Alexi Grewal

Last updated
Alexi Grewal
Personal information
Full nameAlexi Grewal
Born (1960-09-08) September 8, 1960 (age 63)
Aspen, Colorado, United States
Team information
Current teamRetired
DisciplineRoad
RoleRider
Professional teams
1985 Panasonic–Raleigh
1986 7-Eleven
1987 RMO–Cycles Méral–Mavic
1988Crest
1989–1993 Coors Light–ADR
Medal record
Men's road cycling
Representing Flag of the United States.svg United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1984 Los Angeles Individual road race

Alexi Singh Grewal (born September 8, 1960) is an American Olympic gold medalist and former professional road racing cyclist. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Grewal became the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in road cycling. [1] He has two brothers, Rishi and Ranjeet, who were also top American cyclists, especially in mountain bike racing. [2]

Contents

Biography

The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame gave the following description of his Los Angeles gold medal ride: "With an estimated crowd of 300,000 lining the 190.2-kilometer route, Grewal edged Canadian Steve Bauer to claim the gold medal in the men's road race, breaking away from the field with 20 kilometers remaining and opening up a 24-second lead after 11 of 12 laps and then being caught by Bauer with 10 kilometers left, setting up a dramatic final-lap showdown. This scene, replayed many times since, is one of the most emotional Olympic victories of the Modern Games." [3]

After winning Olympic gold, Grewal turned professional and signed with the Panasonic team and later with the 7-Eleven Cycling Team. According to teammate Bob Roll, Grewal was the captain of the 1986 7-Eleven team through the spring. [4] Sometime later in 1986, he was dropped by the team after spitting on a CBS camera man who got too close. [5] He raced for the United States-based Coors Light pro team from 1989 to 1993. He became well known in the cycling community as an extraordinarily talented, but emotionally volatile rider.

After retiring from professional cycling Grewal moved to Colorado with his family. Grewal began making hand-hewn and crafted furniture and architectural features out of native hardwoods after his cycling days were over. He lost part of his fingers in an accident involving a saw. [6] A bicycle frame manufacturer in Denver, Colorado, the Clark-Kent company, made a special road racing frame, the "AX-1", to Grewal's specifications. This steel frame featured an unusual bent seat tube with unorthodox frame angles.

In 2004, Grewal was elected to the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.

On April 3, 2008, VeloNews published an essay by Grewal on his personal use (and the overall prevalence) of doping in cycling [7] during his career, both in his amateur and professional days.

In 2009, and again 2013, Alexi unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Loveland, Colorado. [8]

On September 25, 2010, VeloNews announced that Grewal would be making a comeback at age 50, [9] targeting the Quiznos Pro Challenge in Colorado in 2011. However, he was not on the start list and did not complete this race. [10] He instead turned his focus to non-professional gravel and gran fondo rides, such as the Snowmass-Aspen Gran Fondo Italia, finishing fourth out of 125 riders in one race. [11]

Major results

1981
1st Mt. Evans Hill Climb (1:57:36)
2nd Overall Vuelta Ciclista de Chile
1982
1st Overall Cascade Cycling Classic
2nd Overall Vuelta Ciclista de Chile
1st Stages 7 & 8
1983
1st Stage 8a Tour de l'Avenir
1st Stage 6a GP Tell
1st Stage 8 Coors Classic
1st Stage 10 Red Zinger Classic
1984
1st Gold medal.svg Road race, Summer Olympics
1st Mt. Evans Hill Climb (1:47:51)
1st Stage 8 Tour of Texas
1985
5th Overall Étoile de Bessèges
1986
3rd Overall Tour de l'Avenir
1st Stage 12
1987
1st Overall Vulcan Tour
1st Prologue
1988
1st Overall Redlands Bicycle Classic
1st Stages 3 & 4 (TTT)
1st Overall Mammoth Classic
1st Stage 2
1989
3rd Road race, National Road Championships
1990
1st Mt. Evans Hill Climb (1:46:29 – former record)
1st Overall Casper Classic
1st Stage 2
1st Stage 4 Cascade Classic
1991
4th Overall Tour DuPont
1992
1st Overall Tour de Bisbee
1st Stage 1
1st Stage 10 Tour DuPont
1993
1st Nevada City Classic
1st Stage 5 Casper Classic

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Danielson</span> American road bicycle racer

Thomas Danielson is an American retired professional road racing cyclist who competed professionally between 2002 and 2015 for the Mercury Cycling Team (2002), the Saturn Cycling Team (2003), Fassa Bortolo (2004), Discovery Channel (2005–2007) and Cannondale–Garmin (2008–2015). He had been suspended twice for doping in his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Bettini</span> Italian cyclist

Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably one of the strongest of all times, he won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and in the 2006 and 2007 World Road Race Championships. He is nicknamed Il Grillo for his repeated sudden attacks and his sprinting style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jens Voigt</span> Professional road bicycle racer and cycling broadcaster

Jens Voigt is a German former professional road bicycle racer and, upon retirement, became a cycling sports broadcast commentator. During his cycling career, Voigt raced for several teams, the last one being UCI ProTeam Trek Factory Racing. Voigt wore the yellow jersey of the Tour de France twice, though he was never a contender for the overall title owing to the mountainous nature of the stages of the race being better suited to climbing specialists. His career achievements include winning the Critérium International a record-tying 5 times and a number of one-week stage races, as well as two Tour de France stage victories. In September 2014, he set a new hour record.

The 7-Eleven Cycling Team, later the Motorola Cycling Team, was a professional cycling team founded in the U.S. in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz, a former U.S. Olympic cyclist. The team lasted 16 years, under the sponsorship of 7-Eleven through 1990 and then Motorola from 1990 through 1996. From 1989 to 1996 it rode on Eddy Merckx bikes.

Roland Green is a retired Canadian mountain bike and road bicycle racer. Green was a member of the Canadian Olympic Mountain Bike Racing Team for the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia. He was a Commonwealth gold medalist at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, winning the MTB event on the same day as his birthday. Green dominated the world cup circuit of cross-country mountain biking from 2000 until 2003, becoming world champion in both 2001 and 2002. Roland also is the record holder of the Mount Doug Hill climb in his hometown of Victoria BC, Canada with a fast 4Min. 39sec which nobody has broken in 10 years. He was named VeloNews' Mountain Bike Man of the Year in 1999 and Canada's Male Cyclist of the Year in 2000. Green retired at the end of the 2005 racing season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyne Bessette</span> Canadian cyclist

Lyne Bessette is a politician and retired professional bicycle racer from Quebec, Canada. She was elected to represent the riding of Brome—Missisquoi in the 2019 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

The Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980–1988) was a stage race sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. Coors was the race's second sponsor; the first, Celestial Seasonings, named the race after its premium tea Red Zinger, which began in 1975. Over the years, the event became America's national tour, listed as the fourth largest race in the world after the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España. The race grew from 3 days of racing in its first years as the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic to 2 weeks in the later Coors Classic years. Race stages were held in Colorado in the early years, expanding first from Boulder and Denver back to the Keystone ski resort, later adding Estes Park, Vail, Aspen, and Grand Junction, before further expansion that included Wyoming, Nevada, California, and Hawaii. All but the last year the race concluded with a short circuit in North Boulder Park. On August 4, 2010, Colorado governor Bill Ritter and cycling legend Lance Armstrong announced that they would revive stage racing in Colorado with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. It was a seven-day race held in August 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Dunlap</span> American cyclist

Alison Dunlap is an American professional cyclist. She won the world cross-country mountain bike championship in 2001 and two Mountain Bike World Cup races. She also won the Redlands Bicycle Classic on the road in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cervélo</span> Canadian bicycle manufacturer

Cervélo Cycles is a Canadian manufacturer of racing and track bicycles. Cervélo uses CAD, computational fluid dynamics, and wind tunnel testing at a variety of facilities including the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center, in California, US, to aid its designs. Frame materials include carbon fibre. Cervélo currently makes 5 series of bikes: the C series and R series of road bikes, the latter featuring multi-shaped, "Squoval" frame tubes; the S series of road bikes and P series of triathlon/time trial bikes, both of which feature airfoil shaped down tubes; and the T series of track bikes. In professional competition, cyclists have ridden Cervélo bicycles to victory in all three of road cycling's grand tours: the Tour de France; the Giro d'Italia; and the Vuelta a España.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Gilbert</span> Belgian cyclist

Philippe Gilbert is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who is best known for winning the World Road Race Championships in 2012, and for being one of two riders, along with Davide Rebellin, to have won the three Ardennes classics – the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège – in a single season, which he accomplished in 2011. Gilbert also finished the 2011 season as the overall winner of the UCI World Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristin Armstrong</span> American cyclist

Kristin Armstrong Savola is a former professional road bicycle racer and three-time Olympic gold medalist, the winner of the women's individual time trial in 2008, 2012, and 2016. Before temporarily retiring to start a family in 2009, she rode for Cervélo TestTeam in women's elite professional events on the National Racing Calendar (NRC) and UCI Women's World Cup. She announced a return to competitive cycling beginning in the 2011 season, competing for Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 at the Redlands Classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jérôme Pineau</span> French cyclist

Jérôme Pineau is a French former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2015 for the Bouygues Télécom, Omega Pharma–Quick-Step and IAM Cycling squads. Born in Mont-Saint-Aignan, Pineau now works as the general manager for UCI ProSeries team B&B Hotels p/b KTM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gorazd Štangelj</span> Slovenian cyclist

Gorazd Štangelj is a Slovenian former professional road bicycle racer, who raced as a professional between 1997 and 2011. He currently works as a directeur sportif for UCI WorldTeam Team Bahrain Victorious.

Ron Hayman was one of the first Canadian cyclists to turn professional in the late 1970s, inspiring those following like fellow Canadian Alex Stieda. Hayman later became a Canadian cycling coach and entrepreneur, and was runner-up on the list of the 10 most important Canadian cyclists of the twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Gaimon</span> American racing cyclist

Phillip Gaimon is a former American professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2016. He is currently part of Jukebox Cycling, a multi-discipline team of six riders. He began his racing career while attending the University of Florida and competed in collegiate races as part of the University's Cycling Club. As a professional, Gaimon rode for Jelly Belly Cycling Team, Kenda–5-hour Energy, Bissell, Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies and Cannondale–Drapac. A noted blogger, Gaimon has written for VeloNews; he formerly posted at Bicycling, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabio Felline</span> Italian road bicycle racer

Fabio Felline is an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Lidl–Trek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mara Abbott</span> US professional womens bicycle racer (born 1985)

Mara Katherine Abbott is a US former professional women's bicycle racer. In 2010, Abbott became the first US cyclist ever to win the Giro d'Italia Femminile, one of the Grand Tours of women's bicycle racing. Abbott retired after the 2016 Olympic Games road race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flávia Oliveira</span> Brazilian cyclist

Flávia Maria de Oliveira Paparella is a Brazilian racing cyclist. She competed in the 2013 UCI Women's World Championship Road Race in Florence, as well as the 2014 UCI Women's Road World Championships in Ponferrada. She competed at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro where she finished in seventh place, the highest placed finish for a Brazilian rider in any Olympic cycling event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coryn Labecki</span> American cyclist

Coryn Labecki is an American racing cyclist of Filipino descent, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Team Visma–Lease a Bike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evelyn Stevens (cyclist)</span> American racing cyclist

Evelyn Lee Stevens is an American retired professional road cyclist.

References

  1. "Alexi Grewal Olympic Results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  2. Emily V. Driscoll. "Pedaling Glory", Little India Archived 2010-02-01 at the Wayback Machine (Sep. 15, 2008). Retrieved 5-22-2010
  3. U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame 2004 Inductees Archived 2010-05-19 at the Wayback Machine . Accessed 5.22.2010
  4. Roll, Bob (2003). Bobke II. Boulder, Colo.: VeloPress. ISBN   978-1-931382-28-1. OCLC   53097074.
  5. "SPORTS PEOPLE; 7-Eleven Drops Grewal". The New York Times. 1986-08-09. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2018-02-03. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  6. Hansen, Matt (2004-02-16). "Alexi Grewal Pedal Exclusive: From Cyclist to Addict, Philosopher and Back". Pedal Magazine. Archived from the original on 2006-11-07. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  7. Grewal, Alexi (2008-04-03). "An essay by 1984 Olympic gold medalist Alexi Grewal". VeloNews. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  8. "Alexi Grewal in 3-way race for Loveland mayor" . Retrieved 2018-09-26.
  9. Wilcockson, John (2010-09-24). "Inside Cycling with John Wilcockson: Alexi Grewal is deadly serious about comeback". VeloNews. Retrieved 2010-09-25.[ dead link ]
  10. Wilcockson, John (2014-08-06). "Grewal's big comeback adventure is over | VeloNews.com". VeloNews. Archived from the original on 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  11. "Alexi Grewal to ride Gran Fondo Italia Aspen-Snowmass – VeloNews.com". VeloNews. 2014-08-06. Archived from the original on 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2018-09-26.