USA Cycling Announces Mtb Team for PAN AM Championships

April 1, 2004

USA Cycling announced today the mountain bike team that will represent the United States at the 2004 Pan American Championships in Baños, Ecuador April 22-25. In the elite women’s category, Alison Dunlap (Colorado Springs, Colo.) received an automatic nomination based on her placing as the first American at the 2004 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series opener in Waco, Texas.  Sue Haywood (Davis, W.Va.) also received an automatic nomination as a result of her fifth place finish in Waco.   Mary McConneloug (Fairfax, Calif.) received a discretionary nomination and will also compete in Ecuador.   The trio is currently involved in a campaign to earn valuable UCI points necessary for selection to the 2004 U.S. Olympic Mountain Bike Team.  After the first selection criteria, a top-three finish at the 2003 Mountain Bike World Championships, went unfulfilled, the sole woman that will represent the U.S. in Athens will likely be determined by UCI ranking.  Under UCI guidelines, continental championships offer 125 points to the winner.  Only Olympic Games, World Cups, and World Championships carry a higher available point value.  Each of the three women has already posted impressive results this year.  McConneloug took wins in four consecutive early season races in Cyprus while Dunlap followed up her win at the Maxxis Cup in Portugal two weeks ago with a second place finish at the GP Provincia di Lucca in Italy.  Meanwhile, Haywood has focused her efforts on training having just completed a heavy block of road racing at the Pomona Valley Stage Race and the Redlands Bicycle Classic as a guest rider of the T-Mobile Professional Cycling Team.  The elite men’s team will consist of 2004 U.S. National Mountain Bike Champion, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo.), Jeremiah Bishop (Harrisonburg, Va.), Todd Wells (Durango, Colo.) and Adam Craig (Bangor, Maine).  Bishop kicked off the 2004 season with a victory in the cross country event in Waco, the first by an American male in three years at a NORBA National.  Horgan-Kobelski and Bishop grabbed automatic nominations while Wells and Craig received discretionary nods.  Similar to the women’s Olympic selection, one of the two men’s mountain bike spots in Athens could possibly be determined by overall UCI ranking.  Currently, Horgan-Kobelski holds the distinction of the highest ranked American with Bishop a close second.  Those two, along with Wells and Craig, are the likely candidates for nominations to the U.S. Olympic Team.  Like the women, the men have been racing often and early in 2004 with great success.  Bishop took home a win at the Voroklini International in Cyprus and put in a second place effort at the Ultimate Dirt Challenge in Puerto Rico behind Wells.  At last year’s Pan American Championships, the Canadian women placed first and second with Alison Sydor and Kiara Bisaro respectively while Jose Adrian Bonilla (CRC) claimed the men’s title. U.S. U23 National Mountain Bike team member, Sam Schultz (Missoula, Mont.) and Tristen Schouten (Sheboygan, Wisc.) will ride in the U23 category in Ecuador. Kristi Henne (Plainview, Ark.) and Holly Liskie will contest the junior women’s event and Noah Singer (Little Rock, Ark.), Carson Worts (Warner Springs, Calif.), Chris Hinshaw (Winterhaven, Fla.), Alex Hodge (Bend, Ore.) Matt Skeen (Summerfield, N.C.), and Matt Mullican (Indianapolis, Ind.) will comprise the junior men’s team.   

At just shy of 6000 feet, Baños is located on the eastern slopes of the Andes at the foot of an active volcano 170km outside of Quito.