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Tucson, AZ 85716
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Kona Bicycles 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo Attracts Major Talent
One of the biggest names at the 2008 Kona Bicycles 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo is Richard Cunningham, to whom this year’s event is dedicated.
Cunningham, who founded Mantis Bicycles in 1981, is a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and is responsible for many innovations that improved mountain bike performance. An early activist in the mountain bike access movement, Cunningham is now editor of Mountain Bike Action magazine.
Other industry luminaries who will be attending the event include Mike Cushionbery, research editor at Bicycling Magazine and Jim Wannamaker, marketing director for Kenda Tires.
The event also attracts many of the top riders in the country, including:
Cameron Chambers. Cameron, a former 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo solo champion and national 24-hour racing champion, will be participating on a four-person singlespeed team.
Susan Haywood. A West Virginia native who lives and trains in Tucson part-time, Haywood is a member of the Trek-Volkswagen team. She took first in La Ruta, a grueling three-day stage race that goes from coast to coast in Costa Rica. She is a past national champion in Short Track and Super D, and winner of the 2006 24-Hour Solo World Championship.
Tinker Juarez. A beloved icon of mountain biking, Tinker Juarez is the Kona Bicycles 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo solo champion. The Siemens Cannondale rider won the 24 Hours of Adrenaline World Solo Championships in Monterey, Calif., last September.
Pua Sawicki. Winner of the 2007 USA Cycling 24 Hour Mountain Bike National Championships as a solo rider (her second title), Sawicki, of Mililani, Hawaii, races for Team Ergon-Ellsworth. Pua also won the 2007 Everest Award as female mountain biker of the year.
Nelson Snyder. A member of Team Cyclepath, Snyder is considered one of the top adventure racers in the world, and is consistently in the top 25 best mountain bikers in the World. The Portland, Ore., resident won the singlespeed solo category in the 2006 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.
Dave Wiens. Another member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, Wiens set a new course record at the 2007 Leadville 100 and has dominated the event for 6 years now. His lengthy list of ‘other achievements’ include helping design the mountain bike racecourse used for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Team Kona riders Barry Wicks, Matthew Slaven and Kris Sneddon. This team positively ripples with talent. Wicks from Corvallis, Ore., races cyclocross and cross-country. Wicks finished third overall in 2007 at the U.S. Grand Prix of Cyclocross and finished first in the 60-minute event of the Unofficial Cyclocross Singlespeed World Championships..
Wicks was fifth in the National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS) Cross Country category.