Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405050163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILMINGTON, DEL. LENGTH: Long
A cold rain drizzled steadily on Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington on Wednesday afternoon as workers in yellow slickers set up roadblocks and staging areas. Chilly winds whipped down the city streets, knocking over vendor stands and ripping banners from poles.
Not exactly ideal weather for a bike ride. But Wilmington was not preparing for any ordinary sporting event. This was the start of America's premier bicycling race, the Tour DuPont, a 12-day gear-grinding race that attracts the world's top cycling athletes. Across the street, outside the county courthouse, a group of women on a cigarette break stood under umbrellas and watched the commotion.
Like many in Wilmington, they had varying feelings about being the host city for the race. ``It's a pain ... if you really want to know,'' said one court worker. ``It gives you something interesting to look at,'' offered another.
``It is a beautiful thing,'' said Virginia Crow. ``I wish more people could see this.''
She lamented that because of traffic snarls and almost zero parking that accompany the race, she could not bring her grandson to see the cyclists whizzing by in their colorful jerseys and helmets.
``These are good role models. They're not doped, they're not drinking,'' Crow said. ``Who is it for? Who gets to see it?''
Perhaps not her grandson, but millions of people around the globe are expected to tune in for daily television coverage of the race, which winds more than 1,000 miles through four states.
The cyclists will be pumping through Southwest Virginia May 8 and 11.
The worldwide attention means big bucks for Tour DuPont sponsors, like Motorola and Coors Light and Chevrolet, who use the race as a giant, traveling billboard for their products.
"More peddling than pedaling," is how Brian White, assistant sports editor for The News Journal in Wilmington, described this year's Tour DuPont in a column in Wednesday's paper.
After plugging a local restaurant where he'd eaten lunch, his Kellogg's cereal, his Gap shirt and his Honda car, White wrote: ``There. Now I'm part of the club. I'm part of the week of slogans and sales pitches that has invaded Delaware. It's the Tour DuPont, which is really more of a tour of da corporate world.''
He went on to quote Mike Plant, the director of the race, as saying: ``This isn't a bike race anymore. This is big-time business.''
Gus Kromedes would say otherwise. He owns Gus's Sub Shop on King Street, directly across from the Holiday Inn where race officials set up headquarters every year. For four days, the inn is bustling with cyclists, reporters, TV crews, staff members and corporate representatives.
``Nobody comes in. Other conventions, you get busy. These bikes, no,'' said Kromedes, who came here from Greece years ago. Last year, he paid $35 to be included in the city's coupon booklet, which is given to all the race participants. One customer came in, he said.
Most people go to the nearby downtown mall, officially dubbed Wilmington's ``Cultural Loop'' - a few blocks paved in cobblestone and lined with shops.
Some cyclists reportedly ate their pre-race feast Tuesday night at one of the mall's restaurants. Carbo-packed pasta was the preferred meal of cyclists, while their managers chose hamburgers. They all drank a pint or two of Guinness ale, however, and left by 10 p.m., according to two waiters.
``They have to keep up appearances,'' one said.
Doris Gray, who works the lunch counter at Woolworth's on the mall, also served a couple of the racers earlier in the week. ``They're very nice when they come in, very pleasant,'' Gray said.
She didn't know any of the big names who were in her town, like Greg LeMond or Raul Alcala, but she was excited by all the hoopla anyhow. The race livens things up, she said.
Evelyn Smith, an employee at DuPont who was taking her lunch break at Woolworth's, agreed. ``It's a big deal for Wilmington. Have you ever been to Wilmington before? Well, there you are,'' she said.
DuPont goes all out to promote the race, inside as well as outside its corporate headquarters here in Wilmington, Smith said. ``We have posters all over and we've been getting E-mail saying, `Be nice to the bikers because they'll be all over the streets.' We really enjoy Tour DuPont.''
Not everyone is so excited. Connie Willis, a student at the University of Delaware, was studying her nursing textbook while working the door at the Brandywine Zoo monkey house. ``I hadn't heard anything about it until like two days ago when I saw all these bicycles riding around, and then I remembered - oh, yeah,'' she said.
From her chair, she could look out the window and see the cyclists practicing on the dreaded ``Monkey Hill'' - a steep incline of cobblestone from the 1800s and named for the adjacent zoo attraction. Willis worked in the monkey house last year and remembers seeing cyclists wipe out on the hill and crash into hay bales along the narrow road.
From the looks of the gray skies Wednesday afternoon, Willis said, she may get to practice her nursing skills as this year's contenders tackle the hill.
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by CNB