In the beginning...

In 1998, mountain biking was already an internationally recognised sport in its own right. It was already an Olympic medal sport, had an international governing body (already for 8 years in the US!), dozens of national governing bodies all over the world, movies, magazines - heck, in 1998, Ned Overend's pro career had been over for two years! But still Thunder Bay - with such great mountain bike terrain - still had no real mountain bike series of which to speak. Sure, there were races every once in a while, but there was little care put in to them, and the attendance reflected it. Mountain biking, for all its successes, was still considered a 'fringe' sport, the ugly cousin of road and touring.

However, the local highschools had a great mountain biking series - but it ended in early June. Some students would scratch their racing itch during the summer months by travelling south of the border to compete in NORBA and MNSCS races. They would return from these intensely fun, big, well run, well marked, competetive races with tons of prizes only to get depressed by Thunder Bay's meagre offerings.

So, in 1998, a group of highschool-aged riders started a ten-race points series with local shop sponsorship, and called themselves 'The Black Sheep' after the 1950's TV show about WWII fighter pilots (and because it sounded cool). It was an instant success. I mean, how could it not be?

TEN years later...

Dear God... it's been ten years already.

The Black Sheep has changed a lot over the years. We have road and DH races now, as well as MTB. Our executive is leaner and meaner. But some things haven't changed - we still want to have races that are fun for everybody, with lots of prizes, and lots of opportunity to grow as a rider. We still like to travel out of town for races, and we want to help cycling grow here in Thunder Bay. And every so often, we still do something that makes no sense at all. It's just who we are.

Join us! Visit the 'Registration' page or contact us at:

Black Sheep Mountain Bike Club
Suite # 308
307 Euclid Ave.
Thunder Bay, Ontario
P7E 6G6

Or call our hotline at 624-4270.

The Black Sheep Executive is a group of volunteers dedicated to practical affairs of the club. That includes just about everything necessary to running the club from the utterly mundane considerations such as insurance and legalities, to the much cooler responsibilities such as setting courses and cutting/maintaining trails. The executive and its committees, in short, love biking and racing and want to see the sport flourish in Thunder Bay.

To contact, click the executive's name to send an email.

The 2007 Black Sheep Executive:

President - Mike Del Nin
Vice-President - Paul Maydo
Club Guru/Croney - Eric Bailey
Secretary - Tom Theodoropoulos
Treasurer - Jiska Westbroek
XC Director - !
DH Directors - Rob Moore and Gary Kemp
Sponsorship Director - !
Communications Director - !

Committee Chairs:

Special Events - Pete Tofinetti
Timing and Results - !
Website - Daniel Hansen
Volunteers - Roy Summers
Trails and Facilities - !!?!!
Squadron - Kevin Paradis

The executive and the committee chairs are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting, usually held in November.