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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995                   TAG: 9505050025
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A QUICK TOUR, BUT IT WAS FUN

THE TOUR DuPont has swept through the Roanoke Valley for the second year in a row, and if fewer spectators lined the route this time, that did nothing to dampen the air of expectancy for those who turned out. Their wait was rewarded.

The Roanoke leg of the bicycle race was just a time trial, neophyte fans learned last year: There would be no pack of racers swooping by; no team tactics devised to grab the lead; no neck-and-neck finish; in short, no horse race. Americans do love a horse race.

Instead, single cyclists took off at intervals from Salem's Civic Center. They pedaled a grueling mountain course into Roanoke. They sped down Campbell Avenue to the City Market and the finish line, pitting power and ability and endurance against the course and the clock. Just a time trial.

What a trial it is. Some riders regard it as the most difficult part of the 11-stage, 1,130-mile race from Wilmington, Del., to Greensboro, N.C. And as the more challenging of the event's two individual time trials, where cyclists can gain or lose the most time in a stage race such as this, the final outcome can turn on how well they perform here.

Given these circumstances, Monday's race enthusiasts were doubly rewarded for their faithfulness. Not only did they witness a crucial part of the multistage race, they were there for what proved to be, well, something of a horse race after all.

Texan Lance Armstrong, the final cyclist to head out over Twelve O'Clock Knob and take Mount Chestnut's now-renowned hairpin curve, won the stage and beat last year's best time, to boot. As Armstrong pedaled the last stretch down Campbell, the gentle air of festivity that had stirred through the crowd for most of the day turned to a surge of excitement.

It is this screaming, stomping, heart-pounding, arm-waving passion - brief though it may be - that Cycle Roanoke Valley, the local organizing committee for the event, would like to secure for the valley in future Tours. Ideally, the committee would like one stage of the road race to finish in Roanoke, with the heated pack pedaling furiously over the route laid out for the time trial, pounding down Campbell to a glorious finish - preferably on a Sunday, when more folks can turn out.

Then there'd be the Monday time trial, crucial not only to the Tour but to the valley, which gets television exposure for the hours, rather than minutes, it takes all the cyclists to pass through the community.

This is all speculative, of course. Each year the course is drawn anew, and Roanoke doesn't know if it will have the time trial even, though there is every reason to expect that it will. Cyclists like the challenge of this stage. Sponsors like the national and international exposure the region gets. Spectators like it all. And they would like it even more if they could see a dramatic finish to a road race.

This would be wonderful - but only if it would not affect Blacksburg's piece of the Tour adversely. Stage 4 finished there Sunday, and the college town took full advantage of the occasion - more than Roanoke did - with live bands, street vendors and a huge crowd turning the sporting event into a community festival. Tour organizers would hardly want to forgo that successful stop, nor should they.

But maybe there'll be enough fun for everyone.

by CNB