One of the greatest aspects of the World Cup circuit is the location of its races. From famous European mountains to North America's most spectacular peaks, the Tissot-UCI Mountain Bike World Cup treats its traveling circus with some incredible locales. And with this week's arrival in Vancouver, the world's toughest series served up amazing racing, North Shore-style.

Originally slated as a triple event similar to last week's Mont Sainte-Anne race, the downhill and four-cross events were taken off the calendar last month due to excess snow on Grouse Mountain. That left two cross-country events on Grouse (just above downtown Vancouver), while the Whistler/Blackcomb Resort stepped up and held its own four-cross and downhill last week in its amazing mountain bike park. It made for a long weekend of racing and, because this is the north shore, some of the best recreational riding on the planet.

So good is the riding up here that downhill honcho Cedric Gracia (FRA, Volvo-Cannondale) - who won Friday's DH in Whistler - was nowhere to be seen Sunday when it came time for him to race in the XC event. Gracia is planning on competing in a big XC race in Europe this summer, and was going to race with the XC big boys as training. But he and Steve Peat (GBR, Orange England) loved the riding in Whistler so much that they not only eschewed the Grouse event, but went house-shopping as well. The world's most prestigious MTB time-share?

This part of Vancouver really is a mountain biker's paradise, with companies like Van-based Kona selling 35-lb. freeride machines specifically designed for the wooden bridges, teeter-totters and drops that have been glommed onto the trees of these wooded forests. And one of the most fun results of that man-made mousetrap tradition was its influence on the XC course at Grouse.

Imagine racing a XC at full speed with the world's best. You're headed up the fireroad and make a right turn onto a narrow singletrack and up a steep pitch, but this is no ordinary singletrack. It's made of wood and is only two feet wide. After a sharp turn around a tree and over a moss-covered boulder, you make the plunge back into the venue, where hundreds of people are camped next to the steep rocky switchbacks. This was but one aspect of Grouse's XC course - the most technical, fun and ruthless track we've seen this side of the Swiss Alps.

Such was the nature of this weekend's World Cup — part festival, part competition and part celebration of the bicycle. We've got four stories for you this week: the women's race, the men's race, the Whistler downhill and our famed race dirt inside scoop gossip.

— Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent