Cycling career
Donovan was a champion mountain bike racer, competing from 1992 to 2001, the most decorated U.S. downhill and slalom rider. She retired from her professional career in 2001, with the world championships in Vail, Co. as her final pro career event (where she placed 3rd in the final downhill). Donovan went into sports marketing with Hansens energy drink (at the ground level of what would become Monster Energy). She then went on to own and operate a very successful clothing boutique in Temecula, Ca. from 2003 until she departed the retail fashion business in June 2011.
In 2010, at the age of 38 and with a five-year-old daughter, Leigh Donovan, owner of Tangerine boutique in Temecula, California, and nine years after retiring from professional racing, decided to pursue a spot on the U.S. National Downhill team. She competed in several qualifying events and secured fourth place at the USA CYCLING National Championships, earning her a spot at the UCI World Championships in Mont St. Anne, Quebec, Canada. In the finals, Donovan finished in 8th place, making her the highest placed American and the oldest competitor in the race. At the opening ceremonies, Leigh and her daughter proudly carried the U.S. flag Leigh and her daughter Grace carry the U.S. Flag at opening ceremonies. As of 2024, Leigh remains the last American Elite Downhill rider to win a UCI World Downhill Championship, with her gold medal-winning run in 1995 marking the end of a 29-year drought for American victories in the race.
Donovan married her longtime boyfriend and race mechanic Craig "Stikman" Glaspell in 2000 and they had one daughter. She has been a long time mountain bike coach and instructor for men and women of all backgrounds and skill levels, promoting and hosting her own women's only events since she retired in 2001. In 2014 Leigh launched a coaching and clinic business called iChooseBikes that put the focus on teaching MTB skills to riders of all ages, levels, and genders; Leigh believes that if the person can master the foundational skills, that they can stay on the bike longer and shred harder too.
Leigh Donovan spent 2022-2023 employed by SRAM as the Southern California senior field guide (sales and marketing rep), but left the position in the Summer of 2023.
Leigh remains the only cyclist male or female to be in the 3 cycling halls of fame (USABMX, MTB, US Bicycling).
BMX racing is a type of bicycle racing which features BMX riders sharing a short single-lap circuit or point-to-point course, with multiple banked corners, jumps and rollers. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing, and sanctioned internationally by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), facilitated by a number of continental, national and local sanctioning bodies.
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.
John Tomac is an American former professional cyclist who competed from 1985 to 2005. He was a versatile rider who competed in multiple disciplines including; BMX racing, cross-country, road racing, trials riding and downhill racing. Tomac became a mountain bike racing icon in the late 1980s as the sport began to develop beyond its formative years. At the time of his retirement in 2005, he had won more mountain bike races than anyone in the sport. In 1991 he was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and, in 2004 he was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.
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.
Anne-Caroline Chausson is a French professional cyclist who competes in bicycle enduro, bicycle motocross (BMX), downhill time trial and cross-country mass start, dual, and four-cross mountain bicycle racing. She is best known for having won thirteen Union Cycliste Internationale senior mountain bike world championship rainbow jerseys, fourteen European mountain bike championships, and five consecutive Mountain Bike World Cup downhill series (1998–2002). She was nominated for the 2003 Laureus World Sports Awards Alternative Sportsperson of the Year. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Chausson competed for France in the inaugural women's BMX event, winning the gold medal.
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.
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.
Eric Robert Carter, is a former American professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1983 to 1998. He had the nickname "The Golden Child," and later in his BMX career, acquired the moniker "The Earthquake." More recently, he has been known simply as "EC." Beginning in 1996, he converted fully to mountain bike racing (MTB) and has become one of the most respected racers in that discipline of bicycle racing.
Michael Allen King is an "Old School/Mid School" former professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1984 to 1998 and is also a former Mountain Bike (MTB) racer who prime competitive years in that discipline were 1993 to 2004.
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.
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".
Jill Kintner is a professional American "Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) and professional mountain cross racer. Her competitive years were 1995 to 2002, 2007 to 2008 in BMX, 2004 to 2009 in mountain cross, and 2010 to present in downhill mountain biking. She switched to the mountain cross discipline full-time after her BMX retirement early in the 2004 season.).
Tara Janelle Llanes is a Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and a wheelchair basketball player whose prime competitive years were from 1990 to 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. Llanes is part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Aaron Holmes Gwin is an American professional downhill mountain biker from Morongo Valley, California. He is a five-time World Cup overall champion.
Hugo Donais is a Canadian retired cyclist who specialized in downhill mountain biking, four-cross and BMX.
Myles Rockwell is an American former professional downhill mountain biker and winner of the 2000 UCI Downhill World Championships. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2019 and into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2004 Rockwell was arrested for growing Marijuana, he was released on $10,000 bail.
Norba National Championship (9 Wins)
