The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame has announced its 2013 inductees and has announced a planned move from Crested Butte to Marin County, California.
The Hall was founded in Crested Butte in 1988 and is located in a small storefront along the tiny town's main street. But organizers say it will soon be transferred to a group of Marin County inductees including Joe Breeze, Otis Guy and Marc Vendetti. They released no other details of the planned move.
This year's inductees are CORBA, for advocacy; David Epperson, for journalism; Bill and Robin Groff, as pioneers; and Marla Streb and Nicolas Vouilloz, each in the racing history category. The induction ceremony will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18, during the Interbike Expo in Las Vegas. The event will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention Center, in the Islander F Hall, immediately following the first day of the indoor show. All Interbike attendees as well as the public are welcome.
More on this year's inductees, with descriptions provided by the Hall:
CORBA-The Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association was founded in 1987. This advocacy group was formed to represent the interests of mountain bikers in response to trail closures and in the Santa Monica Mountains and Rim of the Valley Corridor near Los Angeles. CORBA formed and quickly became a prominent voice of reason in the chaos of newly emerging mountain biking advocacy. A year later, and with other like-minded advocates CORBA became one of the five founding clubs of IMBA. David Epperson-Epperson has been on the mountain bike scene for nearly three and a half decades, and almost always with a camera in tow. Epperson could have been placed in the MBHOF as easily for a Pioneer as he could for Journalism. One thing is clear: Epperson's photography and presence throughout the history of mountain biking is an ongoing contribution that has profiled and promoted the sport of mountain biking. Bill and Robin Groff-The year was 1983; the location Moab. The golden days of Moab’s mining boom had long since passed, and although Arches and Canyonlands National Parks existed, tourism was not a major factor in the local economy. Jobs were few and Robin and Bill Groff (along with their father, John) had recently been laid off from their mining-based employment. It seemed to make no real sense at the time, but the brothers were avid cyclists and they decided to open a bike and outdoor gear shop, Rim Cyclery. The rest is history. Marla Streb-If Marla Streb had not been born, mountain biking would have had to invent her. Streb has done it all: racer, advocate, teacher, explorer, businesswoman and kick-ass rider. The amazing thing is that she didn’t start serious riding until she was 28.
As a competitive athlete, she went on to win the X Games Championship, a UCI World Cup in downhill, three U.S. National Downhill championships and, perhaps gnarliest of all, she has twice been Single-speed World Champion. Nicolas Vouilloz- Nico won the Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships 10 times, starting as a junior in 1992 and finishing his career with his 10th victory in 2002, only placing lower in 2000, when he finished eighth. He also won 16 World Cup Downhill races. Nico then went on to racing cars. After several years’ absence from the mountain biking scene, Vouilloz returned to race professionally in 2007 at the fourth round of the World Cup in Champery, Switzerland. He's currently competing on the Enduro World Series circuit, winning the second round in Val d'Allos, France, in June, for Lapierre Bicycles.
