While checking the latest race results on xcodata.com, we saw that today is Jeremiah Bishop’s 50th birthday. MBA called Jeremiah recently after he shared a comment with us that he was the first rider to win a UCI race on mixed wheels. He told us he did that when he won the US Cup at Bonelli Park around 15 years ago riding a bike with a 650b (27.5-inch) front wheel and a 26-incher in the back. The bike came with two 26-inch wheels, but he liked its performance better with the slightly bigger wheel up front .
Jeremiah mentioned in our phone call that he’d be turning 50 in a couple of weeks, and since today is that day, we thought we’d share a couple of photos of him from the past.
This first photo is from the Absa Cape Epic in South Africa, where Jeremiah was leading this pack of riders in 2015, racing in what is widely considered the toughest stage race in mountain biking
Here’s the caption we shared with the above photo in 2015: “Jeremiah Bishop leads the bunch during Stage 3 of the 2015 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race, in South Africa. The event is considered one of the toughest, multi-day, mountain bike stage races in the world. This photo was taken Wednesday, March 18, 2015. Photo by Nick Muzik/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS”
Here’s another shot of Jeremiah Bishop racing in Southern California about 15 years ago on the Sho-Air Cannondale team. Jeremiah was one of the top XC racers in America for more than 10 years, and he’s still racing in the pro class today at some events.
The use of mixed wheel sizes in cross-country racing has been on some people’s minds lately. Some companies are coming out with 32–inch-wheeled mountain bikes now, and we’re waiting to see if any big-name riders will be using them. The UCI rules say that mixed wheel sizes can only be used in downhill and enduro events. We’ve written the UCI to see if they might change that rule, but we haven’t heard back from them. A number of people have said that they think that XC bikes with 32-inch front wheels and 29-inch back wheels might be a great setup for XC racing, but the UCI would have to change their rules for that to happen, and we don’t know if they would want to do that.