Introduced to the sport of mountain biking while living in Idaho, 28-year-old Georgia Gould is now headed to Beijing, China for the 2008 Olympics Aug. 23-24 on the Laoshan bike course in Shijingshan District.
Gould, for the past 18 months a resident of Fort Collins, Colo. because she wanted more year-round bike training, officially qualified for the 29th Olympic Games during last week's UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Trentino, Italy.
Last Sunday during the Elite men's and women's Olympic-style cross-country racing at Trentino, Gould finished ninth—the top American—in the 29-kilometer women's race won by Margarita Fullana of Spain in 1.39:01. Gould was six minutes and 18 seconds back.
Gould, the top American mountain biker in world rankings, gave the U.S. its sixth consecutive top 10 finish at the world championships. But the deep, experienced U.S. team was ultimately kept off the podium for the seventh straight year, since Alison Dunlap's 2001 world title.
Although she had a mid-race crash, Gould rode consistently through the 29k event to equal her ninth-place finish in the 2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Fort William, Scotland. The seventh starter, Gould rode near the front on the first lap until the powerful trio of Fullana, runner-up Sabine Spitz of Germany and third-place Irina Kalentieva of Russia pulled away on the second of five laps.
Gould and Todd Wells of Durango, Colo. (15th of 129 in the men's 40k Elite race, 8:09 back) became the first two racers to clinch spots on the U.S. Olympic mountain biking team. Because there were no automatic bids (top 3 U.S. finishes in the worlds or in a World Cup this season), Wells and Gould met automatic nomination criteria because of collective performances this season.
Her top-three World Cup performances this season were a pair of fifths in the first and third World Cups at Madrid and Houffalize, and 11th place recently at Fort William.
Gould was the 2006 NORBA cross country national champion while riding as a rookie for the Luna Chix mountain bike team.
It was only two years ago, in July 2006, that Baltimore native and University of Montana psychology graduate Gould claimed her first career stars-and-stripes jersey in cross-country on the Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, Ca. The result gave her an automatic berth in the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in New Zealand.
Georgia Gould Photo by Mountain Express
