Mari Holden

Mari Holden intently focuses on the time trial course during the 2000 Women's Challenge.

Mari Holden (born March 30 1971) is a female American cycle racer who won the World Time Trial Championships in 2000 after winning a Silver medal in the Olympic Games Time Trial in Sydney, Australia that same year. She also won six U.S. National Cycling Championships, including becoming the first American woman to win three consecutive U.S. Time Trial Championships (1998–2000) and scoring a rare double by winning both the U.S. Time Trial and Road Race Championships in 1999.

Biography

Holden's initial foray into competitive athletics was as a triathlete. She was a two-time member of the U.S. Junior World Triathlon team, and was named Junior Triathlete of the Year in 1991 by the Triathlon Federation USA. That same year she finished seventh in the Junior Triathlon World Championships.

She began cycling with a club in high school as part of an overall fitness program centered on triathlon, and did not make competitive cycling her athletic focus until 1992 when she moved to Colorado Springs and began training with the U.S. National Cycling Team, initially to improve that aspect of her triathlon. At that time, she also transferred to Colorado State University where she majored in philosophy.

After finishing sixth in the U.S. National Time Trial Championships in 1993, Holden was forced to sit out much of the 1994 season with a compression fracture in her back. She came back strongly the following two years, winning the U.S. Time Trial Championships both years (1995 and 1996).

The 1996 event was part of the U.S. Olympic Trials competition to select members of the U.S. Olympic team. Olympic selection that year was based on overall performance in a series of time trials and road races, and although Holden won both of the time trials, she did not fare so well in the road race portion of the competition and thus failed to qualify for the Olympics.

Holden's results that year highlighted a problem for her career. Whether fairly or otherwise, she had gained a reputation as a time-trial specialist who did not have the kind of all-around riding skills necessary to rise to the very top in her sport.

Over the next few years, Holden raced in Europe in order to prove herself on the international stage and to develop as a complete rider. In 1999, she clearly demonstrated her success in this endeavor by finishing second in the strong Women's Challenge against an international field and finishing in the top 10 in the Grande Boucle, one of the toughest and longest women's races of all time.

The following year, she had her biggest racing successes, winning a Silver medal at the Olympics, followed by a victory two weeks later in the World Time Trial Championships in Plouay, France.

That same year (2000), Holden was elected to serve on the Board of Directors of the USA Cycling as the elected female athlete representative, a post to which she was re-elected in 2004. In addition, she serves on the Athletic Advisory Committeee to the U.S. Olympic Committee and is an Athlete Ambassador to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

She is currently a licensed real estate agent practicing in her home state of Colorado.

Palmarès

2004 (team: T-Mobile)

• New York City Invitational — 1st place

2002 (team: T-Mobile)

• Sydney (Australia) World Cup — 8th place

2001 (team: Alfa Lum)

• World Time Trial Championships — 6th place
• Giro d'Italia Femminile (cat. 1) — QOM winner
• U.S. National Time Trial Championships — 2nd place
• Hamilton City (NZl) World Cup — 6th place

2000 (team:Timex)

• World Time Trial Championships — 1st place
• Olympic Games Time Trial — 2nd place (Silver medal)
• Thuringen Rundfahrt fur Frauen (cat. 1) — QOM winner
• U.S. National Time Trial Championships — 1st place
• Tour of the Gila — 1st place
• Tour of Willamette — 1st place, 2 stage victories
• Sea Otter Classic (cat. 2) — 2nd place
• Tour de Snowy (cat. 1) — 4th place

1999 (team:Acca Due O)

• U.S. National Time Trial Championships — 1st place
• U.S. National Road Race Championships — 1st place
• Women's Challenge — 2nd place, 1 stage victory, QOM winner
• La Flèche Wallonne World Cup — 8th place
• Street Skills women's stage race — 4th place
• Tour de Snowy — stage victory

1998 (team:Hawk Bikes)

• World Time Trial Championships — 7th place
• GP des Nations Time Trial — 3rd place
• U.S. National Time Trial Championships — 1st place
• Women's Challenge — won QOM
• Vuelta International a Majorca Feminas — 2nd place, 1 stage victory
• Street Skills Stage Race — 1st place, 1 stage victory
• Redlands Bicycle Classic — 1st place

1997 (team: Euregio Egrensis)

• World Time Trial Championships — 7th place
• Red River Classic Stage Race — 1st place
• Meridian Bicycle Classic — 1st place
• Redlands Stage Race — 5th place

1996

• U.S. Olympic Trials — 1st place in both time trials
• Bohemia Crystal Tour (Czech Republic) — 2 stage wins
• Can/Pro Cycling Series (London, Ontario) — 2nd place
• Tour of Tucson — 2nd place, 1 stage victory
• 89er Stage Race (Norman, OK) — 1st place, 2 stage victories

1995

• Set U.S. National Record — 40 Km Time Trial: 51m 36.24s
• U.S. National Championships Time Trial — 1st place
• Women's Challenge — 3rd place, 1 stage victory
• John Stenner Memorial Time Trial — 1st place
• Louisville Criterium (CO) — 1st place
• Point Mogu Criterium — 1st place
• Redlands Bicycle Classic — 3rd place

Before 1995

• Junior Triathlete of the Year (1991)
• World Junior Triathlon Championships (1991) — 7th place

External links

• Mari Holden's official web site
• Ride Society blog by Mari Holden
• USA Cycling bio on Mari Holden