FRIDAY FLASHBACK: CAN YOU NAME THESE TWO RIDERS?
They're two of the fastest bike riders in history
That’s mountain bike legend John Tomac, holding his son Eli, in 1995, when Eli was two years old. Born on November 14, 1992, Eli just turned 32. (MBA’S John Ker shot the photo at a mountain bike race in Hawaii in 1995.)
John Tomac is widely considered to be one of the greatest mountain bikers of all time. He won the UCI’s World Cup XC title as well as the UCI’s XC World Championship in 1991. He also placed second in the UCI’s Downhill World Championship in 1991 and ’97.
If the Red Bull Rampage had existed back in 1991, John Tomac probably would have won that too.
John Tomac recently told us that Eli started riding a motorcycle when he was four years old. (John was an avid motorcycle rider, too.) Eli raced motocross for five years, from 1999 through 2003, before he won his first motocross title in 2004, when he was 11 years old.
We asked “Johnny T” when he realized that Eli was turning into a great motocross rider. John told us he realized that fact when Eli was about eight or nine years old.
Eli has turned out to be one of the greatest motocross and Supercross riders in history. He has earned 52 AMA 450 Supercross wins and 32 AMA 450 motocross wins. He’s won a total of eight AMA titles, split between motocross and supercross in the 250cc and 450cc classes.
As we mentioned earlier, Eli turned 32 yesterday, on November 14th, 2024. Happy birthday, Eli!
