Eric Heiden

Born Madison, Wisconsin., June 14, 1958. Member of the 1980 Olympic Speed Skating Team, winning 5 Gold medals. Eight times World Speed skating Champion. After his ice skating career, Eric became one of America's leading cyclist from 1980 to 1985. He was an alternate on the 1980 Olympic Cycling Road Team. At the 1985 Tour of Italy he won the coveted Hot Spot Sprints. In 1985 he won the CoreStates U.S. Pro Road Cycling Champion-ship in Phil. PA. He generated interest in the sport of cycling. The press always promoted the fact that Heiden and the 7/Eleven Team was coming to town to race. Heiden won the Sullivan Award and the U.S. Olympic Committee's "Athlete of the Year Award" 1980. Eric served as a commentator for CBS Sports and is now an orthopedics surgeon & resides in Woodside, CA.

Wayne D. Stetina

Born, Dec. 4, 1953 Cleveland, Ohio. Member U.S. Olympic Teams 1972, 76, & 80. Ten times U.S. National Cycling Champion (1975 - 1993). Pan Am Gold Medal winner 1979. Nat. Prestige Classic Champion 1973-75-77-78. Over 200 career victories. Still competing 1965 to present ( Road & MTB). USCF Board of Directors 1979-1984. Presently National Sale Marketing Product Manager, Bicycle Components Division for Shimano American Corporation. Wayne resides in Mission Viejo, CA.

Veteran Pre-1945 Competitors

Otto Wenz

Otto Wenz's name is synonymous with cycling in his hometown of Milwaukee. After many years as a competitor, Wenz devoted himself to promoting the sport. He became a national figure for organizing the renown "Super Week," a remarkable week-long series of road and criterium races popular in the 1970s when riders typically had a limited menu of one-day weekend criteriums. Wenz played an instrumental role in planning the 1978 world cycling championships for juniors--marking the first time in 66 years since the world championships last came to the United States. The 1978 junior worlds generated international attention in Allentown, Penn., where the track championships were held on the Trexlertown Velodrome, and in Washington, D.C., where the road races were held in Rock Creek Park. From 1975 to 1979 Wenz served as president of the U.S. Cycling Federation, and afterward directed and chaired various USCF committees. Wenz served as chairman of the 1986 world cycling championships in Colorado Springs, the first full worlds program in the United States since 1912 and perhaps his most important contribution.

John "Jack" Weston Simes II

Born New York City., Jan. 11, 1914. Jack Simes II was a bronze medalist in the 1935 Amateur Bicycle League National Championships held in Atlantic City, NJ. In 1936 he won the ABLofA National Championships in St. Louis, MO. Set National records for the 3 Mile and 15 Miles on Oct. 11, 1936 in Washington, DC. He rode from 1929 to 1937 and was forced to retire after a bad crash during a pro six day race in San Francisco, CA. He served on the ABLofA Board of Directors from 1951 to 1959. He coached Jackie Heid and his son Jack Simes III to National Championships & Olympic teams. He lives in New Tripoli, PA.

Mountain Bike Competitors

Joe Murray

Growing up in Northern California's Marin County, Joe Murray participated in the birth of mountain biking. He started cycling as a road racer and quickly embraced off-road riding before it was called mountain biking. At age 15 in 1980 he entered Zero's Notch Race to compete against local riders wearing jeans for riding heavy bikes over twisting dirt trails. Joe rode a Schwinn cruiser one-speed equipped with drum brakes and a derailler. He finished 11th overall and scored first novice. It was the start of a cycling revolution with other mountain bike pioneers such as Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher. In 1984 Joe powered to 8 straight mountain bike victories, 15 wins in the year, and won the new National Off-Road Bicycle Association national championship. The next year he continued raging with 12 straight victories and a second NORBA national championship to emerge as an early star of the new sport. Over a 10-year career he competed in 233 races with a total of 73 victories. They include five victories in the Rockhopper Race, mountain biking's first popular national-level race, and three victories in the Whiskeytown Downhill, an early mountain bike "classic." He retired from racing in 1990. Joe's interests broadened to include working as test rider for Fisher bikes and developing new products such as mountain bike tires. He has designed bikes for Marin Mountain Bikes, Merlin, Kona and VooDoo. In 1988 he was one of the original 10 inducted to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, and now is honored by the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

Special Recognition

The Schwinn Family

In 1891 Iganz Schwinn emigrated to America, and in 1895 at age 31 he began producing his bicycles in Chicago. He worked at the company be founded, Arnold Schwinn, until his death in 1948. For over 50 years, a new American “safety bicycle” was pioneered and engineered to the high place that the Schwinn Built bicycle occupies. Early in the 1930's Schwinn modernized the American bike. They reduced the wheel diameter, from 28” to 26” and fattened the tire to 2-1/8”. They also introduced the balloon tire in their 1933 bike line. The balloon tire popularized by Schwinn had the some basic design found on today's mountain bikes. In 1945 they underwrote the National Cycling Championships that put the governing body of die ABL of A on sound financial footing. They provided bikes for the U.S. Olympic Team from 1956 to 1972.