John Tomac#Team ownership

Tomac first participated in cycle racing at the age of seven. He began to compete in BMX racing events in and around Michigan in 1975 and continued competing in this discipline into his teenage years, racing against Michigan BMX legends Tony Carnes, Mike Chapman, and Tim Root. In 1984, at age sixteen, Tomac won the National Cruiser Class title with the factory Mongoose team. He turned professional in 1985 and spent his last year of BMX competition contesting events as a privateer.

In 1986, Tomac made two significant decisions: he relocated to Southern California, and he left BMX competition for mountain bike racing. He continued to ride for Mongoose. By the autumn of that year, he had won his first two major mountain bike events: the Ross Fat Tire Stage Race in Massachusetts and the Supercross Mountain Bike Exhibition race held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mongoose marketed a Tomac Signature Edition model in 1987, which reflected his rising profile within mountain biking culture. Tomac achieved a few more notable wins during that year, including a second win in the Fat Tire Stage Race and three National XC Series rounds.

In 1987, John Tomac appeared in one of the first instructional mountain biking videos ever produced, entitled The Great Mountain Biking Video,"Video Guide to Mt. Biking," American Bicyclist & Motorcyclist, March 1989, p. 79 produced by New & Unique Videos of San Diego, California. File:John Tomac in Big Bear 1987 Photo by Patty Mooney.jpg

File:1989 ned overend tinker juarez palm springs Photo by Patty Mooney.jpg, John Tomac and Tinker Juarez Compete in the Cindy Whitehead Desert Classic, Palm Springs, California, 1989 - Photo by Patty Mooney]]1988 brought Tomac national title-winning success. By achieving the highest combined points total in the National Off-Road Bicycle Association's (NORBA) Cross-country, Downhill, and Dual Slalom championships, Tomac won the overall title of NORBA World Champion. He was ranked first place in the Cross-country and Dual Slalom disciplines. The "World" status was a misnomer, however, as the NORBA championships were held only in the United States. The first true World Championships for XC and DH, sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, were held in Durango, Colorado, in 1990, where Tomac placed fourth in the downhill. He is well remembered for riding road-style drop handlebars on his Yeti mountain bike at this race, a noticeable deviation from the other riders. This equipment decision was influenced by his recent experience riding for the 7-11 road cycling team in Europe, where he was under contract.[http://oldsite.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stlevelid=F&level1=1&level2=3&idnews=1917 MTB World Championship Archives]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} uci.ch Retrieved on March 18, 2007. Tomac's results and rapid rise to prominence earned recognition from US cycling magazine Velo News, which voted him the world's best all-round rider of 1988.[http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/inductees.cfm?page=99&mID=70 MTB Hall of Fame] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428180233/http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/inductees.cfm?page=99&mID=70 |date=2007-04-28 }} mtnbikehalloffame.com Retrieved on March 18, 2007.

Tomac retained his overall NORBA title in 1989 and also won the NORBA DH Championship for the first time. In a season in which he competed at the highest level on both sides of the Atlantic, he added the German and European XC titles to his collection. In 1990, he joined Yeti Cycles' factory MTB team and the 7-11 road team, embarking on a busy program of events in Europe and the US. To facilitate his road racing career, Tomac based himself in Belgium, and he regularly traveled between the two continents to compete in major road and mountain events. Although he failed to win any of the three individual NORBA series, he won the overall NORBA title for the third successive year.

1991 saw a change of teams: from Yeti to Raleigh and from 7-11 to Motorola. A stronger mountain bike season culminated in UCI World Championship success in Ciocco, Italy, with Gold in XC and Silver in DH. In addition, Tomac won two events on his way to the UCI XC World Cup title and added a second NORBA DH title to his 1989 win. The following year, he finished fifth at the DH World Championship held in Bromont, Canada, and had to settle for second place behind Switzerland's Thomas Frischknecht in the XC World Cup rankings (though there were two event wins again). An accident in which Tomac struck an errant spectator in the final event at Mount Snow, Vermont, prevented him from outscoring his rival and retaining the title.

In 1993, Tomac was the runner-up to Germany's Jürgen Beneke in the inaugural UCI Downhill World Cup and lost out to Frischknecht again in the XC rankings.[http://oldsite.uci.ch/modello.asp?1stlevelid=F&level1=2&level2=2&idnews=2653 Men's Mountain bike World Cup]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} uci.ch Retrieved on March 18, 2007. This was to be the last season in which Tomac would finish in the top three in the World Cup, but he continued to achieve notable results in the World Championships. In 1997, five years after his last World Championship medal, he finished second in the downhill event at Château-d'Oex in Switzerland.

Between 1994 and 1997, Tomac won three more NORBA titles—two in DH and one in XC—as well as some notable individual events, such as the Sea Otter Classic and Cactus Cup. He officially announced his retirement from racing at the Sea Otter Classic in 2000, but later made an occasional return to competition. In 2004, at age 37, he won the famous Kamikaze Downhill held at Mammoth Mountain, California.[http://www.bikemag.com/news/mammoth100104/ 2004 US National Championship] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070406090016/http://bikemag.com/news/mammoth100104/ |date=2007-04-06 }} bikemag.com Retrieved on March 18, 2007. Then, for good measure, he returned in 2005 and won it again.[https://web.archive.org/web/20051210220232/http://www.mbaction.com/detail.asp?id=1512 2005 US National Championship] mbaction.com Retrieved on March 18, 2007.

File:Dan Fox John Tomac 1991 Thrift Drug Classic.jpg

From 1988 to 1991, Tomac dovetailed professional programs in both mountain biking and road racing. He was the 1988 USCF National Criterium Champion and was part of the winning team in the USCF National Team Time Trial Championship in 1989. Tomac spent much of 1990 competing in European events with the Motorola team. Although he failed to win any major road titles in a season in which he entered more than 100 road and mountain events, his schedule included the Tour of Flanders, the Giro d'Italia, and Paris–Roubaix.{{cite web|last1=Andreu|first1=Frankie|title=Racing My First and Only Giro d'Italia|url=http://www.bicycling.com/racing/my-first-and-only-giro-ditalia|website=Bicycling.com|publisher=Rodale, Inc.|accessdate=January 6, 2017|date=May 8, 2014}} Tomac ended his participation in pro-level road racing at the close of the 1991 season, choosing instead to focus on his mountain biking career.

File:Tomac DH bike.JPG

In January 1998, John Tomac entered into a business partnership with Manitou founder and suspension engineer Doug Bradbury, whom he had known since the 1980s. Together, they founded Tomac Bicycles, which launched a range of three full suspension bikes later that year.[http://classic.mountainzone.com/news/tomac.html Tomac Forms Bike Company] mountainzone.com, January 22, 1998. Retrieved on March 22, 2007. Tomac spent the 1998 season competing on his new prototype design in DH events.

The brand name was later acquired by American Bicycle Group, which in turn sold it to Joel Smith, formerly a brand manager at Answer Products, in June 2006. Smith relocated the company to Nebraska and set in place plans to relaunch the Tomac brand with a new model range in 2007.[http://www.bicycleretailer.com/bicycleretailer/search/article_display.jsp?schema=&vnu_content_id=1002690124&WebLogicSession=RK3bSwXFMzWvVrOrDdN0gWJU2a8uJeUq0CNCBYfSVqsxVOMQ4s7N%7C410404591658387762/168887092/6/7005/7005/7002/7002/7005/-1 Tomac Brand Licensed to Joel Smith]{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} bicycleretailer.com, June 19, 2006. Retrieved on March 22, 2007. Tomac remains actively involved in the company and the design of its products.[http://www.tomac.com/aboutus.html About Us] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312010556/http://www.tomac.com/aboutus.html |date=2007-03-12 }} tomac.com Retrieved on March 22, 2007.

Tomac's son, Eli Tomac, is a professional motocross racer competing in the AMA motocross and supercross national championships, riding for the Yamaha racing team. Eli Tomac is noted for being the first true rookie pro ever to win his professional motocross debut, at the Hangtown raceway on May 23, 2010, winning the 2012 West Region, the 2013 250cc, and the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022 450cc Motocross National Championships along with the 2020 450cc and 2022 450cc Supercross Championships.[http://www.racerxonline.com/article/monday-conversation-eli-tomac2010.aspx Monday-conversation-eli-tomac2010.aspx] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527084914/http://www.racerxonline.com/article/monday-conversation-eli-tomac2010.aspx |date=2010-05-27 }}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070314022147/http://www.tomac.com/page1.html John Tomac's History] tomac.com
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070428180233/http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/inductees.cfm?page=99&mID=70 MTB Hall of Fame] mtnbikehalloffame.com

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{{UCI Mountain Bike World Champions – Men's cross-country}}

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Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:American male cyclists

Category:Cross-country mountain bikers

Category:Downhill mountain bikers

Category:People from Owosso, Michigan

Category:People from Cortez, Colorado

Category:UCI Mountain Bike World Champions (men)

Category:American mountain bikers

Category:Cyclists from Michigan

Category:Cyclists from Colorado

Category:20th-century American sportsmen