Official 2008 NMBS Schedule

The "official" 2008 NMBS (National Mountain Bike Series, which used to be called the NORBA Nationals) schedule press release was posted this week. Important excerpts are below:

One of the new venues is Tamarack Resort, at McCall, Idaho, which hosts the series finale, August 30 - September 1. This event is scheduled so as to allow the US Olympians to return from their races in Beijing, 22-23 August, and still compete for the series win. "We wanted the top athletes to have an opportunity to race in the finals, they have expressed a desire to do so, and we are more than happy to oblige," says series director Jeff Frost.

The other new venue is Windham Resort, New York, July 12-13. "Plattekill Mountain is the gravity base of New England, there's a huge gravity crowd in and around that area. We're excited to be going there for that, but also, the venue is two hours southwest of Mt Snow, the national championships venue, and our race is the weekend before. It's the last chance to qualify for the nationals," explains Frost.

The 2007 series saw continued growth in participant numbers, with 10,000 entrants and 14,000 starts. "I think we've found our plateau, Our events have become 70% regional and 30% national, which is a very healthy mix. This series is a standalone and has nothing to do with NORBA. As our reputation grows as a standalone entity, so does the pull from the region surrounding the event," says Frost.

Good to see that they nailing this down early this year. I am excited about the Tamarack event -- I may have to make the long drive up to Idaho. Here's the official schedule:

2008 NATIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKE SERIES - SCHEDULE
Round 1 (March 29-30, 2008) : Fontana National (Southridge Park, Fontana, California) [XC/DH/ST/4X/Super D]
Round 2 (April 5-6, 2008): NOVA National (McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, Arizona) [XC/ST/Super D]
Round 3 (May 17-18, 2008) Santa Ynez National (Ted Chamberlin Ranch, Los Olivos, California) [XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D]
Round 4 (June 28-29, 2008): Deer Valley National (Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah) [XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D]
Round 5 (July 12-13, 2008) East Coast National (Windham Resort, Windham, New York) [XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D]
Round 6 Final (August 30 - September 1, 2008) National Mountain Bike Series Finals (Tamarack Resort, Tamarack, Idaho) [XC/DH/4Xor DS/ST/Super D]

This is pretty close to what we saw on the preliminary schedule except Snowmass (CO) and Sugar Mountain (NC) dropped out.