Ned Overend
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox cyclist Edmund ("Ned") Overend (born August 20, 1955) is an American former professional cross-country mountain bike racer.<ref name="Ned Overend at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame">Template:Cite web</ref> He is a six-time NORBA cross-country mountain bike national champion who became the first-ever cross-country world champion by winning the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in 1990.<ref name="Ned Overend at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame"/><ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame">Template:Cite web</ref> Overend was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2001.<ref name="Ned Overend at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame"/><ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame"/>
Cycling career
The son of an American diplomat, Overend was born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised in Ethiopia and Iran.<ref name="Ned Overend at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame"/> He attended high school in San Diego, California and was involved in motocross racing.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend">Template:Cite web</ref> Overend moved to Durango, Colorado in the early 1980s where he first became involved in cycling by entering Durango’s Iron Horse Classic, a 47-mile road race with 6,700 feet of climbing along a narrow gauge railroad.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/> From road racing, he eventually moved on to mountain bike racing, where his previous motocross experience combined with his physical fitness from road racing made him an exceptional competitor.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/>
Overend was hired to race for the Schwinn factory racing team in 1984 and won two consecutive NORBA Mountain Biking National Championships for the team in 1986 and 1987.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/> He then signed a contract to race for Specialized Bicycles and went on to win the NORBA Mountain Biking National Championship in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/><ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame"/> At the age of 40, Overend made an attempt to qualify for the United States Olympic team to compete in the inaugural Olympic Cross-Country Mountain Biking competition in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.<ref name="The Evolution of American Bicycle Racing">Template:Cite book</ref> He needed to finish the qualifier race in fourth place to qualify for the Olympic team alongside Tinker Juarez but, one and a half miles from the finish line, he suffered a flat tire and finished in eighth place.<ref name="The Evolution of American Bicycle Racing"/>
Even though he retired from professional mountain bike competition in 1996, he continued competing in endurance competitions, winning the XTERRA Triathlon in 1998 and 1999 and competing in regular road triathlons.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/> He won the U.S. National Winter Triathlon Championship in 2000 and the UCI Masters Cyclo-cross World Championship in 2012.<ref name="Where Are They Now? Chasing Down Ned Overend"/> In 2015, Overend won the first-ever U.S. Fat Bike championship.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During his professional mountain biking career, Overend earned the nicknames "Deadly Nedly" and "The Lung", because he was very difficult to beat and for his exceptional aerobic endurance at altitude (especially so for a man of his age), respectively.<ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame"/> He is the current captain of the Specialized Cross Country Team.
Overend appeared in "the world's first mountain biking video, aptly named, The Great Mountain Biking Video released in 1988 by New & Unique Videos of San Diego, California.<ref>"A World Odyssey: Searching for the World's Best Mountain Biking," by Dan Gindling, Bicycling San Diego, Winter 1994</ref> Overend also appears in competition sequences of "The Sun Valley Mountain Bike Challenge," a video chronicle of that year's NORBA Championships also released in 1988.
He also appeared in a mountain-bike race video entitled "Battle At Durango: The First-Ever World Mountain Biking Championships" videotaped in Durango, Colorado in 1990, and released by New & Unique Videos in 1991.<ref name="Battle At Durango">Template:Cite web</ref>
Major achievements
Incomplete list
- UCI World Mountain Biking Champion (Gold, 1990; Bronze 1991)<ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame"/>
- NORBA National Mountain Biking Champion (1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992)<ref name="Ned Overend at the U.S. Bicycling Bike Hall of Fame"/>
- NORBA National Point Series Champion (1987)
- XTERRA World Champion (1998, 1999, 2nd 1997)
- Template:USA National Winter Triathlon Champion (2000)
- Template:USA National XTERRA Series Champion (2001, 2002)
- UCI Masters Cyclocross World Champion [Men 55-59] (2012)
- Colorado Road Champion (2004)
- Road Apple Rally Champion (2004, 2009)
- Bob Cook Memorial Mount Evans Hill Climb (1st, 1985–1986; 2nd, 2006; 4th, 2005; 5th, 2008; 2nd, 2010)
- Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb (1st 2011; 2nd, 2006, 2009)
- Teva Mountain Games Hillclimb (1st, 2007)
- USA National Fat Bike Champion 2015
References
External links
- Ned Overend at the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame
- Ned Overend at the U.S Bicycling Hall of Fame
- Cyclenews.com interview, August 18, 2005
- Bikeradar.com interview with Gary Boulanger, August 23, 2008
- Battle at Durango: First World Mountain Biking Championships at Vimeo
- [1] The Great Mountain Biking Video at Vimeo
Template:UCI Mountain Bike World Champions – Men's cross-country Template:UCI Hall of Fame Template:Authority control