Mountain bikes and Boardman’s Lotus compete for the tag of ‘next big thing’
What on earth is that on the cover of Cycling be the one and only occasion a downhill mountain biker appeared on the cover of the magazine. Certainly the only one with a water bottle on their bike. At this point in time mountain biking was the next big thing, and perhaps even the future of cycling. It was new and exciting and as such TV coverage and sponsors came flooding in.
Despite taking pride of place on the cover, there was in fact very little coverage of the Euro Champs in the magazine, although there was a story about the British team heading off to the mtb Worlds in Bromont, Canada, the following week. All 40 of them.
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This was once considered a rugged mountain bike.
Traditionalists will be happy to know that the magazine was filled with more drop handlebar-focused features, including an interview with the Bowyer family, who had organised the National Track Championships for 20 years, and a comparison between Leontien van Moorsel and Jeannie Longo who went head-to-head at the Tour Féminin that year.
The race was expected to be a ‘lap of honour’ for Longo, but van Moorsel had other ideas, winning three stages and taking the yellow jersey after stage five and holding on to it all the way to the finish at the top of Alpe d’Huez.
Taking centre stage in the magazine was a feature on Chris Boardman’s Olympic gold
