Waking Ned (Overend)

From a long past visit to Ned Overend at home in Durango

He was the first official World Mountain Bike champion, and one of the greatest trailblazers ever to ride on planet dirt. Steve Thomas travels west to Durango, home of that first World Championships to catch up and takes a trip through living history with Mr Ned;

With the threat of an afternoon thunderstorm looming heavy above us my ride buddy informed me that a mountain biker was struck by lightning out here a while back, so we’d best not hang around too much. That’s okay in most circumstances, but when your ride partner is a certain Mr Ned Overend you start to worry about the “not hanging around bit”. To many of you the name may mean little, which for old hands like myself is quite bizarre; Ned Overend is one of the greatest ever mountain bike racers, and was the first ever official World Champion cross country racer.

At the slender age of 47 Ned looks as fit and agile as ever; “ It’s hard to say exactly, but I think I’m almost as fit as I was when I was racing full time.” Back at that time Neds painful fitness was something that every other racer on the circuit feared, and it earned him the mantle of the “lung”. Currently Ned works on development and promotion for his long time sponsors Specialized. But being Ned the wheel doesn’t stop there; “I’m still racing now. For the last six years I’ve been racing the Xterra off road triathlon series (mid distance series world off road triathlon series), and have won the World titles (in Maui) and finished in the medals a few times. But now `I’m just doing it for fun.” 

We were heading out of Neds hometown of Durango towards his favourite trails around Horse Gulch, where he rides most days either alone, or with the guys from the local bike shop. This was coincidentally the battleground for his most famous victory, the 1990 World Championships; “ It was quite a relief to win. To have not won here would have been awful.”  That race, some 12 years back was the first official recognition that the sport had received, in the form of official UCI status (Union Cicliste International – official World-governing body. Before this time the sport had various unrecognised bodies and championships, and Ned had already been World Champion; “ There were two world Championships back then – the US Worlds and the European Worlds, I’d won both.”  

Following spells working in Subway and as a car mechanic mixed with a little triathlon racing Ned and the family moved from California to the wilds of Durango, in search of the good life. After watching the Iron Horse Classic road bike race Ned decided that he liked the look of this, and started road racing in the early eighties. Within no time he was working in town at Mountain Bike Specialists and racing seriously, alongside the countries top road racers “ I was racing the Coors Classic with the Raleigh team. I could always climb really well, but the whole team side of things in road racing wasn’t for me. I’d considered trying to make it as a pro road racer, but then when mountain biking took off I found that it suited me better.” 

In 87 Ned signed his first mountain bike contract with Schwinn. He went on to win NORBA Nationals and World titles before turning to Specialized two years later and becoming the sports first official World Champion. At that time Durango was booming as a bike town. The local club rides were becoming more like a World Cup race than rides, World Champions were almost ten a penny; “ It was, and still is, quite a scene. I always trained hard to be the fittest guy in town – it was a big deal in a place like Durango.” 

The official recognition granted to the sport by the UCI lead to the expansion of the World Cup series, which changed the scene forever. The Europeans effectively took over the reigns as cross-country master racers, while for some reason the previously dominant Americans faded away. All but Ned that was, and to an extent John Tomac. In 94, at the unheard of age of 39 Ned won his last World Cup race, which remains the last time an American male won a cross country World Cup “ That was my greatest victory. The sport was now at its highest level, and I was getting on. I don’t really know why the other top American riders didn’t seem to perform after that. They raced well at home, maybe the travel was difficulty – it certainly was for me. Maybe the balance will switch again, we have a solid home race scene here.”  

Two years on and the first ever Olympic mountain bike race loomed, a milestone for such a young sport. Ned may well of been over 40, but he was one of the best American racers out there. The race was to be his Swanson, but unfortunately due to a one off bad race he was not selected – a decision which is still shrouded in controversy “ That was a real disappointment. I really wanted to be there, and was really motivated.” That year was to be the effective end of Ned’s world level mountain bike career, but certainly not the end of Ned. 

After dominating the Xterra series for the past few years Ned has, in his terms, “eased off some.” This easing off is not quite what you or I may have in mind; “ There are still a whole load of classic races around the world that I haven’t done – next year I’ll be doing them, but maybe not quite so seriously. I have done a couple at festivals in Italy, which I really enjoyed. There are several classics in the States I’d like to try, but the big marathons in Europe look like fun..”

All I can say is watch out you marathon racers, the “Lung” is back in the dirt, and he’s as lean and mean as ever.