Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080210
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS BACHELDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
AREA TOWNS GEAR UP
TOUR DuPONT cyclists get a sample of Southwest Virginia hospitality next month.\ The town of Blacksburg and The Homestead Resort will provide hearty welcomes to weary Tour DuPont racers next month.
America's premier cycling race, the 11-stage, 1,085-mile Tour DuPont, will roll into Hot Springs on May 13 and out of Blacksburg on May 14.
Race organizers, along with Blacksburg and Homestead officials, expressed their excitement Wednesday in a Roanoke news conference. Nearly everyone was thrilled about the tour's Virginia swing.
Everyone except John Loehner.
Forgive Loehner if he doesn't share the enthusiasm, but he's one of the 125 guys who will be pushing pedals for two days of elevation hell.
In Stage 8, on May 13, bikers will begin in Lynchburg, make a brutal 13-mile climb up Thunder Ridge and end with a mountain sprint to The Homestead. Racers then will be driven to Blacksburg, where Stage 9 begins on May 14. The stage winds 151 miles south to Beech Mountain, N.C., at 5,058 feet the highest point in the five-year race history.
"Those two stages are integral to the overall scheme of the race," said Steve Brunner, vice president of Medalist Sports, the race organizer. "They've already been played in national media as critical because they're mountain stages.
"May 14 [Stage 9] has been designated a `death march.' Climbers will weed themselves out and the pretenders will drop by the wayside."
Loehner is a first-year pro with impressive amateur credentials. This will be his first Tour DuPont, but he knows what to expect.
"If either stage was just a one-day race, it still would be tough," said the 25-year-old from Richmond Hill, N.Y. "But this is after seven days on tough terrain against competition that can't be topped. Even looking at the [stage] profiles I get unnerved.
"The finish to The Homestead is extremely tough and as for Stage 9 . . . I don't really want to talk about it. There won't be much strategy. It's basically, who can go? Who still has it in their legs?"
Loehner is a member of Team Saturn, one of 18 teams competing in this year's Tour DuPont.
This is the third consecutive year The Homestead has been host to a tour stage.
"We're awfully enthusiastic about sports," said Ben Ingalls, president of The Homestead. "And hospitality is our game. We know the riders are ready for a good meal and a comfortable bed."
In Blacksburg, racers will loop around the town and the Virginia Tech campus before cycling south through Christiansburg and Galax.
"Blacksburg has been the locale of many local bike races and the Tour DuPont will be the capstone to that activity," Roger Hedgepeth, mayor of Blacksburg, said. "We have a bikeway system and many bike enthusiasts, and we want to live up to that reputation."
Town manager Ron Secrist said there would be a downtown festival in conjunction with the race.
This year will be the race's third year as the Tour DuPont. It started in 1989 as the Tour de Trump. Brunner, a veteran of all five races, said he has watched the event grow from a back-of-a-napkin idea to the "upper echelon of international stage races."
"The terrain and the population base make Virginia and North Carolina the perfect venue," he said. "Will we be back? Of course we will. The support makes it easy."