After capping off his stellar season by winning the infamous Iceman Cometh mountain bike race by a mere 7 seconds, we gave Jeremiah Bishop a call for a few questions. Actually, it started with a few txt msgs:
BIKERUMOR – Nov.12 – 9:39am: Congrats on the Iceman win!
JEREMIAH BISHOP – Nov.12 – 12:59pm: Thanks, want an exclusive?
(ME, THINKING: Well, I just read about your win on Velonews…)
BR: Sure.  What u got to say?
JB: Ice man is the biggest 1 day Mtb race in teh us and it was the season finally of my best year ever!!  New course record for the 20 year old race! Zooom!! Yeah baby!
BR: Do u have a pic you can email me?
JB: Sure
BR: Cool.  I’ll post as soon as I see them.  You made that course your b….!
From here, I pulled a pic from Flickr (on left, credit: thirteenhertz) because we just got our wrists slapped for pulling a copyrighted pic off one of the other major cycling race sites…which is where the pic that JB sent me came from, too.  To read the rest of the interview, click “more”…
BR: What did it feel like to win the Iceman over a lot of other big names? ÂÂ
JB: To win the Ice Man was amazing!  I was surprised to capture the course record because I was suffering so bad for the last half of the race and there was this pack of six race winning riders coming into the last 1.5 miles!
BR: What’s up with Trek downgrading the sponsorship of a factory rider that won two national championships, is an advocate of clean cycling and just won the Iceman?  (NOTE: Trek has offered JB a frame-only deal for 2009)
The story is that Trek is putting it’s eggs into the European basket because that is a growing market for them and that strains their marketing budget. This, combined with Volkwagen’s role with the team for next year is unknown. Hard to say what it will look like but there will be some American based presence on the racing scene. We should know more in the coming weeks.ÂÂ
BR: Have you found a full ride yet for 2009?  If not, who are some of your individual sponsors that are sticking with you? ÂÂ
JB: No I don’t have a full ride yet but I am talking to 2 other teams aside from Trek in the event they fall thru. I hope to continue with a couple of current or past sponsors as I continue the awesome momentum I have had this last part of the season.ÂÂ
The good news is that I am really excited about next year, I will be hitting a lot of the best endurance races I had to skip to make the Olympic long team and try for main team last year!  ÂÂ
This means a ton of podium time and fun exposure for the sponsors that sign on with me for 09′! Serious inquires for mountian bike marketing mayhem inquire at jeremiahbishop (at) yahoo.com
Thanks again to the great sponsors, suppliers and supporters that have made this year my best yet!ÂÂ
Trek Bicycles
VolkswagenÂÂ
JBLÂÂ
Cytomax ÂÂ
Shimano  ÂÂ
Cane CreekÂÂ
Sara sport
Light & MotionÂÂ
Bontrager
Genuine innovationsÂÂ
RockShoxÂÂ
Dumond TechÂÂ
Six Six One
