Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 9, 1994 TAG: 9405090072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANDREA KUHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG LENGTH: Long
Peter Verbeken led a breakaway on the final circuit of Stage 4 to lead Collstrop to the first 1-2-3 sweep of a stage in the event's six-year history.
Verbeken finished the road race from Richmond to Blacksburg in 5 hours, 59 minutes, 41 seconds, about a bicycle-length ahead of teammates Wiebren Veenstra and Adri Van Der Poel, who were credited with the same time.
Malcolm Elliott finished 13th, in the main pack, and retained the overall lead, three seconds ahead of defending race champion Raul Alcala heading into today's Roanoke Valley time trial.
Alcala placed 11th in the main pack Sunday.
It was the first victory of the year for Verbeken, 28, a five-year professional who took advantage of a hesitant main pack on the last of three windy trips around a loop near downtown Lynchburg.
"I feel the whole day [went] very well," Verbeken said in broken English. "I waited until the last minute to try something. The peloton were all looking at each other, so I was able to get a few seconds away. So I won."
Scott McKinley finished fourth and Frederic Moncassin of France was fifth.
Greg LeMond placed 31st, but was in the main pack and remained tied for seventh place overall with fellow American Frankie Andreu, 10 seconds behind Elliott.
Reigning world champion Lance Armstrong rode the 131-mile course aggressively and broke away from the pack at the start of the final circuit. The 22-year-old from Austin, Texas, who specializes in climbing, sprinted to a five-second lead before being chased down by the pack. Armstrong is in 18th place overall, but is likely to pick up time today and in the subsequent three mountain stages.
"We didn't react at all," said Veenstra, a premier sprinter, when asked about Armstrong's early attack. "You have to stay calm. If you get nervous, you make mistakes. You could tell he wasn't going to make it."
Verbeken waited until three miles remained in the race to make his move, darting to a 25-second lead with 1 1/2 miles left. The pack chased, cutting the deficit to 10 seconds with a half-mile remaining. But Verbeken, who also won the Most Aggressive Rider award in media voting, held on to win.
"I didn't expect to win, but I hoped," he said. "I saw two riders behind me, but didn't think they could catch me. The only thing that scared me was the peloton could catch me."
Elliott earned a two-second bonus at the sprint line in Appomattox, approximately 85 miles into the race. Djamolidine Abdujaparov of Italy's team Polti won the sprint and received a three-second bonus.
Elliott, a member of the Chevrolet-LA Sheriff squad that won the team title last year, took the overall race lead during Stage 2 on Friday in Hagerstown, Md., and has worn the yellow jersey ever since. But the soft-spoken Britain said he expected that to change today.
"My chances are not good, realistically," said Elliott, 33, who finished sixth overall last year. "I expect to lose time to the [time trial] specialists, such as Alcala and [Russian Viatcheslav] Ekimov. . . . What we're talking about is how much I'll lose it by."
Elliott said his chances of regaining the yellow jersey down the road were slim, but that he was pleased to don it for three stages.
"It's not something I planned on coming in. I planned on winning a stage and maybe getting a high general-classification finish," he said. "It would take an exceptional performance by me to get [the yellow jersey] back, but I'm not ruling anything out."
Elliott said one reason the field is so tightly packed in the overall standings is that many riders have been pacing themselves heading into today's stage, the first mountain time trial in the Tour DuPont's history. The stage starts at 11 a.m., with cyclists leaving the Salem Civic Center in one-minute intervals in reverse order of the standings. The top 10 cyclists will leave in two-minute intervals from 12:41 to 12:59 p.m.
The 23-mile course climbs over Twelve O'Clock Knob and Mount Chestnut and finishes at the market in downtown Roanoke. It will be painful, Elliott said, but the same for everyone.
"The specialists are capable of riding at their maximum. The lesser time trialists could ride as well, but it requires a great deal of concentration," he said. "It's very hard to keep riding hard when you're suffering and there's no one there to push you."
Most of the cyclists will preview the course by car in the morning, which Elliott said would be beneficial for everyone, but particularly for riders who specialize in descents where lost time can be made up quickly.
"A good descender is someone who takes more risks," Elliott said. "Seeing the course before will be a definite advantage to them. . . . I think everyone has been talking about this time trial for many days. I think it's one reason the race has been so well controlled to this point."
by CNB