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From: royr@kepler.UUCP (roy rivers)
Newsgroups: net.bicycle
Subject: Mountain Bike National Championships
Message-ID: <276@kepler.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 16:12:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: kepler.276
Posted: Wed Oct  2 16:12:45 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 07:07:19 EDT
Organization: MicroPro Int'l Corp., San Rafael, CA
Lines: 38



The Mountain Bike National Championships were held in Santa Barbara last
weekend, September 27, 28.  Approximately fifty professional riders from ten 
major teams participated in the main event, a grueling thirty mile race with
5500 feet of climbing over very rough trails and fire roads.

The defending champion, Joe Murray(Team Fisher), once again showed his
incredible stamina under pressure by passing Roy Rivers(Team WTB/Suntour)
with nine miles to go and opening up a two minute lead by the finish.
Ned Overend(Team Schwinn), a good candidate for the current world's best
road bike hill climber, flatted after only three miles.  Mountain bike
racers must be fully self-contained so it took Ned five minutes to fix
the flat.  He finished eight minutes behind Murray, five minutes faster
would have put him in third.  Another good possibility for champion would
have been Max Jones(Team Ritchey).  Max destroyed his chain on a brutal
washboard downhill about seven miles into the race and could not continue.


The top ten were as follows:

 1.   Joe Murray        Fisher
 2.   Roy Rivers        Wilderness Trail Bikes / Suntour
 3.   Gavin Chilcott    Specialized
 4.   Casey Kunselman   Wilderness Trail Bikes / Suntour
 5.   Ned Overend       Schwinn
 6.   George Theobald   Fisher
 7.   John Loomis       Ross
 8.   Todd DeAngelis    Wilderness Trail Bikes / Suntour
 9.   Kye Sharp         Schwinn
10.   Joey Peterson     Wilderness Trail Bikes / Suntour


About one million dollars was invested in the Mountain Bike racing circuit
in 1985.  This is several fold the figure invested in 1984, and 1986 looks
very promising with all teams planning increased effort, and several new
large scale stage races in the works.  Also media coverage, notably television,
is planning more exposure for the sport.


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