While going through some old copies of Mountain Bike Action, we found an old copy of a magazine printed by Velo News in 2001. That company was handing out the issues at the Interbike Show that year, and we saved it with some of our own back issues. When we looked through that issue recently, we found that Velo News had made a compilation of America’s mountain bike national champions from 1983 to 2000, which were determined by the National Off-Road Bicycle Association, also known as NORBA, that put on the national championship races in those days
As far as we could tell, the list looked very accurate. We sometimes have a hard time finding the results of the U.S. National Mountain Bike Championships from those early years, so we figured that other mountain bikers probably do too, so we thought we’d share them here.
We added the results for those titles from 2001 through 2006, which we found in our back issues of Mountain Bike Action from those years.
NORBA NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONS, 1983–2006
YEAR PRO MEN PRO WOMEN FINALS LOCATION
1983 Steve Tilford Jacquie Phelan Santa Barbara, CA
1984 Joe Murray Jacquie Phelan Lake Eldora, CA
1985 Joe Murray Jacquie Phelan Santa Barbara, CA
1986 Ned Overend Cindy Whitehead Durango, CO
1987 Ned Overend Lisa Muhich Durango, CO
1988 John Tomac Margaret Day Sun Valley, ID
1989 Ned Overend Sara Ballantyne Snow Summit, CA
1990 Ned Overend Susan DeMattei Mammoth Mountain, CA
1991 Ned Overend Juli Furtado Mount Snow, VT
1992 Ned Overend Juli Furtado Durango, CO
1993 David Wiens Juli Furtado Traverse City, MI
1994 Tinker Juarez Juli Furtado Snow Summit, CA
1995 Tinker Juarez Juli Furtado Helen, GA
1996 John Tomac Ruthie Matthes Mammoth Mountain, CA
1997 Steve Larsen Ruthie Matthes Deer Valley, UT
1998 Tinker Juarez Ruthie Matthes Mount Snow, VT
1999 Travis Brown Alison Dunlap Mount Snow, VT
2000 Steve Larsen Ruthie Matthes Mammoth Mountain, CA
2001 Kirk Molday Ruthie Matthes Mt. Snow, VT
2002 J. Horgan-Kobelski Alison Dunlap Mt. Snow, VT
2003 J. Horgan-Kobelski Mary McConneloug Durango, CO
2004 J. Horgan-Kobelski Shonny Vanlandingham Durango, CO
2005 J. Horgan-Kobelski Shonny Vanlandingham Mt. Snow, Vermont
2006 Ryan Trebon Georgia Gould Sonoma, CA
Ned Overend won six national cross-country titles in the U.S. in the 1980s and 1990s. America’s top woman of that time, Juli Furtado, won five titles in the 1990s. (Photo: Mountain Bike Action)
[Note: If anybody finds a mistake in the above list of America’s XC national champions, please write to John Ker at Mountain Bike Action and attach the evidence to back up such a claim and send it to [email protected].]