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Mountain Biking

Missing Mountain Bike Legend | Human Remains Found in Colorado Believed to Be Those of Hall of Famer Mike Rust

Six years ago the pioneer disappeared in mysterious circumstances...

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation are attempting to identify human remains found in rural Saguache last week, which are believed to be those of mountain biking hall of famer Mike Rust.

A Colorado native, Mike first built a mountain bike from a Stingray in 1965, with 20-inch wheels, knobby tires, flat handlebars and a leather saddle.

Rust went on to move to Crested Butte and have a huge impact on the mountain bike scene there in the 80s, going out to ride further afield, build more bikes significant to the early movement and even place first in the Colorado State Games Mountain Bike Races in 1989.

Mike was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1991, but sadly 18 years later after a break in at his house in 2009, he would mysteriously disappear never to be seen again.

On 31 March 2009, the pioneer returned to his house to find his gun missing, binoculars stolen and tyre tracks in his driveway, and called his girlfriend to tell her that he was going after the intruders.

He hasn’t been seen since, and four days later, a vest and the butt of a gun were found near his house, both covered in blood.

A friend of Rust’s told CBS Denver early last year: “Mike caught up to whoever these guys were and there was some kind of altercation, and he took the bad end of it.”

The discovery of human remains in Rust’s home county in Colorado last week are now believed by many to those of the mountain biker, and could well bring closure to the family, who had offered up a reward of $25,000 for information “leading to the location of his remains”.

The film ‘The Rider and the Wolf’ was made after Rust’s disappearance regarding his life’s work and vanishing:

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