By Steve Medcroft
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru Gary-Fisher) and fiancée Heather Irmiger (Tokyo Joes) were both winners at Saturday’s Brian Head, Utah NORBA National cross-country race. With his win, Horgan-Kobelski regained the NORBA series lead over Tam Maxxis' Geoff Kabush (who fell to ninth on the day after mechanical problems).
Twenty-six year old Irmiger’s victory was her first NORBA-series win. "I kind of just played it pretty conservative at first and I knew it was a long time until it got higher and harder, "she said about her approach to the race. But after the lead group slowed, she took a chance and attacked on a long climb. “It's kind of an amateur tactic (to go hard early).” An amateur tactic that paid off when Irmiger was able to hold off 2005 four-time cross-country winner Shonny Vanlandingham by 43 seconds for the win.
"I'm still still high off it," Irmiger said Tuesday evening. "Still not sleeping much."
Attempting the Hat Trick
Power couple JHK and Irmiger’s double cross-country win was the story of the weekend but Jeremiah Bishop came awfully close to a double of his own after racing all three cross-country events.
“It’s the first time I’ve attempted the hat trick,” he says. “It was a really fun challenge. But it was really a means to an end; just part of the training plan.” A plan that called for Bishop to get in an intense block of competition-level riding over the weekend. “I’m trying to ride into top form for the finals, mountain bike nationals and World Championships month.”
Although individual racers have won both the cross-country and short-track events at a single NORBA weekend before (most recently Geoff Kabush’s short-track and cross-country wins in Snowmass, Colo. in July) not many racers attempt all three cross-country events. “Ryder Hesjedal tried (the hat trick) once,” Bishop says. “In Schweitzer (July 2004), he won the cross country and marathon and placed 17th in the short track.” So Bishop knew it was possible to get results in all three races.
He came second in Saturday’s cross-country then won Sunday morning’s marathon. In the Sunday-afternoon short-track, he raced aggressively. “I was probably a little too excited,” he said. “The lead pack of about five guys slowed down into a headwind. It was irresistible attack so I slipped around and tried to go.” Stuck in the wind alone, “they put the smack down me; went around me like a pack of angry hornets” he says about being overtaken a lap later.
Although fatigued, Bishop still managed seventh, his best short-track result so far. His training now calls for the Harrisonburg, Virginia-based pro to back off a little leading up to the Snowmass and Mount Snow NORBA’s later this month. “I’m going to do some shopping,” he says, “pick out my Tux (for his October wedding to fiancée Erin North).
Ferguson first race back ends in a spill
In the cross-country race in Brian Head, twenty-three year old Coloradan Walker Ferguson (Scott USA), who is just returning to national-level MTB competition after a racing sabbatical and was competing in his one and only NORBA race of the year, crashed on a descent but escaped major damage. “I’m bruised up but nothing was broken,” he said on Tuesday. Which means Ferguson will be able to stick to his plan to “do a couple local races here in Colorado then go to Mammoth for Nationals.”
Results, race reports and pictures:
