Gould and JHK sweep Saturday

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Rarely does a member of the Luna Pro Team compete in a super D Race, but Georgia Gould came away with a 12-second victory over Kelli Emmett (Giant). Racing on a much flatter course than normal, Gould was able to use her considerable power to her advantage. Emmett, nearly unbeatable when the going gets steep, saw her advantage negated on this course. Krista Park (Cannondale/Incycle) had an impressive ride to take third place.

It had been raining off and on all morning but the clouds broke just before the super D event. The 3.8-mile course required a great deal of pedaling, and riders only faced one 30-second downhill. The long finishing straightaway on a flat fire rode had riders low on their bars, looking more like tri-athletes than mountain bikers.

Because of the abundance of singletrack, there was no mass start. Instead, riders went off at 30-second intervals much as they do in a time trial.

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"There definitely was a lot of pedaling, mostly big ring stuff, with some cornering and a few short climbs and downhills," said Gould. She likened it to the Fountain Hills time trial in Arizona.

"I tried hard. It hurt a lot and I felt pretty bad so I'm hoping that's good," said Gould before knowing she had won the race.

Emmett agreed. "It was painful. There wasn't much downhill, but it was fun. Other than coasting about 30 seconds on the final downhill, you were pedaling the whole time."

Horgan-Kobelski wins by huge margin

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Gary Fisher/Subaru) won by nearly 30 seconds over second place Bryan Alders. Legendary mountain biker Travis Brown (Trek) was third, followed by Sid Taberlay (Sho-Air/Specialized), and Tim Allen.

"I'm really surprised I won because I've been really sick since getting back from Belgium," said JHK. "There was not a lot of 'D' today. It was mostly a time trial."

Bryan Alders said his second place finish "was a little unexpected. My plan was to take it a little easy in the beginning and then go hard on the fireroad at the end. I was on a hard-tail with some light wheels so I guess that's the right bike for this super D."

"I was super happy with third place," said Brown. "I may not have to do the short track." [And, in fact, he did not race short track.]

All the elite men and women will compete in the cross country on Sunday. Racers will combine their cross country score with their best score from Saturday's events to determine the winner of the Triple Crown.

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