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Kranzel Bike 2005 Mountain bikers of the Year
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Entry Date: 10/17/2005
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Well let me tell you, this was the hardest year we have had so far in picking the Kranzel Bike Mountain bikers of the year. There were just so many riders that pulled off fantastic rides as well as others that made everyone here turn our heads.
This year we actually looked a lot deeper than just the big names and looked at a lot of local and non-pro talent. People, who over the past year drew our attention, captured our hearts and earned our respect.
First off for the men, this was a really hard category to fill. In the running were pros, Sam Hill for his not only clinching the US Open again, but for the way he treated us and the gromm. Cameron Zink was in the running, so was Chris Van dine, who has to be the nicest racer we had met in a long time. Not to mention his wild dad, who helped add bonus points? But, after a lot of beer, a couple of arguments, and a bottle almost through the TV (unrelated to the voting) we came up with our short list. This was a great year for local rides, so we decided they would get the most consideration. I am sorry to all our non-local readers, but if you don’t know these guys now, it will not be long until you do.
We came up with a tie for first place and could not seem to break it, and in the end there is no way we could have honored one without slighting the other.
First place for the men’s Mountain biker of the year goes to Brandon Dregalis, and Fred Heinley.
Brandon Is a Cross-country racer who had worked in our shop. He is a great racer as well as person. He is currently Sponsored by Cannondale and doing them proud. This year Brandon finished 3rd place over all in the NORBA national series. I see Brandon training in the rain and 100 degree weather. I am proud to know him and wish him all the success in the world.
Fred also finished in 3rd place in NORBA nationals in the downhill. Fred rides For the Reading Racing team and is a Key figure in the trail system at reading as well as the 2 worlds most fun events that take place in reading. I had the chance to spend a lot of time with Fred this year while tagging along with the team. Fred is a perfectionist when it comes to bike set up and line hunting. He is highly personable, and I totally respect the way he has been mentoring the gromm.
The women’s choices were extremely difficult. For the last 3 years we had unanimously chosen Marla Streb. Marla has always been one of our favorite riders as well as one heck of a nice person to talk to. She represents this sport like no other. In short, we love Marla. But for 05 we figured that since Marla has already a place in history as well as our hearts it was time to respectfully over look her this year. After a lot of consideration, we figured the only person worthy of taking Marla’s place this year would be someone who is as big a fan as we are. This was a difficult choice, the local women just rocked this year, and the pros were killing it as well. So for The 2005 women’s Kranzel bike Mountain Biker of the year we choose Jenn Gregor.
Jenn is one of the biggest Marla fans I know, but that had little do with the reasons she has been chosen. Jenn has a do not give up attitude. She rides because she loves it. She symbolizes the true reason why most of started riding, for the fun, personal challenge, and to prove that we are actually alive. She is one of the most interesting people we have metn in a long time. She has been the MAC series DH champion in her class 2 years running, despite, if I am correct, some personal conflict on whether she can keep going in this sport. We hope you stick around for a while longer. It is good to see someone like Jenn at the races, she may not be the fastest person on the mountain, but she is the mosr subdued cool as well as inspiring .we could use more women like her in this sport.
There was one other female rider, who we were very stoked about this and we have decided that she needed to be Honored with a mention, and that would be Cannondale rider Bernadita Pizzaro, We met Benarditta last year at the US Open, and she caught my eye as a real comer. When I seen her this year she had made some fantastic changes. She had her self in fantastic shape and rode close to perfect. She had shown great dedication to herself as well as her sport. The people of Chili, as well as her Sponsors should be as proud of her as we are.
On a final note, I apologize for any miss spelled names or grammar errors or any thing else that may piss people off I am really busy and don’t really have time for spell chech at this point of the day or even proof reading. Also you can see that of the 4 people I have mentioned above 3 of them ride cannondales. Please note that this had no bearing what so ever with our decisions. In fact around here that is a minus rather than a plus (yes we have some old, personal issues with cannondale) but being the guys we are it will not stop us from paying homage to the people who we feel deserve recognition.
Congrats to all and have a great and productive off season, hope to talk to you all next season.
Rick Kranzel
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