World Cup racing will wrap up the first weekend of October in Lake Placid, New York. During the weekend, the latest crop of inductees into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame will be honored. The inductees include racers who pushed the limits of what could be done on a mountain bike and the industry leaders whose innovations made it possible.
Max Commencal
Max Commencal is, of course, the man behind the Commencal brand — both bikes and skis — founding the namesake brand in 2000. Commencal pushed the gravity side of mountain biking, bringing long-travel capability to trail bikes of the day.
And by long-travel trail bikes, I mean enduro. Commencal is one of the brands credited with building one of the first “enduro” bikes with the introduction of the Meta 6. They’ve remained unapologetically gravity-oriented since. Commencal is also known for sticking to a more environmentally friendly material in frame construction — aluminum.
Before starting Commencal Bikes, he brought SUNN over from BMX into the mountain biking space. This was a foundational shift for both the company and mountain biking — the freestyle, racing, fun-oriented BMX background would heavily influence the future of mountain biking. This transition laid the groundwork for European mountain biking in the years following.
Stan Day
Do you have a 1x drivetrain on your bike? If you’re riding a bike that’s even remotely modern, you likely do. And you can thank the leadership of Stan Day for that, along with the gripshift, AXS wireless technology, and other things.
If “AXS” didn’t give away who Day is, he co-founded SRAM in 1987. Yes, SRAM, one of the largest and most innovative component manufacturers in the world.
And it started with the gripshift. He was training and competing in triathlons and realized how inefficient it was to reach down to the down tube to shift the bike. He thought to move the shifters to the handlebars, and the SRAM gripshift was born. While it wasn’t as popular on the road side of things, it was an obvious fit for mountain bikes.
Obviously, SRAM is one of the most influential brands in mountain biking, pioneering and pushing technology forward. While Day is no longer the CEO of SRAM, he still serves as Chairman of the Board.
Greg Minnaar
Greg Minnaar needs no introduction, as he is regarded as one of the greatest downhill racers of all time. Minnaar has 89 elite World Cup podiums, including 22 elite DH World Cup wins. He is a four-time DH World Champion and three-time DH World Cup overall winner.
Minnaar spent much of his career with the Santa Cruz Syndicate before moving on to race and manage the Norco Adidas Race Division team. After the 2024 race season, Minnaar stepped into a full-time role as team manager, leading riders like Danny Hart and Gracey Hemstreet.
Tracy Moseley
British mountain bike legend Tracy Moseley is one of the athletes who pioneered women’s DH racing. Moseley was a regular British National Champion, both as a junior and as an elite racer throughout the mid-to-late 90s.
Her most notable season was likely the 2006 UCI World Cups, where she took first in overall points. Moseley found herself on the podium at each stop that season, with the first three being on the very top step. She was also a DH World Champion in 2010.
Moseley retired from DH racing in 2011, but went on to compete in enduro before stepping away from full-time racing in 2016.
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