who insired you back in the day?

[rienster]

1. My dad
2. Greg Lemond
3. Gert-Jan Theunissen
4. Richard Virenque
5. Mike Kluge
6. Thomas Frischknecht
7. Bart Brentjens

First few that popped into my head.

 

[The Ken]

For me it wasn't MTBers, it was Steve McQueen in The Great Escape, Burt Reynolds in Hooper, the boys in E.T. and of course Eddie Kidd and Evel Knievel - despite all that skill and influence I'm still poor at jumping.

 

[Grannygrinder]

.

I was quite small as a kid(not much bigger now) so i reaaly liked Pedro Delgado.
Tiny little fella, but absolutely awesome
And Big Mig, I was much more a roadie BITD.
I started on BMX's, then a roadbike for commuting and then mountainbikes for fun

 

[rc300]

Tim Gould!

 

[mfh126]

1. My dad (bought his Raleigh USA Technium MTB in 1990 and I was hooked on the sport)
2. Tomac
3. Brian Lopes (back when he rode for Mongoose)

 

[velocitizen]

Tim Gould!

Tim for me as well.
I remember an interview with him where he said his hill-climbing power came from doing a paper round around Matlock as a young lad.
I've always thought back on that when riding a Peak District hill, especially Jacobs Ladder.

 

[matthew71]

hero,s

for me it,s sean yates,dont all spit on me ,but the brute strenght of the man was amazing.raced against him once the year after he retired from motorolla.he beat me by a minute over 10 miles but to see him in full flight was a pleasure

 

[clockworkgazz]

for me it was Caroline Alexander that inspired me- thought I might meet her out on the trails.

 

[samc]

for me it was Caroline Alexander that inspired me- thought I might meet her out on the trails.

Mmmm, I hear ya.

I got into biking because of my dad - he bought me a subscription to MBUK for my 14th, out of the blue (I had no interest in bikes before that); I read the first issue cover to cover about a thousand times, totally hooked. Every fact, every price, I hoovered it all up every issue.

Got a job to save up for my first proper bike - the mighty FALCON STEALTH!!. Yes it was rubbish and yes I destroyed it and every joint, bearing and movable piece became either cracked or mis-shapen beyond repair, but I learnt a lot about balance and singletrack!

 

[Lookback]

Tomac was certainly an influence for me, only surpassed by the late, great JMC.

I defy anyone not to watch "Dirt" and then not to go out and copy that guys riding style. Freakin awesome.

If you want to go down the XC line, apart from Tomac, David Baker and Tim Gould pretty much led the way for me.

Deb Murrell for the women as well. How coudl you not be inspired by seeing her go and win an XC race, and then ride the DH on that Formula 1 with about 0.5" of rear travel.

Aaaaahhh good days.