We had the privilege of riding, hanging out, and guiding John Tomac around the Eastern Sierra for a week during the summer of 1987. It was at the height of the Tomac vs. Overend MTB era and we kind of expected John to be a dick. Turned out he was nice, kind, and didn’t even laugh when we apologized for not being able to keep up on a ride. After watching this video it’s nice to see that not much has changed. Our favorite line:
The problem was the whole performance enhancing drug thing kind of bled over into cross country mountain biking and we [American XC racers] came off the radar in the 90s,” Tomac says. “And it wasn’t because we forgot how to ride mountain bikes in America. . .I don’t think the athletes in cross country mountain biking in the US ever bought into the whole doping program. They just didn’t do it.”
That’s the word kids. Thanks to Bell Helmets for letting Johnny T. tell this story himself.
[Link via VitalMTB]
