National Off-Road Bicycle Association

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This article is about the mountain biking organization. For the ancient Italian town, see Norba.

NORBA or the National Off-Road Bicycle Association is the national governing body for the sport of mountain biking in the United States. NORBA creates the rules for the sport of mountain bike racing (USA Cycling Mountain Bike) as well as the rules for the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championship. USA Cycling Mountain Bike is a division of USA Cycling, which is itself a part of Union Cycliste Internationale or UCI.

[edit] Organization

As of 2004, Lisa Nye-Salladin was the President of the NORBA Board of Trustees. Jeremy Horgan-Kobleski is the cross-country athlete trustee and the vice-president, and Marla Streb is the gravity athlete trustee. Since cross-country cycling is a sport in the Summer Olympic Games, USA Cycling is entrusted with choosing the U.S. athletes for that event.

[edit] USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Calendar

There are three USAC Mountain Bike National Calendars- Endurance, Ultra-Endurance and Gravity. The Calendars can be found at: http://www.usacycling.org/mbnc/ Complete definitions of mountain bike racing disciplines can be found at http://www.usacycling.org/forms/MTB_rulebook.pdf

Marathon - riders compete against each other over a very long mountain bike course that is a mixture of jeep road, fire road, and singletrack (60-100K)
Stage racing - riders compete over a sequence of mountain stages over multiple days
Time Trial - riders compete against time on a mountain bike trail
Short Track Cross-Country - riders compete against each other on a short, hilly track
Cross-Country - riders compete over a mountain bike course that is a mixture of fire road and singletrack- races last between 1 hour for beginners and 2-2.5 hours for pros
Downhill - riders compete against time over a steep downhill run with rugged train with jumps drop offs and a mixture of rocks gardens and berms.
Mountain Cross (4x) - riders compete in four-at-a-time races down a gravity course