twice the Pan-American U-23 champion (2006 and ‘07) and owns a bronze medal from the 2006 world championships U-23 cross-country race.

Now, with countrymen Geoff Kabush and Seamus McGrath entering their 30s, Plaxton is undeniably the future of Canadian cross-country racing.

"Well it feels great," Plaxton said. "The last few years I've won some Canada Cups and this is a lot bigger than that."

Plaxton proved his strong fitness at shorter efforts with podium finishes in the short track and time trial at the April 18-22 Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California.

Still, most eyes were on Plaxton's countrymen Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) at the Santa Ynez Classic. With 14-career short-track victories, including one at the 2007 NMBS opener in Fountain, Hills, Arizona, the sideburned Kabush is the discipline's winningest racer.

Looking to topple Kabush was the Kona duo of Barry Wicks and Ryan Trebon and the Subaru-Gary Fisher squad of Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Sam Schultz.

Team tactics and gusting winds turned the race into a chess match after a large group of nine asserted itself at the front. Present in the group were Kabush, Plaxton, Wicks and Trebon, Horgan-Kobelski and Schultz, as well as Alan Obye (Jamis), Ross Schnell (Trek-Volkswagen) and Brent Miller (Kenda/X-Fusion).

With the teammate-less riders sitting on, national short-track champ Wicks played the first card midway through the 20-minute race, and attacked through the mile-long course's start-finish area. The effort dropped Obye, Miller and Schnell, but as the group came together with three laps remaining, Plaxton took a solo flyer.

Hesitation within the group made Plaxton's move a winning one. Trebon turned on the afterburners and slowly reeled the Canadian in, towing Horgan-Kobelski along. But the lanky cyclo-cross national champion ran out of real estate and finished second. Horgan-Kobelski, Wicks and Schultz rounded out the podium.

"I just waited too long," Trebon admitted.

"It's too cool to see Max fired up and winning," he said. "We need more Canadian guys doing well at the races."

Plaxton's victory came after the Luna mountain-bike team lit up the women's short-track race, with Katerina Nash, Georgia Gould and Shonny Vanlandingham finishing 1-2-3.

With reigning national short-track champ Susan Haywood (Trek-Volkswagen) in Maryland to race the UCI C-2 Greenbrier Challenge on April 30, the Luna squad faced off against Willow Koerber and Heather Irmiger of Subaru-Gary Fisher. Koerber grabbed the hole shot off the line, and with her teammate on her wheel led around the first lap.

But Irmiger went down on the lap's only descent - the crash separated the Luna three and Koerber from the chase group. Koerber marked attacks for half of the race, but when she too slid out in a corner, taking down Gould, Nash assumed a sizable advantage.

Gould, hot off an impressive eight-place finish at the World Cup opener in Houffalize, Beligium, wasn't ready to let her teammate go so easily. The Luna rider flexed her legs with three laps remaining, powering away from Koerber, speeding past Vanlandingham and grabbing Nash's wheel - all in less than half a lap.

"I really wasn't surprised to see Georgia, she's been so strong this year," Nash admitted.

The two rode comfortably at the front of the women's field, and looked primed for a Luna vs. Luna sprint finish. But Gould lost control in the final turn, and Nash soloed in for an easy win.

"It's good for me - I'm not such a good sprinter this year and I think Georgia would have beaten me," Nash said.

Vanlandingham and Koerber secured the third and fourth spot finishes, and Kiwi Jennifer Smith (Trek-Volkswagen) out-kicked Zephanie Blasi (Kenda/X-Fusion) for the final spot on the podium.

2007 Santa Ynez Classic NMBS
Short Track
Men
1. Max Plaxton (Can), Rocky Mountain-Haywood
2. Ryan Trebon, Kona
3. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Subaru-Gary Fisher
4. Barry Wicks, Kona
5. Sam Schultz, Subaru-Gary Fisher

Southern California's picturesque Santa Ynez Valley is internationally renowned for its miles of grapevines and upscale wineries. But this weekend it's the area's singletrack earning the attention, as the National Mountain-Bike Series rumbles into town for the April 28-29 Firestone Santa Ynez Classic mountain-bike festival.

The Santa Ynez Classic is drawing more attention this year

"I'm definitely excited to be part of the NMBS, this is huge for us," said Mike Hecker, the event's founder and chief organizer. "Getting this race on the national calendar is something I've been trying to do since day one."

Outsourcing the NMBS
The festival's partnership with the NMBS marks a turning point for the series: It's the first time the NMBS, in its latest edition, has outsourced race organization. Formerly called the NORBA National Series and the National Championship Series (NCS), North America's premier off-road series has operated under Jeff Frost of Blue Wolf Events and Tom Spiegel of Team Big Bear since 2003. Each summer Frost and Spiegel load up a semi trailer and roll from venue to venue, organizing each event themselves.

At the Santa Ynez Classic, Hecker and his team are the chief organizers.

Barry Wicks

The Santa Ynez Classic also gives the NMBS another foothold in the lucrative Southern California market. The series lost its marquee So Cal event in 2004 when the Snow Summit ski area outlawed downhill racing. The NMBS returned to Southern California in 2006 with a round in San Bernadino's suburb of Fontana. For 2007 the Fontana NMBS falls the weekend after the Santa Ynez Classic - the scheduling should boost participation numbers for both events.

The Santa Ynez Classic has already seen a jump in numbers. Pre-registration for 2007 is double that of 2006, when 900 racers showed up.

JHK astride his 29-er

Hecker, a former semi-pro cross-country racer who currently runs a tree-care company, began the Santa Ynez Classic in 2000 as a way to stay involved SoCal's community of off-road racing. Then called the Firestone Winery XC festival, his race attracted 189 racers in its first year.

The race owes its namesake to the Firestone Ranch and Winery, which has hosted the festival on its grounds since day one. The event was labeled the Firestone Walker in after the winery's brewery in 2003. Hecker added a short-track event that year, followed by downhill in 2004 and a marathon cross-country in 2005.

Gould has had an amazing early season

Pared Down XC field
The NMBS sought out the Santa Ynez Festival after Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, dropped its affiliation with the series for its July 6-8 Cougar Mountain Classic. The raceway's late-season decision opened a hole in the NMBS schedule, and Frost and Spiegel hurriedly roped in the Santa Ynez Classic.

The late entry into the NMBS calendar meant that, while the Santa Ynez Classic will award prizes, it will not carry UCI points for the cross-country race. UCI points are currently a hot commodity for cross-country racers hoping to make the U.S team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Opting to chase after points, Americans Olympic hopefuls Todd Wells (GT), Jeremiah Bishop and Susan Haywood (Trek-Volkswagen) will forego the Santa Ynez Classic for Maryland's April 29 Greenbrier Challenge a Category 2-rated UCI race. Americans Adam Craig and Kelli Emmett (both Giant) have opted for a rest week after the April 22 World Cup opener in Houffalize, Belgium.

Present at the Santa Ynez festival will be 2006 cross-country champion Barry Wicks and second-place finisher Ryan Trebon (both Kona). Wicks, who beat his teammate at the line, said the cross-country course holds a few surprises.

"Last year we came around a corner and there was this huge bull just standing in the trail," he said. "We stopped and looked at him and he looked back at us. His hoofs were putting four-inch deep tracks in the hardpack."

Barring any encounters with livestock, the rider able to maintain the most speed on the ultra-fast, non-technical course will win the 2007 Santa Ynez Classic cross-country race. The course bisects the Firestone vineyard before sending riders on six steep ascents. Following each climb are off-camber singletrack descents that test a rider's high-speed skill and courage.

Bike selection could help determine victory in the men's cross-country. Wicks and Trebon will ride their Kona hardtails, while current NMBS leader Geoff Kabush will race on his full-suspension Litespeed Sewanee. Looking to score his first major cross-country victory on a bike with 29-inch wheels, 2006 NMBS cross-country champion Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) will ride his Gary Fisher 29er hardtail.

In the women's race, the pro field will try and hold the wheel of Luna's Georgia Gould. Gould, winner of the 2007 Pan American Championships and the NMBS opener in Fountain Hills, AZ. Gould won the April 15 Sea Otter Classic cross-country race by nearly five minutes.

The pro men will tackle three laps around the 13.1-mile loop while the women will complete two. Stay tuned to www.velonews.com for news and updates from the 2007 Santa Ynez Classic NMBS race.

2007 Santa Ynez Classic