Cycling : Wordin Makes a Career Move--Straight Downhill

The thought of hurling himself and his bike off a cliff had never really appealed to John Wordin. Sane people can be like that.

But, as the National Off-Road Bicycle Assn. Points Series Finals and World Mountain Bike Championships approached on consecutive weekends in September, the more intrigued he became. Road racing did not prepare him for this experience. Neither did several years of football at Cal State Northridge.

“It’s the gnarliest thing you’ll ever do on a bike,” the West Hills resident said. “They carry people off on stretchers. There were a lot of guys coming down with mangled bikes.”

Wordin, a road racer by trade, was speaking of last weekend’s kamikaze downhill at the World Mountain Bike Championships at Mammoth Lakes, where it is advisable to wear hockey goalie gear and check your trepidations at the door. Competitors push huge gears and reach speeds approaching 45 m. p. h.--all while negotiating hairpin turns and hair-raising obstacles.

“It’s so different,” Wordin said. “You get out of control a lot easier. It’s not harder or easier, really, just different. Kind of like going from racquetball to tennis.”

Wordin dropped out of the race--although he was 49th in the hill climb--when he experienced mechanical difficulties, but he was 25th overall at the NORBA event in Big Bear.

He said it was his first mountain bike race.

“Most of the guys dropped out,” Wordin said. “I think that’s why I did so well.”

Add NORBA Championships: Chatsworth’s John Tomac was ninth in the NORBA Points Series Finals Sept. 3 in Big Bear. Tomac, the defending champion, finished the 30-mile cross-country race at Snow Summit Resort in 2 hours, 29 minutes, 41 seconds, nearly seven minutes off the pace of winner Tim Gould of Great Britain.

In the final points standings Tomac, who spent much of the season concentrating on road races, was ninth with 65 points. Ned Overend had 119 points to win the title.

The women’s race champion was Sara Ballantyne, who also finished first in the overall points standings.

Add Tomac: Considered the finest off-road cyclist in the world despite recent efforts to steer his career toward road races, Tomac won the kamikaze downhill en route to the overall title in the Mountain Bike World Championships last weekend in Mammoth Lakes.

Tomac, the defending champion, finished six seconds ahead of the pack, covering the approximate four-mile descent in 5:30.

Tomac was sixth in the cross-country event and fourth in the hill climb to hold off Sunnyvale’s Don Myrah, who finished with 59 points--four behind Tomac.

Other area finishers included Canyon Country’s Tom Rogers, who was third in the hill climb, 17th in the cross-country race, 21st in the downhill and ninth overall; and Palmdale’s Wayne Crosdale, fifth in the downhill and 21st overall. Burbank’s Bret Hill was 43rd in the hill climb and 50th in the cross-country race.

Rogers, incidentally, is an original member of Team Ape, a Simi Valley team that, among other requirements, demands its members be at least 6-feet tall.

In the women’s standings, Simi Valley’s Katie Beck was 19th overall in the expert class.

Wild thing: The Wilderness Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Woodland Hills, is offering several classes for beginning cyclists over the next two months.

The courses include bicycle maintenance, introduction to touring in Santa Barbara, mountain-bike maintenance and introduction to mountain biking in addition to tours of the Santa Ynez Valley and Ojai.

Information: 818-887-7831.

Subaru series: David Brinton of North Hollywood and Team Crest was 13th in the most recent stop of the Subaru Cycling Series, held Sept. 10 in Salt Lake City.

Steve Hegg of Montgomery/Avenir won the criterium. Hegg, a teammate of Van Nuys resident Thurlow Rogers, earned 35 points and moved to within 33 points of overall leader Tom Schuler.

The eight-event series concludes Sunday with its championship races in Philadelphia.