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<\/p>\nAndy Bishop, a pioneering American cyclist who raced four Tours de France and competed in mountain biking’s formative years, has died at age 61.<\/p>\n
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Bishop, pictured here at the 1990 Tour de France with teammate Sean Yates, died at 61. (Photo: Graham Watson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Updated June 5, 2026 05:59AM<\/p>\n
Andy Bishop<\/a>, a pioneering American road and mountain bike racer who competed in four Tours de France<\/a> before becoming a respected teacher and coach, died Tuesday following a battle with cancer. He was 61.<\/p>\n Born in Tucson, Arizona on May 26, 1965, Bishop emerged during the first major wave of American riders to establish themselves in European professional road cycling in the 1980s.<\/p>\n A trailblazer in both road and mountain biking, Bishop competed at the elite pro level for more than a decade.<\/p>\n He debuted in the 1988 Tour de France with PDM, and later raced with 7-Eleven, Motorola, Coors Light, and Nutra Fig-Colorado Cyclist, among others.<\/p>\n He competed in four editions of the Tour de France and one Giro d\u2019Italia, racing for several top pro road teams during the late 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n Bishop also started eight monuments, including three editions of Paris-Roubaix, and finished second in the Belgian classic Druivenkoers-Overijse to Viatcheslav Ekimov in a three-up sprint.<\/p>\n Bishop was an anti-doping advocate and maintained that he raced clean during an era heavily tainted by performance-enhancing drugs. He told Cyclingnews<\/a> he believed he was the only rider on PDM\u2019s 1988 Tour de France squad who did not dope.<\/p>\n Cycling pioneer and educator<\/p>\n One of his career highlights came in 1995, when he won the overall at the Herald Sun Tour in Australia.<\/p>\n Bishop transitioned to mountain biking in the mid-1990s, just as the discipline was booming.<\/p>\n He raced the off-road circuit from 1996 to 2000 with the Gary Fisher trade team, where his teammates included 1996 Olympic gold medalist Paola Pezzo and future 2012 Giro d\u2019Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal.<\/p>\n One of his notable off-road results was 24th at the 1997 elite men\u2019s mountain bike world championships in Ch\u00e2teau-d\u2019\u0152x, Switzerland.<\/p>\n