Durango Worlds Look-Back, Part Three: The Furtado/Campagnolo Scandal

Even before the first race of the Durango weekend was begun, there was already a flurry of headlines and schemes in the making. I remember the first big news of the weekend was when one of the Euro racers got hit by a car on the highway mid-week. That was a drag. Then there was the downstairs condo along pit row where the Rock Shox army was in full force cutting steerer tubes and spilling fork oil all over the carpet as they sought to get as many forks on as many bikes as possible. All the while, Doug Bradbury, the one man Manitou hippie army was over at the Yeti box truck confident that with the likes of Tomac, Furtado (and ultimately Junior DH champ Joey Irwin, he was as prepared as he needed/could to be.

 

Then there was the Shimano/SunTour and (fledgling) Campagnolo drivetrain battle. SunTour sat happy knowing that among others, they had Ned Overend in their corner. Campagnolo was still in the midst of  joining the dirt bike fray. They were spending a ton of dough on select teams and riders, and although their components ruled the road, they were still far-off the mountain bike target with their beautifully crafted, but clunky shifters. Shimano had always been the dirt bike drivetrain of choice for everybody else. Although the Yeti team was sponsored by Campagnolo, John Tomac had his own deal with Shimano so they were safe with the Tomes. But Furtado was on the Italian parts and that riled Shimano to no end. Between the diplomatic efforts of Shimano’s Steve Boehmke, the lack of solid Campy shifting performance, and the mercurial nature of Furtado, the scene was set for something big to happen – there was just too much at stake!

 

(L-R) Manitou designer Doug Bradbury, Furtado, Yeti’s John Parker and yours truly on the day of the big XC race.

 

As the owner of Yeti Cycles, John Parker was far from overseeing one of the richest or most successful mountain bike brands in the late 80’s/early ‘90’s. But what John and Yeti lacked in real estate holdings, international distributors or Mt. Tam/’pioneer’ street cred he more than made up for with an intense passion for the sport that brought with it a kind of authenticity that the big bike companies could neither buy or create.  In fact, every year at Mammoth Yeti Cycles would have their box truck (and Yeti was the first team to have a box truck) parked in the same piece of prime real estate at the base of the chairlift that would be THE center of attention and fan adulation. Parker would sit back and just sneer at the big guys who no doubt coveted the emotional and promotional impact Yeti had with race fans, but were powerless to counter it.

 

Tucked even further back the shadows of the truck were the two teenagers. One, a scattershot girl from the streets of New York who spewed the pits with a verbal staccato that had all the precision of a loaded machine gun. Missy Giove. The other, a quiet kid from SoCal who epitomized the could’ve/should’ve group of young racers who seemed likely for stardom, but for whatever reason missed out. Joey Irwin. (In the end, both Giove and Irwin would claim the Junior DH wins at Durango with only Irwin’s effort getting official recognition and a gold medal after Giove was forced to race in the Senior class since the Junior women were two entries short of an official class).

 

In John Parker’s Own Words
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‘It was a pretty simple decision really, but one that still pains me to this day. The day before the race, Juli’s drivetrain wasn’t working good, it kept popping out of gear. We were a Campy sponsored team but when we took the bike to the Campagnolo truck everybody was working on the men’s bikes and the guy in charge told us that they would get to Julie’s bike when they had time. In fact, the head guy told us that she’d ‘just have to live with it.’ Doug Bradbury and I looked at each other and simply knew that was not an option.  We both knew that Furtado was there to send a message – she planned to win. But even though she wasn’t the most tech savvy rider out there, she knew the bike wasn’t working. ‘Parks,’ she told me, ‘it won’t stay in gear.’ We realized her bike had to work better than it was for her to win the rainbow jersey.

Now, we were sponsored by Campy, but as passionate and well meaning as Valentino Campagnolo was, he didn’t design the parts and he wasn’t working at the truck. There were options, but I hated to go against Valentino. It was not my first choice, but we made every effort we could. To this day I still have more respect for Valentino than he probably has for me and that’s unfortunate. Later in the day Doug and I talked about it and he reminded me that we came to the races to win, not make friends. We had a winning hand in Furtado….so we asked Kozo Shimano to leave a gruppo on the bumper of the box truck and deep into the night the drivetrain got swapped out.

 

“Once Parker let us know what they wanted to do I had Kent Wright, one of the techs from Shimano, switch out all of her components to XT (our top of the line group at the time). This is a little sketchy to do the night before the biggest race in the World, as cables stretch and brake pads seat, but he was a great mechanic and made sure everything was top notch.

“The next day she came out and did the deed, putting the hammer down for another Shimano victory. It’s important to note, that this was at a time when Suntour and Shimano had been neck-and-neck, and this type of victory was one of the first nails in the coffin of Suntour. Campy never really got serious in the MTB market, just like their foray into the BMX market in the ’80’s.”

 

In case you missed Part One of this series, head over to Durango Worlds.