Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405030071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: TDP3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At that point, however, the stage is just getting started.
Perhaps that's the case with every stage, but the route from Richmond to Lynchburg is so gradual that it is al- most impossible for somebody to be left behind.
"If I drove the route into Lynchburg, I'm sure I'd remember the circuit," said Ron Kiefel, an American who won the stage last year. "But early in the race, not much happens.
"You do so many races over the course of a year - we race 80 days or more - that sometimes they can blur together. If you get a stage victory, though, it's easy to remember the final details."
Kiefel made his move on the final straightaway - approximately the three-quarter-mile distance between Holy Cross Regional School and E.C. Glass High School on Langhorne Road.
"Throughout the race, I'd been trying to lead other teammates," said Kiefel, a member of the Coors Light team. "With about one lap to go, Davis [Phinney] said, `Hey, Ron, why don't you try to go for this stage?'
"Going up the final climb, the Spanish rider attacked and Belgium attacked. The three of us were together at the top of the hill and the [other] two riders turned back, then looked at each other. When they did that, I jumped.
"I was able to get a gap from the peloton that was still trying to chase us. I think a lot of people were looking for Davis and were surprised when I went for the lead."
Kiefel, who won a time trial in 1989 when the Tour DuPont was known as the Tour de Trump, did not finish in the top 10 overall.
"It was the highlight of my season," he said. "For American riders, it's very important. It's the biggest race we have in the United States. It showcases the American riders, and you get many of the top European teams. It's probably one of the top 10 things I've done."
When pressed, however, Kiefel couldn't come up with a unique aspect of the Richmond-to-Lynchburg stage.
"I'd have to look at the profile," he said. "The best part to me was the $50 gift certificate."
The profiles are prepared by Jim Birrell, technical director of Medalist Sports Inc., the Tour's organizers. It takes Birrell as long as five hours to drive the race route and list every intersection, county line and town lane.
"I'll call up the city of Richmond public works department and ask questions like, `What is the elevation at the Shoppes at Belgrade?' " Birrell said.
It's 181 feet, by the way.
The race starts at the Shoppes at Belgrade, a shopping center in Chesterfield County, and proceeds along various state roads until it picks up U.S. 13 west in Powhatan County, site of the first of two time trials.
"In a little town called Tobaccoville, there's this bicycle junkyard," Birrell said. "They've just got piles, stacked high, of old bicycles. It's such a contrast. You've got all these junk bikes, and then you've got these $5,000 bikes going by at a rate of speed that these other bikes would never be able to go."
The second sprint line is on Virginia 24 at the entrance to Appomattox National Historical Park, considered a prime viewing area.
Once the riders reach Lynchburg, they will make three trips around a 7.3-mile loop that begins and ends at E.C. Glass. After making a steep descent toward the James River on Memorial Avenue, they ride up Rivermont Avenue, where spectators can get a good look from the sidewalks around Randolph-Macon Woman's College.
The race starts at 10 a.m. and is expected to end shortly before 4 p.m.
"The race doesn't develop [a character] until you get into the outskirts of Lynchburg, when you get the rolling hills and the railroad trestle that is high above the riders," said Birrell, referring to a section after the riders turn onto Langhorne Road. "That's about the most interesting thing along the race route. It's not one of the most dynamic courses."
Lynchburg is known as the Hill City, but there are no extended uphill climbs along the loop.
"They're just hills," Birrell said. "Anybody who's in the field at that time should not have any problems with the hills. That's why you won't ever see a large break or see them strung out, like they have to climb the Peaks of Otter or two days later when they leave Lynchburg and go to Blacksburg."
Kiefel, 34, was born and continues to live in the mountains of Colorado, but he does much of his training on flat roads. Besides, a rider's strengths do not derive from his or her geographic background.
"Some of your greatest climbers come from totally flat areas," Kiefel said. "It's in your physical makeup - what's in your engine, so to speak."
by CNB