Brian Lopes has been a prevailing force on the professional mountain biking scene for more than a decade and is now recognized as the winningest professional mountain bike racer in the United States. He has earned nine National Off-Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) Championships, five World Cup Championships, and four World Championships.
Lopes started riding at age 4 and graduated to pro status at 17. Since then, he has dominated BMX, downhill, dual slalom, dual, and most recently bikercross racing. He is the most successful active racer on the NORBA circuit, regardless of discipline, and has held world records in bunny hopping and distance jumping. Lopes has appeared on the Outdoor Life Network, has graced the covers of every major mountain biking magazine, including Bike, Dirt, Bicycling, VeloNews, and Mountain Biking, and has received coverage in such mainstream media as Men's Health, Rolling Stone, and USA Today.
Featured in numerous riding videos, Lopes even has a signature tire—the Maxxis Brian Lopes Bling Bling Dual. He also stars in the mountain bike video game Downhill Domination for PlayStation. Other career highlights include being nominated as ESPYs Extreme Athlete of the Year and serving as a stunt rider for the USA Network show Pacific Blue.
Lopes resides in Laguna Beach, California, with his wife, Paula.
Lee McCormack is an experienced journalist who has written for Bike, Mountain Bike Action, Twentysix, Flow, and Mountain Biking. He also publishes www.leelikesbikes.com, a mountain biking Web site frequented by thousands of readers worldwide.
McCormack has won numerous writing and informational graphics awards at the state and regional levels and was part of the team that won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for public service. He enjoys all riding disciplines from singletrack to road to dirt jumps. McCormack has been an expert-level downhill and slalom racer for several years, and his riding has dramatically improved since working with Lopes on this book. In 2004 McCormack won several major events and finished the year ranked No. 1 among expert downhillers within his age class. He is now positioned to turn semipro in 2005.
McCormack lives in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Tracy.
