Mike Neel

Mike Neel

To person
Date of birth	July 18, 1951
nation	United States
discipline	Road / train
To the team
Current team	(End of career)
function	driver
Last updated: April 12, 2016

Michael Eugene "Mike" Neel (born July 18, 1951 in Berkeley ) is a former American cyclist . He was the first professional racing driver in his country to compete in the UCI road world championships.

Athletic career

In 1971 and 1973, Mike Neel was the American champion in the single pursuit . In 1972 he was the first American racing driver to start in the British Milk Race , which he did not finish. In 1974 he won the Tour of the Sierras and in 1975 the Milwaukee Classic . He was considered a hippie who put too much weight on the scales. In the winter of 1972/73 he started together with Roger Young in Europe in amateur six-day races .

In 1976 Neel started in the road race at the Olympic Games in Montreal , but had to give up the race after a fall. Immediately thereafter, he became a professional, started as such at the road world championships in Ostuni, Italy, and surprisingly finished in tenth place. He was the first American professional cyclist to participate in world championships. After a season in European races, he ended his active cycling career in late 1977.

Professional and private

Subsequently, Neel worked as a trainer and manager of racing cyclists and teams. From 1978 to 1979 he managed the US national road driver team. In the following years he was temporarily out of work and his marriage fell apart. From 1985 he was in charge of the 7-Eleven team with cyclist Andrew Hampsten , who won the Giro d'Italia in 1988 . In 2016, former cyclist Davis Phinney wrote about Neel: “Mike was a genius at understanding how to pull a team together and get the most out of every rider. He was savvy and tactically prescient - knowing what was coming on the road before anyone else did (in the era before internet, cell phones, team radios, et al, that ability was crucial). "(" Mike was a genius at that Keeping the team together and getting the most out of every driver. He was smart and tactically foresighted - he knew before anyone else what was going to happen on the road (in an era before the internet, cell phones, team radio and everything else, that skill was crucial). " )

In 1989 Mike Neel had a serious traffic accident in Europe, was in a coma and was then no longer able to meet the requirements of a cycling coach on a professional team. In the 1990s he coached the Spago team, whose sponsor could no longer pay their salaries after a short time, and then the Timex-Saeco women's team. Today (2016) Neel lives in Siskiyou County , lives off casual work and offers cycling training camps.

Honors

In 2000, Mike Neel was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame .

Successes - rail

1971

• American champion - one's pursuit

1973

• American Champion - Singles Pursuit, Scratch (10 Miles)

Teams

• 1976-1977 Magniflex-Torpado

Web links

• Mike Neel in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Mike Neel in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Mike Neel. In: US Bicycling Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 12, 2016 . 
• Edmond Hood: Mike Neel: Beating On The Door. In: Pezcyclingnews. November 21, 2005, accessed April 11, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lou Dzierzak: The Evolution of American Bicycling . Falcon Guides, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7627-3901-1 , pp. 42 .
2. ^ Mike Neel: Beating On The Door. In: Pez Cycling News. November 21, 2005, accessed April 11, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Lou Dzierzak: The Evolution of American Bicycle Racing . Falcon Guides, 2007, ISBN 978-0-7627-3901-1 , pp. 5 .
4. ↑ ^{a b} BN, (Before Mike Neel,) no Americans mixed it at the front of the pro peloton. No US-based teams won Euro-tours. (No longer available online.) In: gobha-clothing.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016 ; Retrieved April 12, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ^ Davis Phinney: Davis Phinney's cycling dream team. In: Cyclingnews. April 11, 2016, accessed April 12, 2016 . 
6. ^ Admin: Mike Neel's Cycling Training Camp. (No longer available online.) In: Scott Valley Bikes. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016 ; accessed on April 12, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.