Dave Wiens has long been known as one of the toughest Coloradans on two wheels. He won the grueling Leadville 100 mountain bike race six times. He holds two World Cup titles and has two national mountain biking championships. He is a rare cyclist who can say he has out-pedaled Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis -- on a mountain bike.
This year, Wiens took on a new mountain biking challenge. He was named executive director of the Boulder-based International Mountain Biking Association. In his new role, Wiens is having to help hold together an organization that was rocked by problems in the past year. The previous longtime director resigned and the organization lost a major sponsor. Layoffs and program cuts followed.
Wiens told Colorado Matters his mission is to stabilize the organization and to make it very clear where the association stands on controversial issues like bikes in wilderness areas, electric bikes on trails, and government regulation of trails. He's also focused on making IMBA a strong promoter of what he calls "bread-and-butter" trails -- neighborhood trails that are easy to access from communities and good places for families to ride.
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