Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994                   TAG: 9405110115
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALL OF A SUDDEN, WE'RE ROANOKE VALLEY, VA.

The 23-mile time trial route for Monday's Tour DuPont diplomatically started in Salem, climbed through the county and finished in the city. Only Vinton missed out on any public relations payoff from the race.

But to the outside world looking in, it's all the same. And it's called Roanoke Valley, Va.

That's where the labels superimposed across the bottom of ESPN's coverage said the race was held: Roanoke Valley, Va. That popped onto the screen six times during the sports network's 30-minute coverage of the fifth stage of the race.

And a database search of the country's newspapers found this sentence in USA Today: "For the first time in race history, riders will encounter a mid-race uphill individual time trial in Roanoke Valley, Va."

And this phrase came from the Houston Chronicle: "...an uphill time-trial at Roanoke Valley, Va."

It wasn't so much the valley's lush springtime beauty or the oldtime quaintness of the Roanoke City Market that caught the cycling world's attention. It was the grueling race route.

The City Market, in fact, was so plastered with banners from corporate sponsors that television viewers couldn't see the market itself.

"Normally, when you get into something like that, that's corporate-sponsored, that's what happens," said Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. "And that's to be expected."

Mackey said it would be several days before she could determine the hard numbers - number of hotel rooms, number of meals and so on - from the Tour DuPont and whether holding the time trial reaped any tourism rewards.

But in mushy terms of bringing national and international attention to the Roanoke Valley, ESPN's coverage was supposed to be the big payoff. After all, ESPN and its European counterparts beamed footage of America's top bike race to 92 million people in 93 countries.

The catch is, cycling fans are interested in cycling - not scenic beauty - and ESPN's coverage reflected that. In fact, the City Market was mentioned only once during the sports channel's coverage, but the commentators talked about Twelve O'Clock Knob at least 10 times. The 1,500-foot climb up the Knob brought some cyclists to their knees, and let others rise to the front of the overall race.

ESPN's Brian Drebber called Twelve O'Clock Knob an "absolute brute," and referred to its descent as "gnarly." (If you don't know what that means, ask the next skateboarder you see.)

And the Knob was the only spot to get a historical plug on ESPN:

"By the way, Phil, it's called Twelve O'Clock Knob because it seems there was a plantation up there in the 1700s, and the workers knew when it was lunch time 'cause the sun was directly overtop," an announcer explained.

A second catch with ESPN's coverage of the Roanoke Valley time trial - at least in terms of publicity on the East Coast - was the time it aired: 12:30 a.m. Fewer than 400,000 viewers watched ESPN's coverage of a similar Tour DuPont stage last year when it aired at 6:30 p.m.

The Virginia Department of Transportation's forces in the valley did get a plug for the extra paving they did for the race.

"The folks here in the Roanoke Valley have touched up the pavement all along the course," the commentator pointed out, "and the surface of the road is excellent."

At least one representative of the international media had difficulty with Virginia geography. Reuters World Service reported, "Ekimov ...captured the hilly and harrowing 36.85 kilometre (22.9 mile) Lynchburg to Roanoke time trial in 57 minutes and 17 seconds."

In terms of the long-range economic impact of the race, downtown Roanoke businesswoman Gale Sowers explained that she hoped she would soon make up for the one-day hit her business took during the race. Sowers' store, Paper Alley on the City Market, did hardly any business Monday.

"It's kind of like advertising," Sowers said, "the day you place an ad you probably won't be flooded with customers, but down the road you probably will be."

That's what First Union Corp. is hoping. From a television coverage standpoint, Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union was the big winner of Monday's race.

First Union is a national title sponsor of the Tour DuPont, and the bank's green and white letters appeared more than 15 times during the half-hour of ESPN coverage.