When Kamloops mountain bike racer Chris Sheppard first started getting serious about the sport, Tinker Juarez was one of its most-respected figures.

Fast forward two decades and not much has changed.

Juarez, at 48, is among the oldest racers at the Intermontane Challenge. But unlike many of the aging citizen racers whose goal is to finish the day without getting hurt, the Californian is in contention to win the race.

“Tinker is what, 48? He can still go hard,” said Sheppard, a decade younger. “He’s a legend and a pillar of this sport.”

Juarez is a two-time Olympian and three-time North American cross-country mountain bike champion who has been inducted into the mountain bike hall of fame. He is genial, speaking to fans and reporters with the same easy, articulate manner, and is unmistakable in his trademark short dreadlocked hair.

Only 18 seconds behind teammate Jeremiah Bishop, Juarez could be in line for the $10,000 first-place prize for top male rider come Friday.

The 5-foot-8, 140-pound Juarez, who now specializes in endurance events, is all ropey muscle made for long, punishing climbs. He’s the first to admit he’ll let others lead on the demanding, sketchy downhill sections.

“(Climbing) has always been my strongest point. The more climbing, the better for me. I can always use my power to stay with the guys.”

A mechanical problem put Sheppard five minutes behind Monavie-Cannondale’s Juarez and Bishop after Day 1.

“For sure Chris Sheppard’s on everyone’s list,” Juarez said before the start of the race. “He rode well and had a good race at the B.C. Bike Race.”

While Juarez has enjoyed a lifetime of success, starting as a youngster riding a BMX bike out of a poor Los Angeles neighbourhood, Sheppard’s career took a calamitous downturn four years ago when was caught blood doping after an official knocked on the door of his Kamloops house and asked him to pee in a cup in an out-of-competition test.

Unlike many cheaters in cycling – headed by disgraced Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, who had his title stripped but continued to live in a state of denial – Sheppard quickly owned up to his mistake.

He paid with a two-year competition ban. Compare that to baseball’s Manny Ramirez, who was caught in a doping test this year and was banned for less than a third of the season.

“I made a mistake and paid for it,” said Sheppard. “I can never get a job in a sport I love. It’s sad that other sports haven’t taken this on.”

Cycling has been marred by the constant controversy over the past decade over blood doping and steroids. Sheppard said other sports, including the NFL and NHL, are far behind cycling’s aggressive efforts to nab cheaters, particularly because testing organizations are independent bodies.

Sheppard, who grew up in Kamloops, married another mountain bike racer, April Lawyer. The couple lives in Bend, Ore., where she owns a retail store and he is completing his training in massage therapy.

One of the biggest thrills for Sheppard, a former World Cup competitor and Pan-Am Games medalist, is knowing he and friends growing up in Kamloops built some of the trails on which the pack is racing this week.

“(Tinker Juarez) was one of my heroes in 1988,” Sheppard said. ”My friends and I made a lot of these trails.”