Mountain bike racing (shortened MTB or ATB racing ) is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Durango , Colorado . The first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series took place in 1988. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North America—and was sponsored by Grundig . Cross-country racing was the only World Cup sport at this time. In 1993, a six-event downhill World Cup was introduced. In 1996, cross-country mountain biking events were added to the Olympic Games . In 2006, cross-country mountain biking events became part of the World Deaf Cycling Championships for the first time in San Francisco, USA.
18-578: Greg "H-Ball" Herbold (Born December 11, 1962) is an American former professional mountain bike racer . He competed in many forms of cycling including cross-country racing and Mountain bike trials but, was most notable for his downhill mountain bike racing career. Herbold was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1996. Herbold was born in Denver, Colorado . He won the first dual slalom race at Mammoth Mountain in 1987. A year later, "Over
36-732: A cause of riders' specialisation. The main events in mountain bike racing are the cross-country event at the Summer Olympics and the World Championships and World Cup organized every year by the UCI at various venues around the World. There are also other notable events in some countries, like Crankworx , a week-long event in Whistler, British Columbia , Canada ; MTB Himalaya in India ; Chupacabras ,
54-792: A race in Juárez , Mexico ; The Nedbank Tour de Tuli in South Africa , Zimbabwe and Botswana , Cape Epic in South Africa ; Sea Otter Classic in the United States ; Mountain Mayhem in the United Kingdom ; La Ruta de los Conquistadores in Costa Rica and Red Bull Rampage Tour in Virgin, UT . The International Triathlon Union conducts an annual Cross Triathlon Championship race annually. Additionally,
72-958: A time of 2:28... Herbold, on that fine line between finesse and out-of-control, also won the dual slalom event." Herbold won the Downhill Class at the 1990 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Durango, Colorado . He won the NORBA National Downhill Championship in 1988, 1989, and 1993, and the North American Downhill Championship in 1991. He appears in the videotape "Battle At Durango: First-Ever World Mountain Bike Championships" produced by New & Unique Videos of San Diego and released in 1991. After retirement from racing, Herbold worked in
90-419: The 1896 Summer Olympics Only at the 1904 Summer Olympics Only at the 1908 Summer Olympics Past events Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics Last updated after the 2024 Summer Olympics The top of
108-582: The UCI , such as mountain bike orienteering that is governed by the IOF . Mountain bike racing is as old as the first appearance of the mountain bike itself, when the originators, calling themselves klunkers , descended with their heavily modified beach cruiser bikes as predecessors of modern mountain bikes from numerous mountains in California against a rudimentary time measurement. The famous Repack racing down-hill against
126-668: The XTERRA Triathlon is a private off-road series and concluding with a championship each year in Maui. Electric bicycle races include Enduro World Series 's EWS-E, Union Cycliste Internationale 's E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme 's E-Xbike World Cup. Cycling at the Summer Olympics Cycling has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since
144-507: The 1989 Labor Day weekend, September 2–4, around 1,500 mountain bike aficionados united under a blazing sun at Big Bear Lakes, CA, home of the NORBA National Championships... By Monday, the morning of the downhill race, many of the riders had gone, leaving the steep, technical 1,200-foot descent to the daredevils. Greg "Hair-ball" Herbold careened down the chute of deep ruts and shifting dust with hidden rocks to finish first with
162-551: The Olympic programme at the 1984 Summer Olympics . Women's track events were added in 1988 , and both types of events have been featured since then. The 2012 Summer Olympics were the first at which men and women competed in the same number of events in all cycling disciplines, including track cycling, which previously had more men's and fewer women's events than the 2008 programme. However, women have shorter distances for some events. Past events that occurred once or twice Only at
180-504: The birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics , at which a road race and five track events were held. Mountain bike racing entered the Olympic programme at the Atlanta Olympics , followed by BMX racing in 2008 and freestyle BMX in 2020 . Before the 2020 Summer Olympics, all events were speed races, but the 2020 programme featured BMX freestyle for the first time. Women's road events were introduced to
198-634: The cycling industry, at RockShox and later SRAM . This biographical article relating to American cycling is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Mountain bike racing In the United States , there are three USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Calendars: Endurance, Gravity and Ultra-Endurance. USA Cycling runs the USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships. There are mountain bike racing types that are not recognized by
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#1733092238677216-541: The first Olympic cyclist to win six gold medals, holds the unique distinction of having won gold across four different track disciplines; the Kilo , the team sprint (twice), match sprint and keirin (twice) disciplines. Three cyclists share the record for gold medals in the same event with three; Jason Kenny in team sprint, compatriot Ed Clancy in team pursuit, and American Kristin Armstrong in time trial . All three achieved
234-568: The lists for most successful (by gold medals won) and most decorated (by all medals won) are dominated by recently active track cyclists from Great Britain , who rose to prominence from the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, and then dominance from the Beijing 2008 Games, winning 22 gold medals in the velodrome between 2008 and 2020, as well as single golds in road racing, road time trial, BMX freestyle, BMX racing and mountain biking in that timeframe. This sharp rise
252-454: The mountain bike racing could take place on even more technical tracks making it more dissimilar to the cyclo-cross discipline. Mountain bike racing became an Olympic discipline in 1996 and a cross-country type mountain biking race has been held ever since its debut at the summer Olympic games in Atlanta. Given the enormous variation of terrain a mountain bike can navigate, a division took place as
270-506: The time near Fairfax, Marin County, CA took place in 1976. The oldest organised cross-country (XC) racing-like event, however, is believed to take place from Crested Butte to Aspen in Colorado in 1978. It took 10 years before the UCI recognised racing on mountain bikes as a regular cycling discipline in 1990. In the meantime, the phenomenon of mountain bike racing spread across the U.S.A. under
288-448: The title of most decorated female cyclist, with six medals, with Dutch legend Leontien van Moorsel (four golds, one silver and one bronze) and Australia sprint star Anna Meares (two gold, one silver and three bronze medals). Laura Kenny holds the unique distinction of winning the inaugural gold medals in three different events - women's team pursuit and women's omnium (both 2012) and women's madison (2020). Great Britain's Chris Hoy ,
306-455: The umbrella of NORBA . The most plausible, although still speculative reason, was an early resemblance of the racing courses for mountain bikes with the cyclo-cross discipline, with a major difference: the mountain bike racing track was significantly longer (a cyclo-cross course has 2.5–3.5 km versus 4+ km for a XC track) and free of artificial obstacles. With the rapid advancement of mountain bike gear, namely stronger brakes and suspension,
324-478: Was largely thanks to significant funding by UK Sport of British Cycling . The most successful Olympic cyclists of each sex are husband-and-wife couple Jason and Laura Kenny , with Jason winning seven golds and two silver medals and Laura five golds and one silver medal. Jason also holds the record of most decorated cyclist, with nine medals, and is the only cyclist to have successfully defended Olympic gold medals in three different cycling events. Laura Kenny shares
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