Tomac first participated in cycle racing at the age of seven. He began to compete in BMX racing events in and around Michigan in 1975 and continued competing in this discipline into his teenage years racing against Michigan BMX legends Tony Carnes, Mike Chapman, and Tim Root. In 1984, at the age of sixteen, Tomac won the National Cruiser Class title with the factory Mongoose team. He turned professional in 1985 and spent his last year of BMX competition contesting events as a privateer.
Mountain biking
In 1986, Tomac made two significant decisions: he relocated to Southern California, and left BMX competition in favour of mountain bike racing. He continued to ride for Mongoose. By the autumn of that year, he had won his first two major mountain bike events: the Ross Fat Tire Stage Race in Massachusetts and the Supercross Mountain Bike Exhibition race held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mongoose marketed a Tomac Signature Edition model in 1987, which reflected his increasing profile within mountain biking culture. Tomac achieved a few more notable wins during that year, including a second win in the Fat Tire Stage Race and three National XC Series rounds.
In 1987, John Tomac appeared in one of the first instructional mountain biking videos ever produced, entitled The Great Mountain Biking Video[5] produced by New & Unique Videos of San Diego, California.
John Tomac Appears in "The Great Mountain Biking Video" 1987, Big Bear Lakes, California - Photo by Patty MooneyNed Overend, John Tomac and Tinker Juarez Compete in the Cindy Whitehead Desert Classic, Palm Springs, California, 1989 - Photo by Patty Mooney
1988 brought Tomac national title-winning success. By achieving the highest combined points total from the National Off-Road Bicycle Association's (NORBA) Cross-country, Downhill and Dual Slalom championships, Tomac won the overall title of NORBA World Champion. He was ranked in first place in the Cross-country and Dual Slalom disciplines. The "World" status was a misnomer, however, as the NORBA championships were held only in the United States. The first true World Championships for XC and DH, sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, were held in Durango, Colorado, in 1990 where John placed 4th in the downhill. John is well remembered for riding road style drop bars on his Yeti mountain bike at this race which was a noticeable deviation from the other riders. This equipment decision was influenced by his recent experience riding for the 7-11 road cycling team in Europe where he was under contract.[6] Tomac's results and rapid rise to prominence earned recognition from U.S. cycling magazineVelo News, which voted him the world's best all-round rider of 1988.[7]
Tomac retained his overall NORBA title in 1989, and also won the NORBA DH Championship for the first time. In a season in which he competed at the highest level on both sides of the Atlantic, he added the German and European XC titles to his collection. In 1990, he joined Yeti Cycles' factory MTB team and the 7-11 road team, embarking on a busy program of events in Europe and the U.S. To facilitate his road racing career, Tomac based himself in Belgium, and regularly traveled between the two continents to compete in major road and mountain events. Although he failed to win any of the three individual NORBA series, he won the overall NORBA title for the third year in succession.
1991 saw a change of teams: from Yeti to Raleigh and from 7-11 to Motorola. A stronger mountain bike season culminated in UCI World Championship success in Ciocco, Italy, with Gold in XC and Silver in DH. In addition to that, Tomac won two events on his way to the UCI XC World Cup title, and added a second NORBA DH title to his 1989 win. The following year, he finished in fifth place at the DH World Championship held in Bromont, Canada, and had to settle for second place behind Switzerland's Thomas Frischknecht in the XC World Cup rankings (though there were two event wins again). An accident in which Tomac struck an errant spectator in the final event at Mount Snow, Vermont, prevented him from outscoring his rival and retaining the title.
In 1993, Tomac was the runner-up to Germany's Jürgen Beneke in the inaugural UCI Downhill World Cup and lost out to Frischknecht again in the XC rankings.[8] This was to be the last season in which Tomac would finish in the top three in the World Cup, but he continued to achieve notable results in the World Championships. In 1997, five years after his last World Championship medal, he finished second in the downhill event at Château-d'Oex in Switzerland.
Between 1994 and 1997, Tomac would win three more NORBA titles – two in DH and one in XC – as well as some notable individual events such as the Sea Otter Classic and Cactus Cup. He officially announced his retirement from racing at the Sea Otter Classic in 2000, but would later make an occasional return to competition. In 2004, at the age of 37, he won the famous Kamikaze Downhill held at Mammoth Mountain, California.[9] Then, for good measure, he returned in 2005 and won it again.[10]
Major MTB results by year
1988
NORBA Overall Champion NORBA National XC Champion NORBA National Dual Slalom Champion
1989
NORBA Overall Champion NORBA National Dual Slalom Champion German XC Champion European XC Champion
1990
NORBA Overall Champion
1991
Gold medal - XC World Championship Silver medal - DH World Championship XC World Cup champion NORBA National DH Champion
1992
Second place in XC World Cup
1993
Second place in XC World Cup Second place in DH World Cup
1994
NORBA National DH Champion Cactus Cup winner Sea Otter Stage winner
1996
NORBA National XC Champion
1997
Silver medal - DH World Championship
2004
Mammoth Kamikaze winner
2005
Mammoth Kamikaze winner
Road racing
Tomac racing for Motorola in 1991
From 1988 to 1991, Tomac dovetailed professional programs in both mountain biking and road racing. He was the 1988 USCF National Criterium Champion and was part of the winning team in the USCF National Team Time Trial Championship in 1989. Tomac spent much of 1990 competing in European events with the Motorola team. Although he failed to win any major road titles in a season in which he entered more than 100 road and mountain events, his schedule included the Tour of Flanders, the Giro d'Italia and Paris–Roubaix.[11] Tomac ended his participation in pro-level road racing at the close of the 1991 season, choosing instead to focus on his mountain biking career.
Major road results by year
1988
USCF National Criterium Champion
1989
USCF National Team Time Trial Champion
1991
2nd, Thrift Drug Classic
Team ownership
2008 Tomac DH bike. Doug Bradbury sitting in the upper left corner.
In January 1998, John Tomac entered into a business partnership with Manitou founder and suspension engineer Doug Bradbury, whom Tomac had known since the 1980s. Together, they founded Tomac Bicycles, and launched a range of three full suspension bikes later that year.[12] Tomac spent the 1998 season competing on his new prototype design in DH events.
The brand name was later acquired by American Bicycle Group, which in turn sold it to Joel Smith, formerly a brand manager at Answer Products, in June 2006. He relocated the company to Nebraska and set in place plans to relaunch the Tomac brand with a new model range in 2007.[13] Tomac remains actively involved in the company and the design of its products.[14]
Family
Tomac's son, Eli Tomac is a professional motocross racer competing in the AMA motocross and supercross national championships riding for the Yamaha racing team. Eli Tomac is noted for being the first true rookie pro ever to win his professional motocross debut at the Hangtown raceway on May 23, 2010, winning the 2012 West Region, the 2013 250cc and 2017, 2018, 2019 & 2022 450cc Motocross National Championship along with the 2020 450cc and 2022 450cc Supercross Championship,.[15]
Edmund ("Ned") Overend is an American former professional cross-country mountain bike racer. He is a six-time NORBA cross-country mountain bike national champion who became the first-ever cross-country world champion by winning the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in 1990. Overend was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2001.
Downhill mountain biking (DH) is a style of mountain biking practiced on steep, rough terrain that often features jumps, drops, rock gardens and other obstacles. Jumps can be up to and including 12 meters, and drops can be greater than 3 meters.
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.
Mountain bike racing is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Durango, Colorado. The first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series took place in 1988. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North America—and was sponsored by Grundig. Cross-country racing was the only World Cup sport at this time. In 1993, a six-event downhill World Cup was introduced. In 1996, cross-country mountain biking events were added to the Olympic Games. In 2006, cross-country mountain biking events became part of the World Deaf Cycling Championships for the first time in San Francisco, USA.
Cheri Elliott is an American former champion female bicycle motocross (BMX) racer in the 1980s, and a champion Downhill and Slalom mountain bike racer in the 1990s and early 2000s. During her BMX career, she spent most of her racing career on the national circuit with the Skyway Recreation factory team. She had a relatively short BMX career, but she is a four-time national champion and four-time world champion, including three consecutive National Number One girl-racer titles for the American Bicycle Association (ABA) from 1983 through 1985. She also held the regional UBR Number one girl racer title in 1982. She was the first female racer inducted into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame in 1989, and the first female BMX racer inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2008.
David "Tinker" Juarez is an American former professional BMX and cross-country mountain bike racer. His prime competitive years in BMX were from 1978 to 1984 and in mountain bike racing 1986 to 2005. Since late 2005, he has competed as a Marathon mountain bike racer. In all three disciplines, he has won numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, Juarez finished third in the 2006 Race Across America Endurance bicycle race.
KHS Bicycles is a bicycle manufacturer founded in 1974 with main operations in the United States and Taiwan. Its bicycles are distributed in over 30 countries. Although KHS' main focus has been in mountain bikes, it has offerings in road bikes, folding bikes, tandem bikes, cruiser bikes, single speed bikes and BMX bikes. Some of its products have been favorably reviewed.
Leigh Donovan is an American former professional downhill mountain bike racer and current cycling ambassador and women's mountain bike clinic instructor.
Greg Minnaar is a South African World Champion mountain bike racer competing in downhill cycling. He has won four world championships, the second most amongst still active racers, and third all time behind Nicols Vouilloz's seven titles. He currently competes in the UCI Downhill MTB World Cup. Minnaar has the most men's world cup wins, with 23 career victories. He rides for the Santa Cruz Syndicate team.
Turner Suspension Bicycles, Inc. is an American bicycle frame manufacturer, based in Murrieta, California, specializing in full-suspension mountain bikes. Turner Bikes was founded in 1994 by David Turner, a former professional mountain bike rider who had ridden for the Marin and Mongoose teams. Turner had also worked with Horst Leitner at AMP Research whilst Horst developed the Horst Link suspension design.
Wade Bootes is an Australian professional "Mid/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) and Mountain Bike (MTB) racer whose prime competitive years are from 1995 to 2003 in BMX and 1999 to 2004 in MTB. He usually goes by the moniker "Bootsie" or "Bootsey". During his mountain bike career he also picked up the nickname "Thunder from Down Under". He was voted 2003 Australian Cyclist of the Year in BMX. While competing in the snow mountain bike event at the January 1999 ESPN Winter X Games in Colorado he suffered an attack of high altitude pulmonary edema, a potentially fatal condition. He was told by a physician to rest for two weeks. He suffered a minor separated shoulder during the dual slalom event of the first round of the World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia in early June 2001. He broke his right collar bone at the 2006 MTB World Championships in Rotorua, New Zealand during qualifying rounds on 23 August 2006. he stayed overnight at a Rotorua hospital.
Corine Stam-Dorland was a Dutch amateur "Old School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1981-1996. From 1996 to 2006 she was also an accomplished Mountain Bike (MTB) Cyclo-cross and Road Bike racer. Her nickname during her BMX career was "The Queen of BMX", largely for her nearly unbroken streak of a total of ten World Champions, several European Championships and an almost equal number of National championships from when she was eight years old until she was 21. She was to Holland and European BMX as a whole as Cheri Elliott was to American BMX. Indeed, her career was much longer than Elliott's garnering far more titles on the local, national and international level than her near contemporary American counterpart. Dorland would go on to a respected MTB cross country (XC) racing career. In that sub-discipline Dorland would capture three national titles in MTB and earn a spot on Holland's 2000 Sydney, Australia Olympic team. She also went on to fulfill a prediction that many had made for her in another area. Because of her stunning physical beauty, she was also a model in her adult years concurrent with her MTB career. She appeared in many racing related advertisements. As with Elliott in the United States, many a male BMXer was sad to see her retire from the world of BMX.
Dale Holmes is a Retired British professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1983 to 2009. He now lives in San Diego, California.
Bas de Bever is a Dutch former professional "Mid/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were 1985–1993.
Joseph Bradford is an American professional "New/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years are from 1999 to the present. His nickname is simply "Joey".
Bryn Atkinson is an Australian professional mountain bike racing cyclist from Townsville, QLD. He started mountain biking in 1996 and became a professional in 2002. Bryn's first introduction to the sport was through his local mountain bike club in Townsville- The Townsville Rockwheelers. Competing in several cross country type events, Bryn evolved with the sport and later found downhill. As a teenager, he moved north to Cairns, a popular location for downhill mountain biking, and host of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in 1996. Glen Jacobs was the course builder for that event and several other events on the World Cup, and mentored Bryn and several other downhillers in the area.
Liam Killeen, is a British professional mountain biker. He represented England in cross country racing at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 where he came 3rd, and became Commonwealth Champion in 2006. He has won the British Mountain Biking National Champion over five consecutive years; 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. He competed for Great Britain at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen as the sole male cross-country rider for the British team for the London Games in 2012.
Tara Janelle Llanes is a Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and a wheelchair basketball player whose prime competitive years were from 1990-1993. She became a champion Mountain Bike (MTB) racer. She later played wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball for Canada. Her surname is pronounced "Yaw-ness" but for obvious reasons it is often mispronounced "lanes" as in the type of division of a pathway.
Aaron Holmes Gwin is an American professional downhill mountain biker from Morongo Valley, California. He is a five-time World Cup overall champion.
Eli Tomac is an American professional Motocross and Supercross racer competing in the AMA Supercross and Motocross championships; a two-time 450cc AMA Supercross Champion, a four-time 450cc AMA Pro Motocross Champion, a one-time 250cc AMA Supercross & AMA Motocross Champion. He is second all-time in 450cc AMA Supercross wins with 51, and third all-time in 450cc AMA Motocross wins with 32.
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