Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994 TAG: 9405310019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With only two kilometers left in Monday's $11,000 Saturn Festival Cup bicycle race, Brian Walton took one final swig of liquid, then flung the empty bottle onto a Church Avenue sidewalk.
"Just a little sip of water gearing up for the finish," Walton noted.
Judging from what happened down the stretch, some might have sworn the Canadian had taken a chug of rocket fuel.
In a powerful late kick, Walton surged past three riders, including Team Saturn teammate Jonas Carney, on the next-to-last lap, then pedaled away to a comfortable win in the program's "main event."
Walton, his arms raised triumphantly, crossed the finish line approximately 40 yards in front of Carney, who nipped Poland's Jerzy Wozniak at the stripe for second.
The victory in the 45-kilometer run over a flat, rectangular course on Roanoke's downtown streets capped a big weekend for Walton. The 28-year-old Vancouver native also won Sunday's companion event, the ROC Hillclimb time trial up Mill Mountain.
"I'm beginning to fall in love with this place," Walton said. "Two races, two wins. You can't ask for much more than that."
The seven-time Canadian national champion and 1989 Tour De Britain winner did it with his superior conditioning. Although Walton claimed he was operating at 80 percent efficiency because of a recent bout of bronchitis, his reserve tank was full when it counted.
"That's sort of unusual to win two races with bronchitis," Walton confessed. "But after running the Tour DuPont earlier this month, I'm think I'm just a little superior conditioning-wise than the others. I had a little extra kick left even though I'm sick."
Carney, a five-time Senior national champion from Boulder, Colo., agreed.
"Number one, Brian is just getting better," Carney said. "He's simply in great condition even with the bronchitis. He was superior to everybody in the race, even myself."
Walton, Carney, Wozniak and fourth-place finisher Chris Pic turned the race into a four-man affair. The foursome broke away from the pack by the 20K-mark, leaving themselves in position to battle it out alone.
Teammates Walton and Carney had the best of that setup.
"The odds are in our favor in that situation," Walton said. "I was real relaxed with Jonas there. We're not going to lose too many times when we have that edge."
When Walton made his final jump, Wozniak couldn't counter.
"Jerzy needed to be right on Brian's wheel at that point," Carney noted. "He wasn't and that was the race right there."
Wozniak admitted it was tough being in the middle of the Saturn sandwich.
"It's a difficult situation," Wozniak said. "It's pretty hard to beat them when there are two of them with you. I'm just glad to get done. I've raced almost 600 miles the past six days."
Walton's winning time was 53 minutes, 46.61 seconds. That computed to an average speed of approximately 32 mph.
"We were moving on, I know that," Walton said. "It was a tough race, especially with the heat and all.
"It's great to win for the Saturn people here in Roanoke. They sponsor the event, so it was nice that one of their guys could win."
It was nice for Walton's wallet, too. He won $1,026 Monday, including a $500 bonus posted by Saturn and Cardinal Bicycle for compiling the most points in both races.
by CNB