Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504270020
SECTION: TOUR DUPONT PAGE: TD-21 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When you're riding in it, at least you know where you're going. When you're sitting in front of a bank of TV monitors in a dark production truck watching videotape and trying to squeeze five hours of racing into twenty-something minutes, well ...
``Good luck,'' Phinney said. ``It's pretty much like flying a fighter jet.''
Phinney has seen American's premier cycling event from both perspectives. In the first five Tours, he had 12 top-three stage finishes, which still is the record. Last year he worked local television and radio and live CBS coverage at various Tour stops. This year, he will call the half-hour nightly Tour stage wrapup shows on ESPN and ESPN2.
He certainly is qualified to discuss the sport and the event. Phinney was an Olympic bronze medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, where his future wife, Connie Carpenter Phinney, won a gold. He still is the winningest racer in U.S. cycling history, with more than 300 victories. He's a columnist for Bicycling Magazine and a two-time stage winner in the Tour de France.
The event he will call with Phil Liggett for the next 12 days isn't the same one that began as the Tour de Trump in 1989. Nor is it the world's premier cycling test that occupies three weeks in Europe each summer.
``The race has changed,'' said Phinney, 35. ``There are more Europeans coming over to race. It used to be the ones that came over were doing it for training. The Tour DuPont has gained in stature. Now, everyone in it comes to race. It's a more competitive field, and more of the field is being competitive.
``I think the race has found its balance. It's a nice change moving it South from where it started. The weather is better. The difference in terrain has made it a better race, too. It used to be that every day was almost a carbon copy of the one before, a bunch of spiky hills grinding everyone down. Now there are flats, with some serious mountains.
``It's a very good race from the riders' perspective.''
Phinney said there's no comparison between the Tour DuPont and the Tour de France - nor should one be expected.
``This race is the national championship in the United States,'' said the Boulder, Colo., native and resident. ``It's built its stature quite quickly, but it's like anything else in that it takes time to establish something. In Europe, these cycling events have been around since like the turn of the century.
``You talk about the Tour DuPont in Italy, Spain, Holland or Belgium and say how great it is. Then someone asks, `How long has it been around?' You say five years and they say, `That sounds like an American viewpoint there.' That said, the DuPont has done a tremendous job in a short period of time.
``Being in the Tour de France is very much like being in the World Series. The Tour DuPont isn't going to take the place of that, but it does command the attention as any national tour in any country does. For me what was important about the Tour DuPont is that it was in my country.''
Phinney began racing when he was 16, and recalls his father's disbelief when he told his dad he was going to make a career of it. ``Of course, no one in this country had made a career of it then, either,'' Phinney said.
Now, he and his wife run their Carpenter/Phinney Bike Camps in Boulder and operate a bike shop. They also founded Pearl Izumi Technical Wear, a manufacturer of apparel for cycling and running. Phinney became intrigued by his sport when the precursor to the Coors Classic, formerly the national tour, came to Boulder in the mid-1970s.
Little did he know that one day would lead to his trying to expound and educate on his sport on one hand while trying to be as brief as possible.
``It is a little tough,'' Phinney said. ``Cycling is a great sport for TV, which showcases the continuous action. But you can't do live TV. You'd be talking four hours or more [for a stage]. The way they do it is the best way, if a little more difficult.''
Climbing those mountains also is easier in a truck.
by CNB