Bob Mionske

Bob Mionske stunned United States’ cycling with his fourth-place finish at the 1988 Seoul road race, still the highest finish ever (through 2008) for a US cyclist in a mass start Olympic road race. Mionske was known as a very tough cyclist, but never managed to win a US national title, or either of the major US races, Somerville or Fitchburg, but he won a lot of lesser races. Mionske rode in the 1991 Pan American Games, placing sixth in the road race. At the 1992 Olympics, he could not duplicate his performance from Seoul, but worked in support of Lance Armstrong, who eventually placed 14th. Mionske raced for a bit in 1993 but then retired from competition and spent one year as a directeur sportif with Team Saturn.

Mionske attended the University of Wisconsin, but after leaving cycling in 1994 he went to law school at the Willamette University College of Law, and earned a law degree. As a lawyer, Mionske has become known as a specialist in bicycle law, representing several professional riders, but also recreational riders who have been injured. He has written several columns on legal aspects of cycling, and wrote the definitive book on the topic Bicycling & The Law: Your Rights as a Cyclist.