While there’s clearly no substitute for first place, elite American mountain bike racers, Brian Lopes and Melissa Buhl, have to like their current position heading into the second stage of the Jeep® King of the Mountain (
www.jeepsports.com) 2006 Mountain Biking World Professional Championships, set for Aug. 12 at Elkhart Lake, Wis.
The Jeep King of the Mountain Series, the most prestigious event in professional mountain bike racing, features 16 of the world’s top riders competing head-to-head for the coveted title of World Professional Champion. Also at stake is a share of the record $100,000 cash purse and the keys to a new 2007 Jeep Compass. Now in its fourth year, the event continues to attract arguably the most accomplished athletes in the sport, and receives premier national broadcast coverage via CBS Sports.
Though Lopes, 34, from San Clemente, Calif., and Buhl, 24, from Chandler, Ariz., are 10 years apart in age, both have distinguished themselves with national and international championships and are savvy enough to know that one great day of racing separates them from first place in the overall standings. Claiming first place will be no easy task, however, with the world’s two top racers, Michal Prokop of the Czech Republic, and Jill Kintner of Seattle, Wash., currently holding onto first place and vying to defend their Jeep King of the Mountain 2005 World Professional Champion titles. With a first or second place finish by Lopes and Buhl in Elkhart Lake, the title of World Professional Champion would be completely up for grabs when the series’ grand finale takes place on Sept. 3 at Beaver Creek, Colo.
“I am healthy and I have been around the block for some time now, which is a great advantage,” said Lopes, a three-time World Champion, five-time World Cup Champion and nine-time National Champion. “I know what it takes to put together a good race run, and now I just need to go out and make it happen.”
Heading into Elkhart Lake, Prokop leads the men’s division, followed by Lopes and Eric Carter of Temecula, Calif., the 2005 and 2006 USA Cycling Mountain-Cross National Champion. Right behind the top three are Wade Bootes of Australia, the 2004 Jeep King of the Mountain World Professional Champion and runner-up in 2005, former World Champion Mike King of San Diego, and Brian Schmith of Lancaster, Calif., an open qualifier from the first race in San Luis Obispo, Calif., who will compete in place of the injured Chris Powell of Carmel Valley, Calif.
In the women’s competition, Kintner continues to be nearly unbeatable, followed by Buhl and Corona, Calif.’s Tara Llanes, the 2006 USA Cycling Downhill National Champion who currently ranks third in the UCI World Cup standings. Rounding out the standings are Katrina Miller of Australia, the 2004 JKOM World Professional Champion currently ranked second in the world, Fionn Griffiths of Great Britain, a three-time World Cup Champion and five-time UK National Champion, Marla Streb of Los Osos, Calif., and Anneke Beerten of The Netherlands, the 2006 Sea Otter Classic runner-up and JKOM event titlists in 2005.
“I have a strong BMX background, which combined with my mountain bike racing experience, helps me out on the Jeep series’ Y-cross racecourse quite a bit,” said Buhl, who currently ranks fifth in the UCI World Cup rankings and was recently selected by USA Cycling as a member of the women’s elite downhill and 4-cross squads for the 2006 Mountain Bike World Championships. “With my combination of hard work and good training, I think anything is possible.”
This year’s World Professional Mountain Biking Championships will again be staged on the Jeep King of the Mountain Series’ innovative “Y-cross” racecourse. The daredevil racecourse combines the two most dramatic and popular forms of mountain bike racing into one unique discipline. Competitors begin the race on separate sides of the course (the prongs of the Y) before converging midway into a single course (the crux of the Y). In the bottom section, racers must navigate a series of banked turns, tabletops, step-down jumps and rollers before the track climaxes with an all-out sprint to the finish. The Y has been described as the ultimate format for mountain bike racing, as the overall winners must have a diverse set of skills to win the coveted title of World Professional Champion.
Running from July through September the Jeep King of the Mountain Series includes stops at some of the most spectacular, scenic outdoor havens in the U.S., each providing for a unique backdrop and world-class recreational facilities. This year the series kicked off in San Luis Obispo, and following the event in Elkhart Lake, will head to Beaver Creek, Colo., for the grand finale on Sept. 3.
The Jeep King of the Mountain was established in 1993. Jeep is the title sponsor for the Jeep King of the Mountain Series. The Mountain Biking World Professional Championships are the sister competition to wintertime’s Jeep King of the Mountain Skiing & Snowboarding World Professional Championships. Other marketing partners include Columbia Sportswear Company, Edge ActiveCare, Fender Musical Instruments, Giant, John Paul Mitchell Systems, Michelin, Mopar and Nalgene. During each race of the World Professional Championships, the athletes will be competing for the right to don the John Paul Mitchell Systems leaders jersey, as well as the accompanying bonus points associated with this honor. Prokop and Kintner, based on their wins in San Luis Obispo, will be sporting the distinct black jerseys at Elkhart Lake.
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www.jeepsports.com
