LIFE IS A RACE
By Mike Kloser. Photographs Emily Kloser
Source: The Ride Journal First issue available to download
Little did I realise back
when I first started out
on the national and
international race
scene in the late 1980s
and early 1990s that this
was mountain biking’s
heyday. Sure it’s still
going strong – it’s even
an Olympic sport these
days – and is undoubtedly
bigger now on a worldwide basis than it ever was when
I was riding. What’s changed, though, is the money.
Of course there are still big-name pros winning national
and world titles, but there are very few big teams with
high-salaried riders like there were back in the early 90s.
Most of the top riders were making six-figure salaries
and travelling the World Cup circuit, which at its peak
featured 10 races around the world, including Australia.
During my first year with Alpinestars, I lived in
Albertville, France. I made regular trips to help design
their new MTB shoes. I remember them loaning us their
big logo-ed box truck to travel to a couple of World
Cup races in northern Italy and central Europe. I was
travelling with a Welsh guy, Tim Davies, who rode for the
British distributor of Alpinestars. Tim was young, loaded
with energy and talent and always good for a laugh.
The next summer I spent several weeks with Tim and
his family in Wales and training on the steep local roads
is not something I will forget; we were on road bikes
needing mountain bike gears to get up the hills.
Some of my best achievements were in those early
days; the biggest was winning the World Championships
in the Swiss town of Crans Montana in 1988. Ned
Overend, Johnny Tomac, Joe Murray and all of the top
Europeans of the time were there.
It was a race that I felt I could win if I had a good day,
but would need to uncork a great ride as I wasn’t seeded
as one of the top riders on the front row. I got mixed up
in the field and had to start about 300 people deep but
by the time I got to the top of the first climb, which was
about 45 minutes into the race, I had made it into the
top five. By the second time up the mountain, I had
caught and passed Ned, moving into second place.
I had my sights set on Tomac, and fortunately I had
the legs to catch him on the final climb and hold him
off on the descent to the finish.
I remember slipping and sliding my way down the
mountain in the mud: I had some 2.1 Fisher Fat Trax tyres
on the bike that I’d been using for most of the summer.
In those days, I didn’t have the luxury of multiple tyre
choices or the inventory to put on a new set for each race.
Tomac, on the other hand, had Tioga for a sponsor and
access to all the fresh tread he needed.
One of my other accomplishments came at the 1990
World Championships on home soil in Durango,
Colorado. I had gone in with high hopes for a good result
in the cross country. Because I had spent the summer
racing in Europe I hadn’t acquired a US team ranking for
the worlds, so I had to race the qualifier two days prior.
Qualifying was no problem, but had a tough day in the
actual XC race, finishing in a disappointing 13th place.
I hadn’t put much emphasis on the downhill the next
day as I felt my skills were more suited to XC. Despite
this, I laid down a great run with only a couple of little
mistakes and ended up second to Greg Herbold, a
Durango native. At the time I was happy for Greg – this
was his speciality and he’d spent countless hours training
on this course, but with hindsight, I wish I had found
a way to be three seconds faster. A downhill gold medal
would sure have been nice alongside the XC win. To date
I think only Tomac has managed to achieve that one.
The two Iditabike victories I had were unique in
themselves; just the preparation for these races took a
pretty intense commitment in the winter months around
my home in the Colorado town of Vail.
I recall some pretty crazy rides in some pretty epic
conditions, on the groomed trails of Vail mountain in
the late evening. I used to encounter snow cats as I zipped
down some of the freshly groomed pistes I had skied
earlier in the day. In fact, I think I became quite a novelty
to those night-time snow-cat crews.
One of the more memorable winter training rides
I had for the Iditabike was up two mountain passes in
the morning (one being Interstate 70 out of Vail and
the other Loveland Pass via the old Highway 6 route).
I was a director of the Professional Mogul Tour and
spent the day organising it before returning back home
on the mountain bike with studded tyres.
When I first started out in the mountains, I was
competing only during the winter, but in the summer
I found a love for riding dirt bikes on all the old logging
roads and trails that were on my doorstep. I dabbled in
both motocross and enduro racing for a bit, while finding
some time to do some local running and road bike races.
I never really paid much attention to the endurance
sports until I came back from a summer of travelling
through Europe on a touring bike. When I returned
in the autumn of 1984, I got my first mountain bike;
a Specialized Stumpjumper. I equipped it with a rear
pannier rack, fenders and a bell for good measure.
The following spring, one of the local sport shops
partnered up with their affiliates in Park City, Utah
and Sun Valley, Idaho and put on a series of races with
the championships being held in Vail.
I won all of the races in the series that summer,
including the finals. For that I was given a Gary Fisher
Supercaliber. The next summer I started doing some
more races around the state and was finding some good
results against the likes of Ned and other top names.
As the summer was winding down, I put in a call
to Tom Ritchey and Gary Fisher. Both expressed an
interest in me, but I think Gary offered me the better
deal – a new Procaliber like Joe Murray was racing
on, a couple of sets of shorts and jerseys as well as
some expenses for entry fees and gas to the races.
If I recall correctly, I took fifth place at the national
championships in Durango that year.
For me, the late 1980s and early 1990s were my years
of infancy in the sport. I was highly motivated and
determined to become one of the best mountain
bikers in the world at that time. I knew that if I was
to be successful, I would have to devote myself fully
to the sport, and prepare and train accordingly.
During my first 10 years or so of living in the mountains,
I had competed regularly in local and national freestyle
skiing competitions. But I had to make the decision to
hang up the mogul skis, and focus on what would
become my livelihood – racing mountain bikes.
I had started racing relatively late compared to many
of my rivals: I was 26 when I got my first real sponsorship
from Gary Fisher. This is the reason that I’m still able
to race and have the motivation to go out to train and
prepare for all the competitions I do. To this day, I race
on average once or twice a week throughout the year.
It wasn’t until the mid-1990s – nearly a decade after
I had seriously started racing mountain bikes – that
I felt it was time to start considering what I would do
after I finished. Road racing appealed, but I knew that
as I was by then in my mid to late 30s, I was passing my
prime for this. As it turned out, my final race on the
international scene was the World Cup in Vail in the
late summer of 1997.
I’ve since moved into adventure racing and have
carved a decent career out of it. But the bottom line
is that I would still ride my bike regardless of whether
I was racing or not. I love the feeling of rolling along
under my own power, the ability to see new places and
just being able to get lost in the beauty of the outdoors.
And most of all, I love the feeling of a healthy workout
for both the mind and body!
Mike Kloser. Vail, Colorado, USA. Loving life and still racing
strong at 48 years young. www.mikekloser.com
By Mike Kloser. Photographs Emily Kloser
Source: The Ride Journal First issue available to download
Little did I realise back
when I first started out
on the national and
international race
scene in the late 1980s
and early 1990s that this
was mountain biking’s
heyday. Sure it’s still
going strong – it’s even
an Olympic sport these
days – and is undoubtedly
bigger now on a worldwide basis than it ever was when
I was riding. What’s changed, though, is the money.
Of course there are still big-name pros winning national
and world titles, but there are very few big teams with
high-salaried riders like there were back in the early 90s.
Most of the top riders were making six-figure salaries
and travelling the World Cup circuit, which at its peak
featured 10 races around the world, including Australia.
During my first year with Alpinestars, I lived in
Albertville, France. I made regular trips to help design
their new MTB shoes. I remember them loaning us their
big logo-ed box truck to travel to a couple of World
Cup races in northern Italy and central Europe. I was
travelling with a Welsh guy, Tim Davies, who rode for the
British distributor of Alpinestars. Tim was young, loaded
with energy and talent and always good for a laugh.
The next summer I spent several weeks with Tim and
his family in Wales and training on the steep local roads
is not something I will forget; we were on road bikes
needing mountain bike gears to get up the hills.
Some of my best achievements were in those early
days; the biggest was winning the World Championships
in the Swiss town of Crans Montana in 1988. Ned
Overend, Johnny Tomac, Joe Murray and all of the top
Europeans of the time were there.
It was a race that I felt I could win if I had a good day,
but would need to uncork a great ride as I wasn’t seeded
as one of the top riders on the front row. I got mixed up
in the field and had to start about 300 people deep but
by the time I got to the top of the first climb, which was
about 45 minutes into the race, I had made it into the
top five. By the second time up the mountain, I had
caught and passed Ned, moving into second place.
I had my sights set on Tomac, and fortunately I had
the legs to catch him on the final climb and hold him
off on the descent to the finish.
I remember slipping and sliding my way down the
mountain in the mud: I had some 2.1 Fisher Fat Trax tyres
on the bike that I’d been using for most of the summer.
In those days, I didn’t have the luxury of multiple tyre
choices or the inventory to put on a new set for each race.
Tomac, on the other hand, had Tioga for a sponsor and
access to all the fresh tread he needed.
One of my other accomplishments came at the 1990
World Championships on home soil in Durango,
Colorado. I had gone in with high hopes for a good result
in the cross country. Because I had spent the summer
racing in Europe I hadn’t acquired a US team ranking for
the worlds, so I had to race the qualifier two days prior.
Qualifying was no problem, but had a tough day in the
actual XC race, finishing in a disappointing 13th place.
I hadn’t put much emphasis on the downhill the next
day as I felt my skills were more suited to XC. Despite
this, I laid down a great run with only a couple of little
mistakes and ended up second to Greg Herbold, a
Durango native. At the time I was happy for Greg – this
was his speciality and he’d spent countless hours training
on this course, but with hindsight, I wish I had found
a way to be three seconds faster. A downhill gold medal
would sure have been nice alongside the XC win. To date
I think only Tomac has managed to achieve that one.
The two Iditabike victories I had were unique in
themselves; just the preparation for these races took a
pretty intense commitment in the winter months around
my home in the Colorado town of Vail.
I recall some pretty crazy rides in some pretty epic
conditions, on the groomed trails of Vail mountain in
the late evening. I used to encounter snow cats as I zipped
down some of the freshly groomed pistes I had skied
earlier in the day. In fact, I think I became quite a novelty
to those night-time snow-cat crews.
One of the more memorable winter training rides
I had for the Iditabike was up two mountain passes in
the morning (one being Interstate 70 out of Vail and
the other Loveland Pass via the old Highway 6 route).
I was a director of the Professional Mogul Tour and
spent the day organising it before returning back home
on the mountain bike with studded tyres.
When I first started out in the mountains, I was
competing only during the winter, but in the summer
I found a love for riding dirt bikes on all the old logging
roads and trails that were on my doorstep. I dabbled in
both motocross and enduro racing for a bit, while finding
some time to do some local running and road bike races.
I never really paid much attention to the endurance
sports until I came back from a summer of travelling
through Europe on a touring bike. When I returned
in the autumn of 1984, I got my first mountain bike;
a Specialized Stumpjumper. I equipped it with a rear
pannier rack, fenders and a bell for good measure.
The following spring, one of the local sport shops
partnered up with their affiliates in Park City, Utah
and Sun Valley, Idaho and put on a series of races with
the championships being held in Vail.
I won all of the races in the series that summer,
including the finals. For that I was given a Gary Fisher
Supercaliber. The next summer I started doing some
more races around the state and was finding some good
results against the likes of Ned and other top names.
As the summer was winding down, I put in a call
to Tom Ritchey and Gary Fisher. Both expressed an
interest in me, but I think Gary offered me the better
deal – a new Procaliber like Joe Murray was racing
on, a couple of sets of shorts and jerseys as well as
some expenses for entry fees and gas to the races.
If I recall correctly, I took fifth place at the national
championships in Durango that year.
For me, the late 1980s and early 1990s were my years
of infancy in the sport. I was highly motivated and
determined to become one of the best mountain
bikers in the world at that time. I knew that if I was
to be successful, I would have to devote myself fully
to the sport, and prepare and train accordingly.
During my first 10 years or so of living in the mountains,
I had competed regularly in local and national freestyle
skiing competitions. But I had to make the decision to
hang up the mogul skis, and focus on what would
become my livelihood – racing mountain bikes.
I had started racing relatively late compared to many
of my rivals: I was 26 when I got my first real sponsorship
from Gary Fisher. This is the reason that I’m still able
to race and have the motivation to go out to train and
prepare for all the competitions I do. To this day, I race
on average once or twice a week throughout the year.
It wasn’t until the mid-1990s – nearly a decade after
I had seriously started racing mountain bikes – that
I felt it was time to start considering what I would do
after I finished. Road racing appealed, but I knew that
as I was by then in my mid to late 30s, I was passing my
prime for this. As it turned out, my final race on the
international scene was the World Cup in Vail in the
late summer of 1997.
I’ve since moved into adventure racing and have
carved a decent career out of it. But the bottom line
is that I would still ride my bike regardless of whether
I was racing or not. I love the feeling of rolling along
under my own power, the ability to see new places and
just being able to get lost in the beauty of the outdoors.
And most of all, I love the feeling of a healthy workout
for both the mind and body!
Mike Kloser. Vail, Colorado, USA. Loving life and still racing
strong at 48 years young. www.mikekloser.com
