Juli Furtado introduced herself to the mountain bike racing world in 1990 when she was crowned Women's XC World Champion in her rookie season. She rode
this steel Yeti FRO with Campagnolo Euclid and Centaur components until the Mountain Bike World Championships in Durango when she traded it in for a Yeti C-26.
In December 2014, Juli stopped by
The Pro's Closet in Boulder to talk about the early days of MTB racing and her experience as a top female rider.
If you've never had that horrible feeling that you're actually accelerating while pulling the brakes so hard you think the levers are going to break then just be quite on this subject.
I was racing mountain bikes in 1992 through 1997 starting with racing cross country at National level on a sponsored shop team (I rode KHS), before racing DH on a sponsored factory team (I rode Bombproof)
The bikes we ride today are a quantum leap beyond those early bikes, and you can ride significantly faster, with more control, and less fatigue.
I currently ride a carbon fibre Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon hardtail with 80mm suspension fork, hydraulic brakes and 29'er tubeless wheels.
Its great having been involved in the early days (I started in MTB in 1986 after years of BMX racing and freestyle) because I really appreciate the modern equipment. The bike I currently ride is simply ridiculous in terms of the speed it can be ridden, when you have the fitness and technical skill.
Its been very cool to be part of that journey
People think and are made to think that if they buy the latest and greatest "do dad" that they are gonna just automatically kick ass which is def not the case at all.
You could stick Semenuk on a huffy from Walmart and that kid would still find his way onto the podium.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ETziC9oBtM
What's interesting is how many top americans started out with Yeti and the impact they had early on, for such a small team and brand they had a massive pressence in early 90's MTB history.
Great bike, i guess someone spent a lot of time and effort getting it back to what it is now? Cool to See pro's like Juli still involved in the sport and always cool to see these old bikes for a trip down memory lane
scott AT4 bars salsa stem and all deore. My u brake has the original booster and works very well. I also I had a set of roadie wheels built back then. XT hubs, sun mistal m14 rims with 32 db butted spokes in rear and 28 in front.
Still has biopace rings lol and massive 54 tooth big ring as well as full deore shifting with thumbies etc. Right now it has soem old school panaracer blackwall smoke lites on it in 1.75.
But my comment is more implying there was no real testing for EPO back in the 90's, which is why it was so rampant in that era. And when testing became available at turn of century, it was still beatable with microdosing - like Armstrong and all the other roadies did, and like Rasmussen taught Canadian MTB'ers.
Anybody notice that white RF crank on the Yeti C26?