Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 2, 1995 TAG: 9505020122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As we approached a sharp downhill bend on Mount Chestnut Road, Mark Price leaned left and gunned the throttle on his spanking new BMW motorcycle.
The beamer roared, and there it was: a roadside mailbox heading right for my head - at about 50 mph.
My hands tightened on the $500 (apiece) custom-made Mavic bicycle wheels, one tucked under each arm. Price eased up on the tilt and the mailbox whizzed past my left ear.
"Whoa!" I gulped.
It was one of many gulps on the Tour DuPont Roanoke time trial course Monday. Price and I were chasing Vitaly Verevko, a 23-year-old racer for the Ukrainian national cycling team.
My job: to change one of Verevko's wheels if he had a flat along the 23-mile-long race course. Price's job was to keep up with him.
With a 750cc engine beneath us, that was a cinch for most of the race. The exceptions were the downhills from Twelve O'Clock Knob and on Mount Chestnut Road.
Calling those descents scary is like dubbing the Michigan Militia "just another civic group." Hair-raising or electrifying is more like it - especially with Price's penchant for staying as close as humanly possible to the edge of the road on each bend.
"What am I doing here?" I thought, as I wondered whether my life insurance covered hairy mountain descents on a speeding motorcycle.
The day had started off innocuously.
I was among several dozen volunteer "mechanics" who showed up a couple hours before the 11 a.m. stage kickoff at the Salem Civic Center.
The pre-start hoopla in big-time bicycle racing is a rather peculiar brew of part-circus, part-rock concert and part-sporting event. Oscar Meyer's Wienermobile was there, as was a huge hot-air balloon advertising Re/Max Realtors. Vendors dressed like racers hawk Tour DuPont programs while male and female cycling groupies mill around.
Also on hand was the Mavic wheelmobile, a banana yellow Ford Taurus wagon sponsored by the French company that makes the premier rims in the sport. Mavic Team members Eric Van Bockern, Hank Williams, Shuji Sakai and Brian Wester fielded the volunteers, handed out our bicycle wheels, and took our licenses or credit cards as temporary collateral.
"This sounded like something fun to do," said Cathy Mitchell, a social worker for DePaul Family Services in Roanoke, who took the day off to participate. So did Mark Jaminson, a recreational cyclist from Moneta who works at Advance Auto Parts.
"Quite frankly, this is a very intimidating course," Sakai told us very seriously during a three-minute lesson in wheel-changing. Then we donned our helmets, and he told us to pick a motorcyclist among the phalanx that had assembled in front of the civic center.
I chose Price, an amiable Lynchburg laboratory service manager, because he looked respectable. After all, he was riding a BMW, the Mercedes of the motorcycle world.
At 29, the Amherst resident has been riding motorcycles since he was 7. He honed his skills on the steep, winding roads around Mountain Lake in Giles County. He's also a Tour DuPont veteran.
His father was a driver's ed teacher, he confided. The hoary stereotype about preachers' daughters flickered across my mind, and I began to get edgy.
"Most of the motorcyclists hang back a ways, especially on the downhills," Price explained. "For me, the challenge is staying with the racers."
Great, I thought to myself. Out of 70 motorcyclists here, I manage to pick the one who thinks taking hairpin curves at 45 mph isn't daring enough.
"Did you take your Valium today? It's pretty wild," he said, confirming my growing fears.
They were for nought. Price did a fine job guiding his steed on the grueling course.
And gritting my teeth, I managed to follow the one and only commandmant in motorcycling as a passenger: Thou shalt lean with the driver.
Verevko, as it turned out, didn't need a wheel. But he could have used a bit of a tailwind. The Ukrainian finished the time trial in 88th place, at 1:04:45, 8 minutes and 12 seconds behind leader Lance Armstrong.
by CNB