THROWBACK THURSDAY: MOUNTAIN BIKE ACTION, JANUARY 1995

Our January 1995 issue featured Bernie Tusko on the cover and had our coverage of the 1994 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Vail, Colorado. That’s Rishi Grewal in the photo at bottom right, taken by Doug Berry.

Missy Giove was the only American to win one of the Senior Men’s or Senior Women’s race categories (also known as the Pro Men’s and Pro Women’s divisions), doing so in the Senior Women’s Downhill class. As we mentioned in our coverage of the event, Junior Women’s Downhill racer Anne-Caroline Chausson of France actually got a faster time than Missy Giove, but Anne-Caroline wasn’t old enough to race among the Senior Women yet. In the Junior Men’s class, France’s Nicolas Vouilloz was so fast that he would have placed second among the Senior Men Downhill racers if he had been old enough to be allowed  to race in that division.

Once they got old enough to race in the Elite ranks, Anne-Caroline and Nico Vouilloz would go on to set the records for the largest number of Downhill World Championship titles in their elite classes, and those records still stand today. ACC would win nine Elite Women’s Downhill World Championships before she retired from racing full time, and Nico Vouilloz would go on to win a total of seven Elite Men’s Downhill World Championship titles before leaving mountain bike racing while he was still in his mid-twenties to pursue a successful career as a professional rally car racer.

Tinker Juarez was the top American in the Senior Men’s XC race in the World Championships, finishing second behind Henrik Djernis of Denmark, who would win three such titles in the 1990s.. Eight of the top ten riders in the Senior Men’s XC race (now called the Elite Men’s XCO race) were from outside the United States.

Besides Tinker, Paul Willerton was the only other American who made the top ten in the Senior Men’s XC race that year. Current-day World Cup commentator Bart Brentjens of Holland  placed third that year.

Alison Sydor of Canada won the Women’s XC title, while America’s Susan DeMattei and Sara Ballantyne took second and third, respectively.

In the Junior Men’s XC race, Miguel Martinez of France took the win, while Cadel Evans took second.

Miguel Martinez would win the Elite Men’s XC title at the 2000 World Championship.

Cadel Evans would go on to win two overall World Cup XC series titles in cross-country mountain biking (in 1998 and ’99) before switching to road racing and going on to win the Tour de France in 2011.