John North

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Singletrack was very sorry to hear that John North passed away on Friday October 11th, aged 70. He was a great character and a very successful rider and runner, winning more things than we’ll ever be able to list. He’d been ill for most of the year and passed away peacefully with his family by his side.

He was also very dear to Singletrack, having supported us from our humble beginnings and he was always being included in the Singletrack staff Christmas party. We will miss John’s visits as he would ride over the hills to us, have a large cup of the weakest tea imaginable and a custard slice, before riding home again the long way.

We know we join the whole cycling community in sending our condolences to his friends and family.

We interviewed John in issue 11 of Singletrack. A couple of quotes really stand out from that interview that show John’s cheeky humour. For someone who achieved so much, we asked if there was anything else left for him to achieve:

“What’s left? To be shot dead at the age of 90 by the ‘justifiably’ jealous husband of a beautiful and sexually-demanding young woman as I cross the finishing line at the end of a race. But i’ll have to make do with a Notts & Derby cyclo-cross this coming weekend.”

He never wanted to be old anyway – he’ll always still be annoyingly fit and fast in our minds. Rest in peace, John.

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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