X Games Gold Medalist and Olympian Comes Back to Bikes

February 3rd, 2011 11:45am

The kid who could write the book on come backs is back on a bike for 2011. Chris Del Bosco is set to return to mountain bike racing in 2011 aboard Cove Factory Racing bikes. The former US National DH Champion was on a hiatus from bike racing while focusing on skiing for Canada in the Vancouver Olympic Games. He was originally set to return to bike racing last summer following the Olympics, but underwent knee surgery to repair a nagging injury that he'd been skiing on all season. Recovery from that injury was supposed to sideline Del Bosco until Winter X Games this weekend, but being a true master of the comeback story, Chris returned in time for the start of the World Cup Ski Cross season and has already won another World Cup event this year.

Chris' mission to return to bike racing is pretty bold: World Cup wins in both ski cross and mountain biking. But Chris is a bold athlete, and he's already accomplished the first part of that mission this season. But perhaps even bolder, Del Bosco has also already bounced back from having his National Championship in DH mountain biking stripped away and being kicked off the US National Ski team for marijuana and alcohol abuse issues. After winning a tough battle in rehabilitation that resulted in a new life outlook, a clean bill of health, and new found training focus, the once pure raw talent has rebuilt himself into an elite world caliber athlete with an ever filling trophy case to prove it. That trophy case now includes X Games Gold and Bronze Medals and multiple World Cup wins and podium prizes.

Skiing on a bad knee all last season, his childhood dream of Olympic Gold came to a spectacular crashing halt as he gave up his sure lock on the bronze medal in probably the riskiest pass attempt in Olympic history. With the weight of the Gold starving nation on his shoulders, Chris tossed himself and his sure Bronze straight over a cliff. Instead of taking the 2nd last jump of the race the normal way (which was a hip jump to set up an easy turn to the last straight away and finishing Hollywood jump) Chris invented his own uber aggressive line. He went straight over the top of the hip and catapulted himself massively up in the air, straight into a resulting 80 foot step down and exploded on the landing. Asked if he regretted not settling for the easy Bronze he had wrapped up, Chris simply replied “I race to win, and I
didn’t win today. I would have been frustrated with second. Some people are happy with just placing. I’m not one of those people.”

The Cove crew recruited Chris to lead the boutique hand built brand's race program in a new direction and is looking forward to supporting him as best they can. Cove's Factory Team Mechanic, and Canadian National Team Mechanic, Adam Trotter noted “I'm proud to have Chris on board a Cove for 2011. Supporting an athlete with a resume and story like his is truly unique and I look forward to working with Chris to help him achieve his bold ambitions." Ernest Vogel, who manages sales and marketing efforts in the US and pushed for bringing Del Bosco to the Cove added “There's actually not much reason to speak about his racing ability, nor his ability to come back to the sport, because he'll answer all those questions himself, his way: as soon as he leaves the start gate. He was once a better bike racer than ski racer. Whether he still is, we'll let him answer that this summer. That's just Chris' way. We'll try our best to support him and put him on the best bikes the Cove can make. The shocker has already been raced to some pretty impressive wins and podiums around the world without ever having a World Cup racing budget to compete with the big corporations. But the Cove does have probably the most underrated Engineer in the industry and he worked incredibly hard to make the redesigned Shocker lighter, lower, and leaner but still tough enough to put a Cove decal on it and ride it down the trails above the shop. “

Chris' first event back on a bike is scheduled to be the US PRO GRT season kick off in Port Angeles, WA.

Photos - Steve McCabe

Location: News >> X Games Gold Medalist and Olympian Comes Back to Bikes