Dale Holmes - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Dale John Holmes was a British professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX)

BMX

Bicycle motocross or BMX refers to the sport in which the main goal is extreme racing on bicycles in motocross style on tracks with inline start and expressive obstacles, and it is also the term that refers to the bicycle itself that is designed for dirt and motocross cycling.- History :BMX started...

racer whose prime competitive years were from 1990-2004. He is now a respected champion mountain bike (MTB) racer.

Racing career milestones

Started Racing: 1982 at age 9, in England. He first noticed BMX on reading a BMX mag back in 1980.

First race result: Fourth place in 9 Novice at the Nottingham Outlaws BMX track in Nottingham, England.

Sanctioning Body:

First win (local):

First sponsor: Bunny's Bike Shop (Private Company)

First national win: At a 1985 United Kingdom National in Slough, England in 13 Expert.

Turned Professional: In Mid 1987 at 16 in England directly after the 1987 IBMXF European Championships.

First Professional race result: Second Place in Superclass.

First Professional win: NBMXA British Championships 1988.

First Junior Pro* win: 13 Expert Slough 1985.

First Senior Pro** race result: Second Place UKBMX National Poole.

First Senior Pro win: NBMXA British Championships 1988.

Retired: In late 2006 to concentrate on Downhill Mountatin Bike (MTB) Racing. He recently started BMX racing again in the ABA Veteran's Pro class. His debut race was on 1 September 2007 at the ABA Black Jack Nationals in Reno, Nevada

Reno, Nevada

Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

. He won on Saturday (1 September) and came in second on Sunday.

Height & weight at height of his career (1995–2006): Ht:5'9" Wt:182 lbs.

Amateur/Junior Men

Nottingham Outlaws: 1982
Bunnys/GT BMX: 1983-1984
JMC (James Melton Cyclery) Racing Equipment: 1985
Powerlite Engineering: 1986-1987 Holmes would turn pro with this sponsor.

Professional/Elite Men

Powerlite Engineering: 1986-1987
Cyclecraft: 1988-1989
ELF (Extra Light Frames): 1989-1990
MCS (Moto Cross Specialties) Bicycle Specialties (European Division): 1990-December 1991
Webco Bicycles: January 1992-December 1992. This is not the same famous American pioneering Webco Inc. of the early to late 1970s. This Webco is the West European Bicycle Company created in 1991 by Gerrit Does, the person who introduced BMX to Europe (Holland specifically) and co-founded the IBMXF.
GT (Gary Turner) Bicycles (UK/Europe): January 1993-September 1999. Holmes was dropped by GT Bicycles the day after the 1999 NBL Grandnationals. According to Todd Corbitt, GT team manager and former pro racer GT, was overstaffed with professionals. Holmes contract still ran until the end of 1999 but GT would release him if he gets an offer of sponsorship from another company.
Nirve: 26 December 1999 - late November 2001
O'Neal/Atomic: early 2002- late November 2002
Free Agent: 25 November 2002 – present. As the Team Manager of Free Agent World Team post his October 2006 BMX retirement. He was also signed by KHS Bicycles to race Mountain Bikes (MTB) at the same time. The 2002 ABA Grandnational was his first race with Free Agent.

Amateur/Junior Men

National Bicycle Motocross Association (NBMXA)(UK)

1985 13 Expert National No.1
1987 15 Expert and 14 & 15 Cruiser National No.1
1988 16 Expert and 16 & over Cruiser National No.1

Professional/Elite Men

British Cycling Bicycle Motocross (BCBMX)(England)

2002 British BMX Champion

English Bicycle Motocross Association (EBA) (UK)

1989 Superclass British Champion

National Bicycle League

The National Bicycle League is a United States based Bicycle Motocross sports sanctioning body originally based in Deerfield Beach, Florida but after several moves it was based in Hilliard, Ohio...

(NBL)

1999 Pro Class and Pro Cruiser Grandnational Champion
1999 National No.1 Pro Cruiser
2009, 2010 Elite Masters National No.1

American Bicycle Association
American Bicycle Association
The American Bicycle Association is a United States-based Bicycle Motocross sports governing body in Gilbert, Arizona created by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. It is the largest sanctioning body in the United States concerning BMX. It has tracks in Canada and Mexico as well as in the USA...

(ABA)

1999 National No.1 Pro Cruiser

2001 20" World Cup Champion

2008 Disney Cup Veteran Pro Champion

International Bicycle Motocross Federation (IBMXF)*

1993 20" Superclass Silver Medal World Champion

1994 24" Superclass Bronze Medal World Champion

Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI)*

1996 Elite Men World Champion

1997 Elite Men World Cup Champion

1997 Elite Men European Champion

2001 Elite Men World Champion

Pro Series Championships and Invitationals

Significant injuries

Broke hand at the UCI World Championships in Paris, France on 31 July 2005 laid up until December 2005. He took a brief hiatus from racing after the hand healed.

Miscellaneous

Holmes is a contributing writer for BMX Plus! magazine. He has a monthly side bar news article in BMX Plus!s "Inside Scoop" section called the "Dale Holmes Update".
In 2003, just before the ABA Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

National, Holmes was doing practice sprints on his race bike. He was accosted and mugged
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....

by two men one armed with a knife, the other with a gun, which he pointed at Holmes's head. They proceeded to rob Holmes of his backpack and race bike. Holmes was unharmed.
Is a regular at Starbucks on Winchester Rd , Murrieta and Soup Plantation

BMX press magazine interviews and articles

"On the Squad" BMX Biker Monthly 1984 No.8 pg.36 (Extended photo caption in bold typeface)
"Dale Holmes Takes The Title!" BMX Plus! December 1996 Vol.19 No.12 pg.44 Brief interview on how he won the 1996 Elite Men UCI World Championship.
"Q&A: Have you ever cheated racing?" Snap BMX Magazine May 1999 Vol.6 Iss.3 No.31 pg.25 One of 10 separate interviews of different racers including Brian Foster and Matt Hadan
Matt Hadan
Matthew Merle Hadan is an American professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross racer whose prime competitive years are from 1985-1995. Nicknamed early in his career "The Master" and later "The Diesel"....

asking if they ever cheated during a race.
"Dale Holmes Rides" Moto Mag July/August 2003 Vol.2 No.3 pg.27

BMX magazine covers

Moto Mag:

July/August 2003 Vol.2 No.3 at bottom in a stylized photo. Main image: Kim Hayashi
Kim Hayashi
Kimberly M. Hayashi is an American professional "New/Current School" Bicycle Motocross racer whose prime competitive years are from 2000–Present. Her many nicknames include: "Lil Kim", "Shorty", "Midget", "Sushi Roll", "Kim Woo", Lil Sushi, et al.. all references to her diminutive 4' 10",...

(5) ahead of three unidentifieds.

Post BMX career

He retired in October 2006 to pursue a Mountain Bike Racing Career full time. However, as of November 2008 he is team manager of the Free Agent World Team in BMX and has returned to BMX racing in the Veteran Pro Class. He continues to race mountain bike four-cross

Four-cross

Four-cross , also called Mountain-cross, not to be confused with Fourcross, is a relatively new style of mountain bike racing where four bikers race downhill on a prepared, BMX like, track, simply trying to get down first. These bikes are generally either full suspension with 3 to 4 inches of...

for KHS. At the time of his BMX retirement he said it was just time for a change:

Mountain Bike Career Record

Started racing: 2002

Sub Discipline: Four-cross

Four-cross

First race result:

Sanctioning body: UCI

Professional

British Cycling

British Cycling is the national governing body for cycle racing in Great Britain. It administers most competitive cycling in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man...

2005 UK National 4-Cross Champion

Union Cycliste Internationale

Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....

(UCI)

External links

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