Streb and Vouilloz among 2013 Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductees

Image 1 of 2

Marla Streb told Cyclingnews that she intended to race in the downhill event(Image credit: Dave McElwaine/trailwatch.net)

The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame announced its five new inductees for 2013 for several categories according to its website: Marla Streb and Nicolas Vouilloz (racers); Bill and Robin Groff (pioneers); David Epperson (journalism) and the Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association (CORBA) (advocacy).

Both nominated racers are downhillers. Streb won a UCI World Cup downhill, three US downhill national titles and the X Games championship. She has also been the Singlespeed World Champion. Vouilloz retired from mountain bike racing after winning his 10th downhill world championship in 2002. He only lost one world championship in which he competed due to suffering a flat tire. More recently, he has returned to racing in the new enduro format.

CORBA was founded in August 1987 as a response to trail closures and to represent the interests of mountain bikers in the Santa Monica Mountains and Rim of the Valley Corridor near Los Angeles. CORBA quickly became a prominent voice of reason in the chaos of newly emerging mountain biking advocacy. A year later, and with other like-minded advocates, CORBA became one of the five founding clubs of IMBA. It has more than 25 years of advocacy experience and still operates today.

Epperson has been on the mountain bike scene for nearly three and a half decades, and almost always with a camera in tow. He was the founding editor and senior photographer for Bicycle Sport Magazine and in 1981, his iconic photograph of a group of riders on klunkers in Crested Butte became the first poster for the Specialized Stumpjumper. His work has appeared in publications such as Bicycling, Bicycle Guide, Outside, Mountain Bike Action, Time Magazine, Velonews, Cyclist and Winning.

The Groff brothers opened a bike shop, Rim Cyclery, in Moab, Utah in 1983. They also teamed up with John Groo to start a guide service called Rim Tours and put on the Moab (road) Stage Race in 1986 Future stars such as Lance Armstrong, Bobby Julich, Davis Phinney, Ned Overend, and the Grewal brothers all raced here as juniors or neo-pros. The series lasted for four or five years before morphing into a mountain bike race that eventually became the Tour of Canyonlands. The Groffs pioneered mountain biking in and around Utah, including on trails like the famous Slickrock Trail.