German champion Sabine Spitz (GER, Merida) is an amazing mountain biker.

Aided by her husband and manager, she has methodically earned respect from the field as a quiet yet deadly competitor. Always on the hunt, she's amassed an impressive rèsumè of world cup racing. Her time was always due, and this week she made good when she used a bit of luck and a lot of talent to win her career's first World Cup victory in this warm and sunny Saturday's six-lap event.

The luck part came from a flat tire. Not hers, it was that of little Annabella Stropparo (ITA, Be-One), who punctured her rear tire during the descent down the rocky plunge in lap four. Stropparo was perhaps riding too aggressively; she had won last week for the first time, was in the hunt for the overall championship and had also been DQ'd here last year when she was caught taking outside assistance from her manager when her chain jammed.

Stropparo took off like a bullet in the women's six-lap event, putting 20 seconds on Spitz while the two Alisons, Sydor and Dunlap, chased with a minute between them. Then in lap four Stropparo came by this reporter, stopped and dismounted, crying in frustration as Spitz blew by her.

"I saw Annabella flat, and thought 'Okay, it's my time to have the lead,'" said Spitz afterward. "In mountain biking you have to have some good luck sometimes."

And bad luck, too. "Bad luck," we offered in sympathy to the teary Stropparo as we saw her rear flat. We also wondered why she wasn't quickly changing her tire. These riders can literally change a tube and be back on track within two minutes, plenty of time for Stropparo to keep in the game. But she has a reputation for losing it emotionally in big races when things go wrong, as they often do.

She stood there for a moment, lamenting that she was running a tubeless tire and was finished. Figuring she was done as well, we gently offered that she could at least get back in it and ride until her wheel blew up - this is racing after all. She thought about it, remounted and was off, gingerly heading into the woods on her flat tire. We were proud and thought this could be a turning point where she turned from cry-baby to competitor.

Meanwhile, Spitz had taken the reigns of the race and seemed untouchable. Sydor was nearly two minutes back in 2nd place and Dunlap three minutes back in 3rd. Gunn-Rita Dahle (NOR, Merida International) raced in 4th position and Sue Haywood (USA, Trek-Volkswagen) was in 5th. Stropparo, for all we knew, was sitting at her team tent and wishing she had brought a spare tube.

But no, there she was at the tail end of the race, flying by us eight minutes off the lead with a repaired tire. "Huh?" we thought. We could have sworn she was sans tube when we saw her, but we could have been wrong. Or, she could have received outside assistance. Who knows, we're MountainZone.com, not the police.

In the final lap Spitz used her German efficiency to remain flatless and up front. But #1-ranked Dunlap wasn't through with her race as she chases the overall championship this season, determined to win her first title as proof that the current World Champ is also the sport's best overall rider.

Sydor, fueled for a while by the local crowd, was fading and Dunlap caught her in lap 5. The superior technician, Sydor held on during the descents, but once they hit the final climb it was over, and Dunlap raced to 2nd place while Sydor held on for 3rd.

"I definitely wanted to podium here," said Sydor later. "Al blew by me in that last lap and I was just hanging on."

"You have to have patience, and a little bit of luck," said Dunlap. "My first priority was to protect the jersey, and you couldn't go out too hard too early in this race."

But fate and flats weren't quite through. The 4th-placed Dahle was having a strong race in that final lap when she flatted her rear tire and then - inexplicably - abandoned the race to earn a DNF for the day rather than run to the finish line and likely earn top-10 points.

"I don't know what I was thinking," she would tell us the next day. So Haywood rode past to 4th place, leaving the final podium position open.

And it was none other than Stropparo herself who would occupy that place, coming full circle and up from the rear to earn 130 points toward the championship. While some said she had received help in fixing her rear tire, she told a photographer that she found a piece of wood to help her remove the notoriously tight tubeless tire and insert a (mysteriously procured) tube. We decided not to offer friendly advice to racers anymore.

It was, without a doubt, one of the most exciting and interesting women's races we've ever witnessed. And just to make it even more interesting, the organizers couldn't locate the national anthem of Germany during the award ceremony, as Spitz stood smiling atop the podium. And so, with some encouragement from the crowd, the reserved German took the mic and sang her anthem a cappella. A fittingly wacky end to one wild race.

Championship Note: With her win, 4th-ranked Spitz moved to #2 overall, 75 points behind Dunlap - setting up a winner-take-all scenario for September's World Cup finals in France. Stropparo is currently ranked #3.

— Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent