For the week of  September 12 - 18, 2001

Cody Peterson realizes 
a dream at worlds

Mountain biker racer

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By BETSY ANDREWS
Express Correspondent

On Friday in Vail, Colo., 22-year-old Hailey native Cody Peterson will compete against the best mountain bikers in the world for the title of U23 (under 23) Men’s Cross Country World Champion at the UCI Mountain Biking World Championships.

Peterson, ranked #2 in the country behind teammate Adam Craig, was optimistic in spite of a knee injury sustained during training last week.

"I’ve been looking forward to making the championships since I was 15," said Peterson. "I’m ready to race."

Vail’s cross-country course suits Peterson’s style.

The 7.4 mile track ascends over 1,200 vertical feet. The four-lap race promises to favor riders with strong technical climbing ability. And Peterson is a world-class climber.

His climb to the top hasn’t always been that easy.

Only six weeks ago, he landed in the emergency room in Deer Valley, Utah, after dropping out of a NORBA National Championship Series (NCS) race due to dehydration caused by over-training.

Forfeiting cost Peterson a chance at the NCS U23 championship. Although he remained ranked #2, it wasn’t good enough for a place on the U.S. team. He needed a top-forty finish in a World Cup race.

After a few days of rest in Hailey, he entered a World Cup race at Grouse Mountain in British Columbia and placed 36th against a top-flight field.

Peterson, lean and lanky at 6-1, is only the fourth Idahoan to qualify for the UCI Mountain Biking World Championships, along with two-time national champion Ruthie Mathes, Zach Shriver of Pocatello, and TJ Stewart from Boise.

"He’s always been very focused, and known what he’s wanted," says Chip Deffé, who, along with wife Susan, owns Sun Summit South Ski & Cycle in Hailey, where Peterson worked through high school as a bike mechanic.

Deffé remembers when 14-year-old Peterson started hanging around the shop: "He spent so much time helping out, and knew so much, it just made sense to start paying him."

Peterson cut his teeth on the Wood River Valley’s extensive network of single track. He entered his first race, in the Wild Rockies Mountain Bike Series in 1995. In 1997, he took the Junior Expert Championship and earned the title of #1 Junior in the Northwest.

After graduating from Wood River High School in 1997, Peterson attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. There, he picked up the 2000 Rocky Mountain Collegiate Conference Road Racing title. A fifth-place ranking in the 2000 NCS qualified him for the 2001 World Cup circuit.

Among his local sponsors are Smith Sport Optics; the Ketchum Rotary; Evergreen Restaurant; Sun Summit South Ski & Cycle; and Lallman Feltman Peterson & Company PA.

OLN will provide television coverage of the UCI Mountain Biking Championships.

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