Athletes - Stu Thomsen

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	Athletes - Stu Thomsen

Stuart Thomsen (b. May 20 1958 in Yorba Linda, California) was an American bicycle motocross (BMX) racer.

Stu Thomsen was one of the first of the "Old School" of famous professional BMX racers that gained fame in the early days of the sport beginning in 1974. His prime competitive years were from 1976-1985. Stu Thomsen can be rightly called the Babe Ruth of BMX for his prolific and domination of BMX during its early days from the mid 1970's into the mid 1980's. Even today, many of the current sports superstars are compared to him as a standard of achievement.

His nicknames were "The Man" and "Stompin Stu", in part due to his size at 6 feet 1.5 inches and 200lbs.

Racing career

Started Racing: 1972

First local race result:

First local win:

First National win: Yamaha Bicycle Gold Cup on September 14, 1974 as an Expert*

Turned Professional: 1977

First Pro race:

First Pro win:

Retired: January 1987. Couldn't find a factory sponsorship for the expensive national circuit which even with the resources of his bikeshop Stu Thomsen's Family Cycle Center. BMX Plus! June 1987 page 35. However, he did race at least once in 1988 at the ABA Winter Nationals at Chandler, Arizona with a 4th and 7th in Pro Cruiser at the two races over that weekend. He raced in the 1990 ABA Fall Nationals and made the Pro Open Main in the sunday race, coming in sixth. He also raced the 1991 ABA Fall Nationals as well along with fellow retired pros Eric Rupe and Harry Leary but did not make any of the Mains.

*Classifications at the time were determined by size and weight and not age and proficiency. The Yamaha Gold Cup was the first "National" to be held in BMX.

Career factory sponsors

Amateur

Professional

DG Performance (1976)

Flying Machine Factory (FMF) 1976 (FMF was created by Scot Briepthaupt, a pioneer of the sport. He will later split from FMF and start Scot Enterprises Racing).

Scot Enterprises (SE) (Now called Sports Engineering) Racing (1976-December 1979}

Redline Engineering (January 1980-December 29, 1983)

Huffy (January 1, 1984-December 31, 1986)

Family Cycle Center (1987) This is a Bicycle shop was started and has been owned by Stu Thomsen since November 1984.

Career bicycle motocross titles

Amateur

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

National Bicycle League (NBL)

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

0

Professional

National Bicycle Association (NBA)

1977, 1978 National # 1 Pro

1978 Jag Pro World Champion (NBL/NBA sanctioned)

National Bicycle League (NBL)

1981, 1982 National # 1 Pro

American Bicycle Association (ABA)

1979 National # 1 Pro

Notable accolades

He is also a multiple winner of BMX Action Magazine's Number One Racer Award (NORA) Cup:

1979* with 1,040 votes or 25.13% of the votes cast .
1981* with 1,208 votes or 32.7% of the votes cast .

Stu Thomsen is a winner of Super BMX Racer of the Year Award for 1982 via a reader ship survey in the October 1982 issue of Super BMX. No voter break down was given.

Stu Thomsen is also a 1986 inductee of the ABA BMX Hall of Fame.

At least one book was published by him: "Stu Thomsen's Book of BMX" (1985)

*In the early years of the NORA cup the year the balloting was done was the year it was awarded. In 1983 it was switched to the year the cup was actually awarded and not when the voting takes place. Therefore under the new system Stu Thomsen was awarded NORA in 1980 and 1982.

Notable injuries

Ankle injury in April of 1984. Tore two ligaments. Laid up or two months.

Post BMX career

Beginning in 1988 Stu Thomsen competed in mountain bike racing on the National Off Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) circuit as other BMX racers had done and would later do including Tinker Juarez, Cheri Elliott and Toby Henderson.

Stuart Thomsen is a Sheriff's Deputy in Southern California, making him literally "The Man". He still races BMX every once and a while.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Stu Thomsen ]

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