15 Comments so far:

From a time when Mountainbiking was at the top of its game... a time when I had hair and could measure my waistline in inches and not feet!

Funny thing is, they don't seem that fast when you see them on screen but you just know you wouldn't be able to stay with them for more than half a lap!

Wow - I'd forgotten just how big XC was back then - huge crowds, masses of sponsorship and riders from all over the world. What happened?

Newhnam is till a great course though and the bombholes dont look to have changed much.

Oh yeah and the summers seemed a little drier then didn't they

Fast, but not as fast as you expect. Okay, they look fast on the downhill sections as you would expect but hey, most of 'em are walking up one of the hills. Perhaps the gradient of the hills isn't so obvious... I'll have another look.

Along with drugs, I agrre with you that main reasons Cross Country racing died a death in the late 90's was due to the crazy prices event organisers were charging for us 'normal' folk to race (and watch) especially when you consider that the main prize collected by Steve Douce (upon winning a National race) was a pair of cycling gloves! This combined with a lack of interest from TV coverage about showing a 'hard to follow' 2-3 hour race led to a slow decline...

I used to love it though. Whatever happened to David Baker? I know Mike Kluge is the owner of Focus bikes, and Gary Foord is a qualified coach and works in bike shop in Cannock (I think) but Baker was top-level too...I think he had a heart problem, and gave up racing to open a bike cafe in the Derby Dales somewhere.

Interesting stuff!

agree even! Godammit!

By the way, I used to ride (although not race admittedly!) with two female National Champions who used to ride World Cup events and they were fast, but not TOO fast...The edge they used to have on most of the rest of us was not exactly speed or power, but rather speed endurance (the ability to go fast for long periods, recover and go fast again). Although saying that, they were very skilled technically - which inevitably made a big difference on technical courses.

I couldn't vouch for the male riders though - the likes of Baker, Foorde and Clarke etc. but I'm sure we could've hung with them for half a lap at least...or is that wishful thinking???? 

I could always have tried to get in front on some of the singletrack and slowed everyone down for a 1/2 a lap!

Okay, you're right Kim; I wouldn't have stood much of a chance against the World's best... the most I could've hoped for was to be a half decent Sport category rider, but then again, I wasn't a full-time rider juiced up to the eyeballs on EPO or whatever junk some of them tricksy Euro-pro's were on at the time.

Sometimes, people may confuse my misplaced self-belief and confidence as arrogance but hey, I never take myself too seriously and most of the **** I utter is meant puely tongue-in-cheek...

I've never seen it but I have to say that the Dragonfly Climb doesn't sound too scary... surely more of he World's best off-road riders should have been able to get up it?

Excellent, great weekends were had when the world cup came to town,I marshalled up at the bomb holes at this event and thanks to this clip can remember what a great day it was.David Baker allways seemed to pull something special out in Plymouth,  a year or two later I remember watching a young Cadel Evans win at Newham. great days ,thanks.

Did Evans whine about the gorse being too prickly, or the other competitors shirts too bright?

"David (Baker) is a landscape gardener near Shefffield, Tim "Gould" is a Postman in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. David had to stop riding his bike due to a heart condition, Tim still ventures out to the cafe on his every now and again."

Taken from an interview with Simon Burney who is promoting a cycle cross book:

 http://www.ileach.co.uk/post/burney.html

In response to Kim's little piece........And he was very helpful too! 

Since he turned into a roadie he seems to have become somewhat sullen, nay agreesive.  Witness his friendship with the 2008 TDF journos.  But when Ian and I saw him parading along the Champs Elysee post this years race, he made more effort than anyone else to engage the fans. A very happy chappy indeed. Despite having a 'mare of a race.

Glad he won the Worlds this year actually.

Another nail in the Cross Country racing world was it's lack of ability to make exciting TV, hence no sponsorship.  The Downhill scene had that in spades so became the dominant  variant of ther off road scene.

Blimey some of have been into the sport throughout all of the history of MTBing. I wish I had kept my first MTB, would be worth something one day adorned with the very first XT groupset.  I was so proud!   Think 1986.