Today’s Tour de France ends in Villard-de-Lans. This ski resort hosted the first ever mountain bike world championships, in 1987. Here’s the first British MTB team. I created it with Peter Darke (holding bike).
I was a cub journalist on Bicycle Times and as nobody had created a national team (this was years before @BritishCycling got interested in MTBing) I pulled in sponsorship and formed it for the World Champs. Winner, though, was American Ned Overend.
We rented a chalet and had a blast. This is Jamie Carr on the resort’s defunct Bob-sleigh run.
As I was the co-manager of the team I picked myself to ride. I punctured on the downhill course and DNFed. Not that I had any chance of doing well.
There was a reunion in 2012. Here are some pix, including @Gary_Fisher dancing. flickr.com/photos/8049474…
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