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Greg Minnaar (born 13 November 1981) is a South African World Champion mountain bike racer competing in downhill cycling. He currently competes in the Mountain Bike World Cup points series races, in the Elite Downhill event. Minnaar is currently the most prolific winner among male professional downhill mountain bike racers, with 22 world cup career victories.

Greg first started to get noticed as a world class downhill racer at the age of 17, in 1999, racing select World Cups (including one in his home country of South Africa, in Stellenbosch) on a local shop team, aboard a Kona Stab Dee-Lux bike with a Marzocchi Monster T. fork. In 2000, he was picked up as a junior by British international team Animal Orange, which used Orange frames (222 for downhill and Ms. Isle for dual slalom) and RockShoxsuspension. That year Greg podiumed at a World Cup points series race for the first time.

The following two years Greg rode for the Global Racing team, aboard similar bikes to the previous years', and on this team, at the age of 19, he won the overall World Cup points series in the Elite downhill. In 2003 Greg switched to the Haro Lee Dungarees team, which used Intense designed and built DHR frames for the dowhill and their own short travel Werx trailbike frames for Four Cross, with Manitou suspension. It was aboard this team that, at the age of 21, Greg became World Champion of downhill.

In 2004, Greg was offered a spot on Team G Cross Honda, which used one-off internally geared frames made by Honda, with a Showa suspension. He accepted and stayed for four years, winning his second World Cup points series overall victory in 2005. The 2007 season ended on a bittersweet note with a dislocated and fractured shoulder early in his winning World Championship final run although Greg got back on the bike to salvage a painful 4th-place finish. In addition, Greg was forced to switch teams yet again when Honda pulled out of the sport and he chose the Santa Cruz Syndicate team, alongside riders Steve Peat, Nathan Rennie, and Josh Bryceland for the 2008 season.

Minnaar was appointed as a member of the inaugural UCI Athletes' Commission in 2011.

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Steve Peat (born 17 June 1974 in Chapeltown, South Yorkshire), nicknamed "Sheffield Steel" or more commonly just "Peaty", is a professional downhill mountain biker who was born and lives in Chapeltown, Sheffield, England. Prior to his career as a professional mountain biker Peat was employed as a plumber by James Lamb. He is married to Adele Croxon and has two sons, Jake and George Peat.

Peat began his career with little success riding for the Saracen team alongside Rob Warner, before moving in the mid 1990s to Team MBUK. He rode for GT Bicycles in the late 1990s and for the Orange team between 2002 and 2005, winning the Fort William downhill world cup round in 2005. He then joined the Santa Cruz Syndicate team for the 2006 season, which saw him finish 1st overall. He continues to race for Santa Cruz Syndicate.

As last man down the hill, Peat won[1] the La Bresse downhill world cup round 2 on 10 May 2009 with a time of 02:07.14 knocking Sam Hill out of the hot seat for his 16th world cup round win, tying at the top of the all-time leader-board with Nicolas Vouilloz. Just one week later on 17 May 2009, at the third round of the UCI World Cup in Vallnord, Peat won again[2] (besting compatriot Gee Atherton by just 0.02 seconds) making him the most successful male downhill mountain bike racer ever by number of wins at the time. This record has since been beaten Peat's South African teammate, Greg Minnaar.

Other successes include placing second in the Mountain Bike World Championships in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008. On 6 September 2009, Peat won the World Championships in Canberra for the first time in his career, with a winning time of 2:30.33, just 0.05 seconds ahead of his Santa Cruz team mate Greg Minnaar. He was crowned World Cup champion in 2002, 2004 and 2006. He has also won the Lisboa Downhill, held in Lisbon, Portugal, eight times.

Aside from his professional riding career, Peat has other involvements with the sport, including contributing to the design and manufacture of specialist riding clothing made by Royal Racing of which he is part owner.[3] Peat also has involvements with young cyclist academies, and is a proponent of youth involvement in the sport.

Following his recent world champ status he has released his own game 'Steve Peat - Downhill Mountain Biking' for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Steve Peat

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Cédric Gracia (born 23 March 1978 in Pau, France) is a French mountain biker, who now lives in Andorra with his team manager’s wife.

Career

He started his career as an athlete at 6 years old as a BMX rider and then a freestyle ski pro. Cedric Gracia, years later, became a mountain bike rider. He entered the professional mountain biking scene in 2001, then part of the Volvo/Cannondale team.

He races in downhill and four-cross (4X) on the UCI World circuit. Gracia rode for the Rainer-Wurz Siemens Cannondale team between 1999 and 2005, before joining the Commencal team in 2006. In 2003 Cedric won the Red Bull Rampage, a big-mountain freeride competition in Utah.

In 2008 he took part as a guest editor for the 20th anniversary issue of Mountain Biking UK (MBUK) magazine. In 2008, he also participated in the new Red Bull Rampage: Evolution. In addition, he recently won the Crankworx 4X competition. He also recently won the Urban Race in Brazil, Paris, Chile.[1]

In 2010 Gracia started his own team, the CG Racing Brigade. During 2010 he was the only rider on the team but in 2011 Marcelo Guttierez, the Colombian National Champion, was added to the ranks. They are two of very few riders outside the Santa Cruz Syndicate to be using the carbon V-10 downhill bike during the 2011 season.

In 2012 Gracia had a major crash during practice at the Val Di Sole (Italy) race of the World Cup, and “almost died twice” in the days following.[1]

In 2013, at the Vallnord race of the World Cup, Gracia announced his retirement from World Cup downhill racing to focus on “movie parts with big jumps” and Enduro racing.[2]

Greg Herbold at Interbike 2007

Greg HerboldMedal recordRepresenting  United StatesMen's mountain bike racingWorld Championships1990 DurangoDownhill

Greg "H-Ball" Herbold is an American mountain bike racer. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1996.

Greg Herbold won the first dual slalom race at Mammoth Mountain in 1987. A year later, "Over 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 a time of 2:28... Herbold, on that fine line between finesse and out-of-control, also won the dual slalom event."[1]

Herbold won the first UCI DH -DownHill- World Downhill Championship in Durango, Colorado in 1990. 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 the cycling industry, at RockShox and later SRAM.

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John Tomac (born November 3, 1967, in Owosso, Michigan) is an American retired professional cyclist who competed in multiple disciplines in road racing and mountain biking during a successful senior career that spanned twenty years. He is regarded as a mountain biking icon and was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1991. He is a true all-rounder, having won major national and international titles in four disciplines.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Kovarik (born 1 March 1978, Dandenong, Victoria, Australia), is an Australian professional racing cyclist specialising in downhill mountain biking and four cross mountain bike racing. He is a multiple Australian national champion and multiple World Cup winner.

External linksCycling career

Kovarik started competitive cycling when he was 17 years old and has been a member of the Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense Cycle's MTB Race team [1] since its creation in 2008. Kovarik was joined by fellow Intense rider Finland's Matti Lehikoinen for the 2010 race season.

In 2004, Kovarik shattered his ankle, broke the tibia on the same leg and spent 4½ months with a metal cage around his leg, leading to 7 months off the bike and missing the 2004 World Cup/Championship season. At the time, doctors had said that he may never ride again, however, he went on to place 5th in the World Championships in New Zealand in 2005.

In 2008 Kovarik married team mate and fellow downhill mountain Bike rider, Canadian Claire Buchar.

Chris won the Australian National Downhill Championships in January 2010 at the SRAM Corporation Australian Mountain Bike Championships in Adelaide.[2]

Kovarik's career highlights include

2006 - 1st World Cup : Mont Saint Anne [3]

2005 - 5th World Championships : New Zealand [4]

2002 - 1st World Cup : Fort William (won by 14 secs)

2002 - Australian National Champ

2001 - Australian National Champ

2000 - Australian National Champ

Nicolas Vouilloz (born 8 February 1976 in Nice, France) is a French former professional mountain biker and rally driver.

He won the Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships ten times, starting as a junior in 1992 and finishing his career with the his 10th victory in 2002, only placing lower in 2000 finishing 8th. He also won sixteen World cup Downhill races.

In 2000, Vouilloz started rallying in local and then national rally series. He debuted in the World Rally Championship at the 2001 Monte Carlo Rally. His best result in the WRC is ninth place at the 2004 Wales Rally GB, driving a Peugeot 206 WRC for the Bozian Racing team. Being a Peugeot protégé and development driver, Peugeot Sport paired Vouilloz with experienced codriver Denis Giraudet (winner of the 1994 WRC title with countryman Didier Auriol).

Following Peugeot's decision to pull out of the WRC, Vouilloz competed on a full-time basis in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge from 2007 to 2009. He was runner-up in 2007 with three wins. In 2008, he won the championship in a Peugeot 207 S2000, ahead of Belgian teammate Freddy Loix, with one win, six second-place finishes and top 5 finishes in each race.[1] In 2009he finished fourth with the same car, collecting three podiums but no wins.

After several years absence from the mountain biking scene, Vouilloz returned to race professionally in 2007 at the fourth round of the World Cup in Champery, Switzerland. He races for Lapierre Ultimate Cycles and is currently involved in the Enduro World Series.[2]

wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rob Warner (born 1970) is a retired professional downhill mountain biker born in Reading, England.

Before turning professional in 1993 Warner worked for 6 months at the Rover plant in Oxford on a production line building the Rover 800 series car.[citation needed] After riding for Saracen with teammate Steve Peat and then MBUK, he signed for the Giant Bicycles Downhill Team, and remained with them until the end of 2016.

He has joined Commencal Bikes for 2017 according to his Instagram

In 1996 he became the first ever British rider to win a round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup taking a historic win at Kaprun in Austria. According to Warner, in a video streamed to Pinkbike on 2 June 2014 titled The Lost Rob Warner Story, he actually won the Kaprun World Cup with an STI he picked up in Les Gets a week before. He is possibly the only mountain biker in history to win a World Cup with an infection such as this.

He became the UK National Champion in 1997, 1998 and finally in 2001. He had a huge link with Mountain Biking UK along with Martyn Ashton et al.

Rob Warner also appeared on an edition of You Bet! where he raced a rally car. despite failing to beat the car he did get to meet Jet from Gladiators who was hosting the show.

Aside from competition, Warner has turned his hand to television, presenting the Red Bull 2007 X Fighters Freestyle Motocross events with Ed Leigh.

For the last two seasons he has also presented commentary on World Cup and World Championship downhill rounds with Claudio Caluori and the World Cup Cross Country (XCC & XCO) with Dutch 1996 Olympic Champion, Bart Brentjens.

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Matti Lehikoinen (born 19 April 1984) is Finland's leading downhill cyclist.[1] His previous achievements include 2001 junior European championship from Italy's Livigno and top-ten placings in the downhill World Cup during 2002-2004. After having ridden a few years in Team Arai/Global Racing, he joined Team Honda G Cross in 2005.

His team mates included South Africa's Greg Minnaar who had been Lehikoinen's team mate since 2001. During the 2006 season Lehikoinen made Finnish cycling history as being the first Finnish mountain biker to win a Mountain Bike World Cup event. The event took place in Balneario Cambrio in Brazil. Lehikoinen placed 6th in the overall rankings of the 2006 Downhill World Cup.

Lehikoinen also won the most difficult track of the 2007 World Cup in Champéry and placed 2nd overall in the 2007 Downhill World Cup. After the season Matti signed a deal with MS-Intense Racing, to become the leading rider of the team replacing Chris Kovarik. Soon after that he suffered a serious crash while training and fractured several vertebrae.[2]

By season 2008 he is fully recovered and placed 9th in the World Cup race in Vallnord, Andorra.[3]

He recently crashed at the sixth World Cup race in Canberra, Australia. In this terrible crash, he broke both of his wrists and resulted in some very complicated fractures.[4] A 6 hours operation was followed and a total of 12 screws, 3 metal plates, 3 pins were placed. Matti rehabilitated at the Red Bull training center in Austria and said to have 50% of his wrists movement back.

Matti has now fully recovered and was offered a deal from Evil Bikes for the 2009 WC downhill season.

During a World Cup Finals in Bromont, the 7th race of the season, Lehikoinen crashed on the sequence of drops resulting in a fractured collarbone and pelvis. He aims to be back for the final World Cup event of 2009, Schladming, but will more than likely have to pull out of the World Championships in Canberra.

Following a full recovery from his injuries, for the 2010 season Matti has signed a deal with ex-team mate current team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense Cycles Chris Kovarik.[5] He was placed in 5th position in a Mega Avalanche downhill event. In this new test of his riding skills he was awarded a funded place in the next event of this kind.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sam Hill (born 21 July 1985 in Viveash, Western Australia), is an Australian professional downhill mountain biker. He was two time consecutive UCI World Downhill Champion during years 2006–2007 for Iron Horse racing team.[1] He won the 2010 world championships in Mont Saint Anne, riding for the Monster Energy Specialized team on a Specialized Demo 8 II.[2] He also won the 2007 and 2009 UCI Elite Men's Downhill World Cup (Overall).[3] In December 2012 it was announced that Hill had signed for the Chain Reaction Cycles/Nukeproof team. As of 2016, Hill has switched to racing enduro and won the 2017 Enduro World Series overall title. In the same year he raced the Downhill World Championships in Cairns, Australia on his enduro bike where he finished sixth.

Early riding career[edit]

In 2001, aged 16 years old, Sam Hill first came into the international mountain bike racing scene, attending his first overseas race travelling Canada and the US. He came third at the Vail World Championships in the Under 19 (Junior) Downhill event.

In 2002 he won the Under 19 Australian Championships. The same year he was crowned Junior Downhill World Champion at the World Championships in Kaprun, Austria.

In 2003, aged just 18, Hill won both the Australian and Oceania Downhill Championships in the Elite category. He then went on to successfully defend his Junior World Champion title in Lugano, Switzerland.[4]

He starred in the 2010 mountain bike movie Follow Me.

Riding style

Sam Hill is known for his skill in riding steep, technical courses as opposed to flatter courses that require pedaling. He has regularly won on one of the steeper, more technical tracks on the World Cup Circuit, Schladming. His famous run in Champery (2007) is also testament to his remarkably high skill level on technical courses. Sam achieved a 2nd-place finish in Rd. 3 of the 2016 Enduro World Series in Ireland on a course that required significant pedaling strength and technical ability.

Notable races

2003 Downhill World Championships, Lugano, Switzerland At the time Sam was only 18 years of age and still in the junior class (Under 19). He went into this race as the favourite to win the junior title. The track was also perfect for Sam's style, steep and technical. Eric Carter, the mtb legend saw Sam riding for the first time at this race and said of him, "He went through a section so fast, and it was so rocky and muddy and loose, that I couldn't understand... how he made his bike do what it did". During his race run he had a crash but still managed to walk away with the junior title, but somewhat surprisingly he came third out of all the times on the day. If he had stayed on he would have surely beaten Greg Minaar for the fastest time and the Senior Men's World Title at the age of 18.

2007 World Cup round 2, Champéry, Switzerland After placing fifth at round one in Vigo, Spain, all eyes were glued on Sam Hill in round two. The extremely steep and technical track seemed almost tailor made for the young Australian. All seemed to be going well for Hill when he qualified in first place early on race day, besting the second place qualifier by over 14 seconds![5] Hill was looking confident for Finals. However, with approximately 30 riders left to set off, on arguably the most dangerous course the world cup series has seen in many years, the skies opened up. It had rained every day at this time the whole weekend, but not this hard. Riders who qualified in the top ten, were seen finishing in the late forties, early fifties. When last man to down the track, Hill, set off, no one could believe their eyes. The World Champion at the time was ripping down the track faster than top riders were riding it in the bone dry, perfect conditions. Hill's split time was faster than second place (Steve Peat, who raced in the dry), but a fall later in his run meant the Aussie ended up in a very respectable third position, just 1.63sec off first place rider Matti Lehikoinen, who also completed his final run in the dry. Hill's run will go down in history as one of the greatest runs in the wet, if not one of the greatest ever. Dan Atherton later quoted "He showed us all that it ain't over, 'till its truly over".[6] Further, eventual winner Matti Lehikoinen stated after the race "I played the tactics (referring to a 20-second pause in his practice run, ensuring a lower qualifying position to avoid any unfavourable weather changes), but Sam is the winner of the day. No questions". Steve Peat said "Sam is the King – give him the crown." Despite his remarkable and certainly unmatched talent for riding in unfavorable conditions, Sam admits that he rarely rides in the rain. In an interview with Steve Jones of Dirt Magazine featured in the film 'Earthed 5: The Law of Fives', when asked if it rained that hard in Australia and if he was used to riding in such conditions Sam replied "I don't even see a raindrop when I'm in Australia". Jones then asked "So you never ride in the rain?" Hill's reply was simply, "My bike gets muddy".

2008 Downhill World Championships, Val di Sole, Italy Sam Hill came into this race the reigning world champion. With four riders left on the hill Sam Hill started his final run. At the split he was five seconds up and no one could believe how fast he was going, even the commentator, Rob Warner, a former world level racer. Rob Warner yelled "Look how fast he's going!", "It looks like the film has been speeded up!". Sam was estimated 10 seconds up when he hit the final left hand turn at the bottom of the track. He pulled one of his classic drift turns around the corner but as he straightened up on exit his bike suddenly washed out from under him. He got straight back on his bike but it had cost him his lead and he finished 0.5 of a second behind eventual second place Steve Peat.[7]

2010 Downhill World Championships, Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael "Mick" Hannah (born 21 November 1983 in Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia) is a professional downhill mountain biker. He is the understudy of Roslin Kummin and is sponsored by Urata. Sometimes he likes to go spearfishing and camping, but most of his time is spent to riding/training.[citation needed]

He is the older brother of female downhill mountain biker Tracey Hannah.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michal Prokop (born 1 April 1981 in Prague) is a Czech professional BMX and fourcross rider.[1] Started his sporting career at the age of five, Prokop has claimed two World Cup circuit gold medals, and three World Championship jerseys (2003, 2004, and 2011) in the men's elite category, emerging him as one of the most successful fourcross riders in the sport's brief history.[2]

In BMX racing, Prokop has been named an eight-time Czech champion, and collected three gold medals to his career resume at the European Championships. Moreover, he mounted numerous top-three finishes at the UCI BMX World Championships, including his men's cruiser bronze medal in 2002. Prokop also represented his nation Czech Republic at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and more recently, earned his only prestigious title in the men's elite category at the 2012 Red Bull Pump Riders tournament in his home turf Prague.[3] Because of his ample successes in both BMX and fourcross racing, Prokop has been named the "King of the Czech Cycling" by the nation's governing sport union in 2006.[4] Since he turned himself professional in 1995, Prokop currently races for the Specialized BMX and Fourcross Racing Team.[5]

Prokop qualified for the Czech squad, as the nation's sole male rider, in men's BMX cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing by receiving an automatic berth from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) based on his top-ten performance from the BMX World Rankings.[6] After he grabbed a twentieth seed on the morning prelims with a time of 36.689, Prokop scored a total of 18 placing points to take the sixth spot in his quarterfinal heat, thus eliminating him from the tournament.

Jason McRoy (26 November 1971 – 24 August 1995) was an English professional mountain bike racer. McRoy was the first British rider to join an American professional mountain bike team – Specialized/2 Calorie Quest – and was a UK National downhill champion.

ReferencesCycling career

Despite being born with a hole in his heart, and enduring a childhood beset by illness,[1] McRoy developed an early love of cycling. Following childhood success in BMX racing – curtailed by a serious injury to his knee, and a consequent period off his bike to recuperate – McRoy first tried downhill mountain bike racing at age 17.[1] In his first race, despite still being registered as a Junior, his time was sufficiently quick for him to take third place overall.[1] McRoy rose to international prominence after taking second place in the prestigious Mammoth Kamikaze race in 1993,[2] the first year that the event was held to the 'Eliminator' format. It was following this success that Specialized USA signed him for the 1994 season.

Death and legacy

He was killed in a motorcycle accident on the A628 Woodhead Pass between Manchester and Sheffield, England. There is currently a memorial up on this road where flowers and banners have been placed.

In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.[3]

Results[edit]

2nd Reebok Eliminator (1993)

Great Britain national downhill champion (1993)

Philippe Perakis was a pioneer in the use of protection on mountain biking. Some people looked like an astronaut. Born March 30, 1966 (52 years) Occupation Mountain Cyclist Nationality Switzerland Philippe Perakis on Commons Philippe Perakis (born March 30, 1966 in Switzerland) is a Swiss former professional cyclist. He was a pioneer in the use of advanced protection equipment when riding a mountain bike and contributed to the widespread use of upper body protection in other speed sports such as downhill skiing. In the early 1990s, Perakis was strongly exposed in the international mountain bike press, and one of the most profiles and popular mountain bikers. He became known for the use of extreme protective suits with a particularly exciting appearance (commonly called "armor") and full-backed bicycles with futuristic designs, and was often referred to as the "astronaut". In this way, through his professional career, he contributed to making bicycle and protection innovations popular and commercially widespread. Perakis was the first European athlete to win the traditionally rich and extreme underground "Mammoth Kamikaze" in the United States, where athletes get up at speeds of over 110 km / h. During another competition, the 1990 World Cup, in a run called the Purgerator, Perakis finished second in the qualification, in which he drove out and broke his arm. Another rider had two days earlier fallen and had a shortage of both his neck and his arm. Perakis had run so spectacularly that Greg Herbold, who won the competition and became world champion in downhill cycling for 1990, stated "The way he was riding scared me half to death." [1] It was in 1992 when the mountain bike sport was still at the forefront that Perakis on its own initiative started using protective gear from the motorcycle industry. His favorite was the armor of Italian Dainese, a world-leading Italian group in protective clothing for motorsport. Shortly after, Dainese established a dedicated department dedicated to mountain biking and other sports. [2] It was only after this that Dainese had taken advantage of the alpine market and that the use of Alpine backbones became common, including such as the alpinist Aksel Lund Svindal, who was abandoned by the bad fall in Beaver Creek in 2007. [3] After the pro career, Perakis worked as Dainese's Sponsorship and Marketing Manager. He then broke up as a consultant in branding and marketing.

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Shaun Palmer (born November 14, 1968) is an American professional snowboarder, skier, mountain biker, and motocross rider. "Palm Daddy" is known as one of the forefathers of extreme sports.

In 1995, Palmer took up the sport of mountain biking, spending time around some of the sport's foremost authorities. Just one year later, Shaun began competing in the professional mountain biking circuit. Palmer shocked the mountain biking world by proving to be a more than worthy competitor. Shaun placed seventh in downhill at the second 1996 World Cup event of the year, before finishing second in downhill at the 1996 UCI World Championships, missing the top spot by just .15 seconds. Shaun threw his goggles down in frustration after finishing as he rolled through the finish area, showing his determination to obtain nothing but first[4] The event drained Palmer, however he was quick to warn the 1996 champion Nicolas Vouilloz of France in a post race interview that after he gained some more fitness Shaun would soon be beating Vouilloz in the races. In the same interview Shaun was quick and humble to compliment Nicolas as the best rider in the world based on his record of wins.

By the end of the biking season, Palmer was number five in the World Cup rankings and seventh in the NORBA National Championship Series. Palmer's debut year landed him a $300,000 annual contract with Mountain Dew Specialized Bicycles team, making Palmer the highest-paid mountain biker in the world.

In the 1999 Mountain biking season, Palmer won the NORBA downhill championship in the dual slalom category.

Christian Taillefer, born August 29, 1970, is a cyclist, pioneer in the downhill mountain bike, also known for his snow speed records.

Summary

Christian Taillefer started cycling with BMX, then started mountain biking with cross-country, before becoming one of the European pioneers of the descent 1 . He gradually abandoned the cross-country, and became European downhill champion in 1991 at La Bourboule, before being a Bronze medalist the following year at the world championships in Bromont (Canada) 2 .

In 1994, following a bet lost during a race between a bike and a snowboard on a ski slope, he sets out in record speed attempts on snow: the first record is set at 147 km / h with a series bike. Subsequently, he develops more efficient bikes, sometimes with fairly traditional techniques: in the absence of a wind tunnel, he fixed the bike on the roof of his brother's car on the highway 3 . A competition is then set up between him and Eric Barone , each successively beating the records of the other. Christian Taillefer reached 178 km / h in 1995 on a prototype, then reached 212.139 km / h on a prototype Peugeot profiled March 26, 1998 in Vars .

In the 2000s, he built his own bike brand: Taillefer Bicycles , whose downhill bikes have good results with the drivers of Team Maxxis, Estelle Vuillemin ...

His brother Fabrice was also an ATV rider.

After stopping his bike brand, he helped found Trotrx , a brand of off-road scooters.

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Jake Watson (December 5, 1973 – March 12, 1999) was an American cyclist. He assisted in the development of the sport of downhill mountain biking, making contributions to industry marketing, bike design and riding techniques.

Known for his massive frame, Watson was given the nickname "Earthquake" early into his cycling, carrying the name to the top on podiums throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Watson lost his life during downhill practice for California's Keysville Classic as a result of injuries sustained in a crash. As a tribute to Watson's contributions, Marin Bikes released a frame series in 1999, entitled "Quake".