Looking Back: Mark McCormack’s Team Saturn TT Bike
First of all, for some of you who might not know the history of the American powerhouse Saturn Cycling Team, it was formed in the early 90’s by Warren Gibson and later on taken over in the mid-90s American cycling icon and former 7-Eleven rider Tom Schuler . Over the years it was home to some of the best pedaling talent that America has ever known.
This trip down Satrun team bike lane all began with a random post on Craig’s List for a bike on sale?one of many old bikes that have littered Craig’s List over the decade. It was an old TT bike and honestly, it looked like a beater. However, it wasn’t just any bike, but an old Pro race bike. And well, yeah, maybe not some golden moment, ex-superstar bike, but a bike that shared a moment in time. And honestly, I’ve always thought that the bikes raced by Pro riders could and should be as memorable and talked about as the riders who rode them. That’s what we’re talking about here. The bike once belonged to Mark McCormack, the younger half of the ‘Fightin’ McCormack brothers’ who ruled the east coast road and cyclocross scene in the late 90s.
“I think that big Saturn sticker went on to cover the GT when logo when Lemond came on as a team sponsor and they didn’t have a TT bike yet.”
Feeling inclined to find out more about the bike, I chased down Mark while he was on his way to pick-up his son from school. ‘Yeah, that bike was probably used sometime in 97-98 racing seasons when I was riding for the Saturn Cycling Team,’ he said. ‘GT came on as a bike sponsor for the team in 1997. That TT bike was a custom aluminum frame that GT had made for us out of their factory in Longmont, Colorado. Since I was more of a domestique at the time there wasn’t anything really special about the bike, but I remember seeing some really trick bikes coming out of that facility for the top riders on the team.
Mark notches another ‘cross win while teammate Bart Bowen joins in the celebration.
‘My brother Frank had joined Saturn in 1995 and I came on the following year. I remember because the team director (Tom Schuler) had sent me out some Saturn team clothes for the 1995 cyclocross nationals that year. Trek was the bike sponsor at the time and since they didn’t make ?cross bikes, I raced with the kit, but rode my Hot Tubes bike. I rode for Saturn from 1996 -2003 and while on the team I won the National Cyclocross Championships in 1997 and Road Nationals in 2003. My brother won both the National Cyclocross and Criterium Championships twice while he rode for Saturn.
‘Depending on who the sponsor was and how well we did racing, some years we got to keep a bike and other years we didn’t. It’s funny, but every once in a while I’ll see old race bikes of mine for sale and, although I’m sure the $1000 or whatever I may have sold them for was a big deal to me back then when I was struggling bike racer, I do wish that I’d known then that I was gonna make it in life and maybe I would’ve had more second thoughts about letting go of some of them.
‘Still, the thing that’s cool about bicycles is that, maybe except for some really valuable old bike that Greg LeMond or someone else once rode, the sport of cycling has never had that type of allure where the value of old race bikes is so high as to be unattainable. I mean I’ve seen some bikes being sold that that would be the equivalent of Mario Andretti selling one of his race cars?but you see these old bikes b being sold, and better yet, still being ridden?how cool is that!’
In 1999, the Saturn team switched to Greg LeMond bikes (owned by Trek at the time). Mark still has a few team frames taking up space in the garage….future Craig’s List fodder?
Frank, Bart and Mark strike a pose in 1998.
The list of Saturn riders is long with talent…and it included Chris Horner.
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