royr@kepler.UUCP (roy rivers) (10/02/85)
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.