Mountain Biking: Eyes for Mammoth

Published: May 2, 2004

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Mountain Biking: Eyes for Mammoth
By Todd Balf (with John Alderman)

Mountain-bike professionals are no strangers to tough conditions, but July’s World Cup stop on California’s Mammoth Mountain was in another realm: The course was buried in ten feet of snow, and scientists were noting that the long-dormant volcano was showing signs of waking up. So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Rune Hoydahl, the men’s World Cup points leader, opted to stay
at home in volcano-free Norway and that Juli Furtado, apparently trying for comic relief, began the day of racing wearing giant bug-eyed sunglasses. But a 40-person crew cleared a five-mile cross-country loop, the volcano held off, and Furtado cruised to her third straight victory in this year’s World Cup series. Switzerland’s Thomas Frischknecht took the men’s cross-country race.
In the downhill, winner Kim Sonier recorded one of the fastest runs in history by a woman–she hit 58 mph. “All the way, I was saying, ‘No brakes! No brakes! No brakes!'” said the 32-year-old.

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