ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 8, 1996 TAG: 9605080039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL
SOURCE: Associated Press
Federico Colonna of Italy gave the world's top-ranked team in its first stage victory, but Lance Armstrong retained the leader's jersey Tuesday in the Tour DuPont cycling event.
Colonna, 23, who rides for Mapei-GB, overtook Steve Bauer of Canada in the final 250 yards and claimed the 110.1-mile Wytheville to Bristol road race in 4 hours, 30 minutes, 34 seconds. The stage was run in sporadic rain and had a unique double-state finish.
Armstrong finished 29th in the main field, 1:47 behind the leaders, but kept the yellow jersey for a sixth day.
Bauer, a former two-time leader of the Tour de France who has had many runner-up finishes, including the Olympics and World Championship road race, finished second again, with the same time as the winner. Tyler Hamilton, of the U.S. Postal Service team, was third, also in the same time.
``I was frightened,'' said Colonna, who finished on the left side of the street, in Tennessee. ``I crashed two days ago with [Tony] Rominger in the rain [in Roanoke]. But I wanted to win a stage for the team, so I was willing to take some chances.''
Many other riders finished on the right side of the street, across the state border in Virginia.
Armstrong, the 1993 world road titlist and the world's No.7-ranked cyclist, leads Pascal Herve of France (Festina) by 2:53 with five stages of the 1,225-mile race through six states remaining.
Tony Rominger of Switzerland (Mapei-GB), the world's second-ranked cyclist, is third overall, 3:59 behind. The remainder of the top 10 in the overall standings also remained the same.
Colonna is in 49th place, 26:10 behind Armstrong.
``I was satisfied with the stage,'' said Armstrong, the defending champion who assumed the overall lead after winning Stage 2 in Richmond. ``It was a day to let some of the lower-ranked riders go to the front and take some of the pressure off. ''
While riding in intermittent rain, Armstrong and other overall title contenders tried to conserve for today's stage, the most difficult of the 12-day event.
The field will encounter eight substantial climbs in the 109.6-mile Bristol to Beech Mountain, N.C., ride. Armstrong was victorious last year in the stage, the Tour DuPont's only race segment as strenuous as a mountain finish in the Tour de France. The stage peaks at Carver's Gap (elevation 5,520 feet) and concludes after several descents and a five-mile finishing climb to an elevation of 5,100 feet.
On Tuesday, a group of six riders, including Colonna, Bauer and Hamilton, left the starting field after 11 miles. The lead pack, which also included Dutchman Leon van Bon, the winner of Stage 4, built as much as a 6:30 lead after 68 miles.
But the main field began to pursue and closed the deficit to 2:30 with 13 miles left. Bauer and Laurent Madouas of France left the group shortly thereafter but were soon joined by four others.
``With 30 miles left, we heard we still had a five-minute lead and we tried really hard to stay away to the finish,'' Colonna said. ``I was killing myself.''
The eighth annual event concludes Sunday with a 9.1-mile individual time trial ending in Marietta, Ga. The winner earns $35,000 of a $260,000 purse for his team. The winning squad also earns $5,000.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Tour DuPont racers ride through a sprint line inby CNBDamascus during Stage 7. Federico Colonna of Italy won the stage,
but Lance Armstrong maintained his lead by almost three minutes.