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EDITOR'S NOTE: CHRISSY WON NCS #2 - MT. SNOW JUST ONE WEEK BEFORE THIS WORLD CUP!!!!!
That she was strong enough to finish just 18 seconds back in this race is awe inspiring. Way to go Chrissy!

The sixth round of the Tissot/UCI Mountain Bike World Cup showed up in the French part of Canada, just in time for our national holiday, Canada Day. The course was a modified version of the 1998 world's course with some new freshly cut, rooty, wet single track climbing and descending. The length was 6.4 km per lap with the women and men completing 5 and 7 laps, respectively. Total climbing for the women was 5,900ft and for the men, 8,260ft. All week the course was buff with the technical bits gnarly, but ridable. Saturday night a huge thunderstorm blasted by and dumped about an inch of rain in 20 minutes. We were afraid that the course would be ruined, but the rain hardly affected the trails.

Because of the intense downpour last night, the most technical part of the course was axed just before the start for both men and women. Still, the course promised to serve up a strong serving of punishment for all those who participated. The race started with a pavement start-loop and steep climb before heading out for the seven lap race. After the first time up the main climb, chaos ensued through the first descent with a number of riders crashing, me (Andy Bishop) included, giving a good rock-slam to my knee.

Coming off an incredulous Mount Snow last weekend, we all thought that Pavel Tcherkassov would repeat his podium performances. Unfortunately, during the week, he experienced a few days of high fever, which drained his energy. Even though he had an impressive first lap, he elected to pull out and prepare for next week at the World Cup race in Canmore. Ryder Hesjedal was another story. He once again showed that he is a rider for now and the future as he steadily rode in the top fifteen throughout the race. At the top of the feed zone climb (the last major climb), bad luck struck and he flatted with only three kilometers left to the finish. He finished on a flat tire and lost eight places in just those few kilometers. Still, it bodes well for the next week where he has won Canada Cup races before!!

The entire men's field can count their blessings: a major downpour happened just minutes after the completion of the race, making for a fine mess for all the staff when breaking down the trailers. It was a stunning return for Cadel Evans back to World Cup competition as he handily beat second place by almost three minutes.

1st Cadel Evans Volvo/Cannondale 2:15:07
2nd Christoph Sauser Volvo/Cannondale @2:37
3rd Christophe Dupouey Giant @3:29

22nd Ryder Hesjedal Gary Fisher/SAAB
39th Andy Bishop Gary Fisher/SAAB

This morning I (Chrissy Redden) felt good. Kevin had the hard tail Gary Fisher all race ready and she was looking fast. My teammate, Mary Grigson, was in good spirits, but feeling a little worked with all the travel and racing that she has been doing in the last 10 weeks. She is a trouper and put on her best race face, and if you know Mary, she can dig deep!! She is a heavy hitter in the women's field and is always a force to be reckoned with!! We rolled up to the start with high hopes of a win for one of us.

The women started at precisely 10:30am. We did one small loop of the expo area then sprinted up the start loop climb. My goal was to hit the first bit of single track within the top 3. All was going according to my plan. I had a good start, positioned myself well and was gunning for the single track when Alison Sydor and Barbara Blatter attacked me and got there first. No problem, we came out of the single track fairly close together and with about a 10 sec gap over Alison Dunlap and Regina Marunde. Down the next rough descent Alison Sydor flatted, which put Barbara and myself in the 1 & 2 position. Starting lap 2 Regina bridged up to me and took over the # 2 position. We stayed pretty close together and on the 3rd lap I started to get my 2nd wind (or was it the 5th or 6th) and took back 2nd. The 4th lap I started to bridge up to Barbara and got within 5 sec on the start of the 5th lap, but she would have nothing to do with that and attacked on the first major climb, dropping me and we both rode a good last lap with Barbara taking the win. Mary had a bad start riding in the top 15 but got into her zone and bridged up and ended up 5th. Always coming through, Mary!!

1st Barbara Blatter Scott USA 1:57:43
2nd Chrissy Redden Gary Fisher/SAAB @ :18
3rd Regina Marunde Focus @1:37
4th Alison Dunlap GT @ 2:15
5th Mary Grigson Gary Fisher/SAAB @ 3:30