 Victor in his 1965 National Road Championship jersey | |||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | Michael Beckwith Hiltner March 7, 1941 Los Angeles, California, U.S. [1] | ||||||||||
Medal record
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Victor Vincente of America also known as VVA, born as Michael Beckwith Hiltner [2] (born March 7, 1941), is an American author, poet, designer, and cyclist credited with being a creator of the mountain bike. [3]
Victor began riding and racing with the Santa Monica Cycling Club on a road bike at the age of 16 in Santa Monica, California. He entered his first competition on the Fourth of July, 1957, under his birth name of Michael Beckwith Hiltner. He was first Junior (under 17 years of age) to reach the finish line at the 50-mile southern California road racing championships at the end of that summer, with only one rider, Bob Teztlaff, a Senior, ahead of him. The momentum continued to build as he eventually made it to the 1959 Tour du St-Laurent in Canada where he won four of the ten stages and the general classification (GC). [4] This set the stage for Victor’s international recognition.
From this auspicious beginning he went on to an eleven-year cycling career. Highlights include a national road cycling championships title, four California titles, a North America hillclimb championship title, berths on two USA Olympics teams, [5] two Pan American Games teams, and victories in Italy. At the 1963 Pan American Games in São Paulo, Brazil, he met Neide Marchena, a Brazilian telephone operator. Although they did not speak each other's language, they became engaged the same year, [6] and married shortly after that.
Victor was inducted into the Modern 1945-1975 Competitor category of the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2001. [7]
In 1974, Victor established the double-transcontinental record by cycling from Santa Monica, California to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and back to Santa Monica, covering the distance in 36 days, 8 hours. [8] This achievement prompted him to change his name, and so he adopted the title Victor Vincente of America, two ways of saying "winning."
During a recreational ride one day in 1978, descending a residential canyon road into the San Fernando Valley, in southern California, the pavement unexpectedly ended and Victor found himself riding down a dirt road. A sharp rock blew his front tire within a mile, and it was this upset that led to his independent development of bicycles suited for dirt roads and trails.
In 1980, Victor established the Reseda to the Sea event which still carries on today, [9] the most recent edition being on March 9, 2019. He also promoted Puerco!, Mt. Wilson hillclimb and downhill, Sespe Hot Springs Two-Stage, and two supported tours: Pirú-Cuyamá Overland, and Haute Route. Victor was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1989. [2]
Victor has created a multi-faceted body of work, ranging from coins[ citation needed ] to electronic jewelry, mountain bikes, human-powered vehicles, garments, posters, and graphic art.
His bicycle building years were from 1979 to 1991. In conjunction with Victor’s love of cycling, he designed various models of mountain bikes, beginning with 'Topanga!' in 1979 which featured 20” wheels with 1 X 7 gearing, followed by Palisadian in 1981 (24” wheels), VVA-26 Semi-Custom Dirt Road Bicycle in 1982 (26” wheels), Colt 20/20 in 1982 (20” wheels, a hillclimb-specific bicycle), and 1991 in 1991 (26” wheels). [2]
Lured by the possibility of becoming the world's fastest human, Victor designed two machines. The first of these, Tachy Taxi (from Greek: "speed," and "travel"), he entered in the First International Human-Powered Vehicle Championships in 1975, where his crash into spectators ended his bid for glory. Later, in 1979, Tachy Taxi Two, which he designed to run on rails in order to eliminate all steering problems, crashed into the cameraman who was standing over the rails at the finish line, using a telephoto lens. [10]
BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, which makes them heavier, more complex and less efficient on smooth surfaces. These typically include a suspension fork, large knobby tires, more durable wheels, more powerful brakes, straight, extra wide handlebars to improve balance and comfort over rough terrain, and wide-ratio gearing optimised for topography and application. Rear suspension is ubiquitous in heavier-duty bikes and now common even in lighter bikes. Dropper posts can be installed to allow the rider to quickly adjust the seat height.
Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain, such as air or coil-sprung shocks used as suspension, larger and wider wheels and tires, stronger frame materials, and mechanically or hydraulically actuated disc brakes. Mountain biking can generally be broken down into five distinct categories: cross country, trail riding, all mountain, downhill, and freeride.
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.
Juliana "Juli" Furtado is a retired American professional mountain biker, who began her sports career in skiing.
Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter, and consist of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike while navigating the obstruction and remount. Races for senior categories are generally between 40 minutes and an hour long, with the distance varying depending on the ground conditions. The sport is strongest in the traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX and mountain bike trials. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the governing body for human-powered vehicles that imposes far fewer restrictions on their design than does the UCI. The UltraMarathon Cycling Association is the governing body for many ultra-distance cycling races.
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.
Jeannie Longo is a French racing cyclist, 25-time French champion and 13-time world champion. Longo began racing in 1975 and was active in cycling through 2012. She was once widely considered the best female cyclist of all time, although that reputation is now clouded by suspicion of doping throughout her career. She is famous for her competitive nature and her longevity in the sport — when she was selected to compete for France in the 2008 Olympics, it was her seventh Olympic Games; some of Longo's competitors that year had not yet been born when she took part in her first Olympics in 1984. She had stated that 2008 would be her final participation in the Olympics. In the Women's road race, she finished 24th, 33 seconds behind winner Nicole Cooke, who was one year old when Longo first rode in the Olympics. At the same Olympics, she finished 4th in the road time trial, just two seconds shy of securing a bronze medal. She is currently number two on the all-time list of French female summer or winter Olympic medal winners, with a total of four medals including one in gold, which is one less than the total number won by the fencer Laura Flessel-Colovic.
Tom Ritchey is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer in the history of the sport. He is an innovator of bicycle components that have been used in winning some of the biggest cycling competitions in the world including the UCI World Championships, the Tour de France and the Olympics. In 1988, Ritchey was inducted into the inaugural Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Crested Butte, Colorado : and 2012, inducted to the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame in Davis, California.
Jeremiah Bishop is a professional mountain bike racer from the United States. He competes in ultra-endurance mountain bike racing, mountain bike stage racing, and the Olympic-discipline event of cross-country cycling.
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.
GT Bicycles is an American company that designs and manufactures BMX, mountain, and road bicycles. GT is a division of the Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings, which also markets Cannondale, Schwinn, Mongoose, IronHorse, DYNO, and RoadMaster bicycle brands; all manufactured in Asia.
The United States National Professional Road Race Championships began in 1985. They are run by the governing body, USA Cycling. Until 2006 the race was open to all nationalities, the first American to finish being named the winner and given a distinctive jersey. Since the championship in Greenville, South Carolina, in 2006, all riders have had to be American.
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.
Mixed terrain cycle touring is the practice of cycling over a variety of surfaces and topography on a single route, with a single bicycle. The recent popularity of mixed terrain touring is in part a reaction against the increasing specialization of the bike industry.
Todd Gogulski is a former cycling TV commentator for NBC Universal Sports and Versus and a former professional road racer.
Véronique Fortin is a Canadian racing cyclist originally from St Georges de Beauce, Quebec, Canada. Currently sponsored by Opus bike, she won the Canadian Road National Championship in 2011. She was a member of Team TIBCO in 2012 and finished 36th in the 2012 Giro della Toscana. She won the woman's 2012 Ontario Hell of the North race as well as the 2012 Tour of the Battenkill. In 2013, she joined the Italian road team Pasta Zara-Cogeas-Manhattan. She competed in the 2013 UCI women's road race in Florence. She won the women's 2014 Haute Route Alps as well as the women's 2015 Haute Route Dolomites Swiss Alps. She won the women's 2015 Mt Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. She won the women's 2015 100 km Wilmington Whiteface MTB.
San Jose, California has various cycling routes on roads and trails used by both commuters and recreational riders. The city has plans to expand the current 285 miles (459 km) of bike lanes to 400 miles (640 km), and the current 60 miles (97 km) of trails to 100 miles (160 km). San Jose was ranked as a bronze-level bicycle-friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.
Gravel cycling, gravel biking or gravel grinding is a sport, or a leisure activity, in which participants ride bicycles mostly on gravel roads. Sometimes, specially designed gravel bikes are used; in other cases, any bicycle capable of covering the terrain can be used.
