Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405030079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: TDP4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
After 22.9 miles over local roads May 9, some cyclists will be very sorry the sixth Tour put Roanoke on the map. The Stage 5 circuit is the first mountain time trial in the Tour's history.
It begins at the Salem Civic Center and ends at the Roanoke City Market. It's what's between that's the problem - Twelve O'Clock Knob and Mount Chestnut, and their respective climbs of 1,500 and 630 feet.
It's one thing to see that on paper. It's another to see it in person, as Steve Hegg has.
"It's the hardest stage of the whole race, period," Hegg said.
The Californian is considered one of the nation's best road cyclists and one of his sport's best time trialists. Hegg, 30, has Olympic gold and silver medals and two Pan American Games gold medals.
How many times has he competed on a time-trial course like Jim Birrell, the Tour's technical director, has designed in Roanoke?
"Never," Hegg said. "It's a time trial over two mountains. Usually, time trials are flat or over one mountain at most. That stage will change everything in the race. Up until then, you're racing four days and everything's pretty much flat. Then, boom! In Roanoke, that's where Hell Week 101 starts.
"From there and then the next three days down to Asheville, N.C., it's going to be vicious. It's mountain after mountain. You'll come there feeling pretty fresh. Sometimes it takes four days or so to really start feeling good anyway. Then you get there and, well, Roanoke will be really different."
Like a golfer saving par, the successful cyclists in Roanoke will have to get up and down. More than a few knowledgeable wheel watchers believe that if a rider finishes one minute or more behind in the Roanoke stage alone, he has no chance to win at the Tour's finish six days later.
The stage will be so crucial that residents on Twelve O'Clock Knob, Mount Chestnut and Roselawn roads shouldn't be surprised to see competitors on the course early this week before they go to Wilmington, Del., for the start. Some riders were planning on stopping in the Roanoke Valley for a course check after a race Saturday in Atlanta.
Once the Roanoke Valley made its bid for a piece of the Tour DuPont, Birrell took out his topographic maps at the Medalist Sports office in Richmond and talked to some local cyclists. Twelve O'Clock Knob and Mount Chestnut stuck out because of their elevation and proximity to the valley's cities.
"The course has brought great attention to the Roanoke stage already, from the riders," Birrell said. "This is where you'll start to see the separation of the men and the boys. We had some complaints after last year that we needed more mountain stages, so here's another one."
Although the climb to Twelve O'Clock Knob will be difficult, the twisting, steeply pitched descent from Mount Chestnut may be the part of the course where some riders probably could use a seat belt or an airbag.
"There are a couple of really tricky turns that fall off to the inside that could give someone trouble," Hegg said.
The course also could take a psychological as well as a physical toll. Just past four miles into the stage, on the climb of Twelve O'Clock Knob, riders can look left and see where they're headed in the distance. Downtown Roanoke and the finish line - more than 18 miles of road away - is visible, clearly marked by the glowing copper-colored pyramid prism of the First Union Tower.
Then, just as the descent from Mount Chestnut begins, at a point the road divides an orchard, the riders can look down and see where they're headed down the mountain and onto Roselawn for the trip down Brambleton Avenue, across the Wasena Bridge to Elm Avenue, Franklin Road, Second Street and Campbell Avenue for the finish.
Riders will be leaving the Salem Civic Center starting at 11 a.m. at one-minute intervals. That's another potential mental game.
"It's an individual against-the-clock thing," said Ron Glowczynski of East Coasters Cycling, one of the Cycle Roanoke Inc. committee members who has ridden the course with competitors. "There won't be a pack together. Guys will be out there alone, and some of them are going to get passed. One minute is not a lot of internal time.
"The first climb is relentless. It just keeps going around and around. The descent from Mount Chestnut, with the switchbacks, could be trouble. If someone is going too fast . . . "
The good news is that most of the roads up and down the mountains have gotten new asphalt. Hegg said he estimates the course should take about one hour to complete, meaning an average of 22-23 mph. There will be downhill segments when the riders will approach 50 mph - "faster than any car could go down those hills with those turns," Glowczynski said.
Birrell, who has designed all six Tour courses, said, "There are some pitches on the climb to Twelve O'Clock Knob that have a profile, while it's not misleading, it is maybe not what you'd think. When they see the wall they have to hit, if they're in the wrong gear, they'll wish they had a motorbike."
Birrell said if he were a cyclist-spectator, he'd ride part of the route up Twelve O'Clock Knob the morning of the stage, watch some of the ascent, then find an alternate route to ride down and catch some finishers at the City Market. The orchards area on Mount Chestnut is another prime spectator location because of the view of riders below.
Those who don't want to climb the mountains have viewing venues at the wide intersection of Roselawn and Bent Mountain Road (U.S. 221), just north of Cave Spring Junior High School, where the cyclists will turn left after the mountain runs. Other good spots are the speedy trip down Brambleton Avenue or Main Street, or the crossing of the Wasena Bridge.
"There are a lot of different elements," Hegg said. "Roanoke is definitely a bike-handler's time trial."
by CNB