Mountain Bike Resources Online - Olympic Mountain Biking

Can the United States Medal?

Unless you follow mountain bike racing, you may think that the US has an excellent chance of medalling in Atlanta. After all, the United States invented the sport of mountain biking. Until recent years, Europeans thought that mountain bikes where heavy duty touring bikes. With names like "Tomac", "Tinker", "Overend" & "Furtado"...how could the US not medal?

Well, in case you didn't know, John Tomac, didn't even qualify for the men's Olympic team. Nor did Ned. Even if they had, the performance of US racers in the men's World Cup events this year has been dismal. In fact, the only World Cup event in which any US male racer has cracked the top ten was at Mount Snow Vermont last month when John Tomac finished sixth and Tinker Juarez finished seventh.

Now consider the women. Canada's Alison Sydor (Volvo-Cannondale) has won six out of the seven World Cup events so far this year. The one WC event she didn't win was when she sustained an injury during a training ride the previous day. The gold medal is her's to loose.

Considering these facts, the United States will be fortunate to come away with either a silver or a bronze medal. If this happens, it will surely be on the women's side. Both Juli Furtado (GT), who is currently in second place in the UCI World Cup standings, and Susan Demattei (Diamondback) both have excellent chances of medalling, and even a slight chance of beating Sydor. In the men's field, look for Thomas Frischkneckt (Switzerland), Miguel Martinez (Spain), Rune Hoydahl (Norway), & Christophe Dupouey (France).

Men's Mountain Bike Final
10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Women's Mountain Bike Final
7:30 p.m. - 12 midnight (EDT)

Actual Race Times

Men's cross-country 10 a.m. Tuesday July 30th
Women's cross-country 2:30 p.m Tuesday, July 30th