ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9608010051
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
In the first Olympic cycling road race with professionals, one thing didn't change.
Cycling is still a European sport.
In the Centennial Olympic Games, the ride was very different from 100 years ago, when they pedaled from Athens, Greece, to Marathon, got off their bikes and signed their names, and pedaled back.
This time, the men rode 17 circuits of an 8.1-mile course through the spectator-lined streets of Buckhead, finishing right between Fellini's Pizza and the Brookhaven Florist.
On a humid Wednesday, Lance Armstrong needed the 137.85-mile Atlanta Games race to be three laps shorter. The U.S. star and two-time defending Tour DuPont champion had a five-second lead after 14 laps.
He finished 12th, as veteran Paschal Richard of Switzerland took the gold medal over the mostly flat course in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 56 seconds. Armstrong finished 1:29 behind.
Richard edged Rolf Sorensen of Denmark by about his front wheel in a sprint to the finish. The bronze went to Maximilian Sciandri of Great Britain, one of Armstrong's Team Motorola mates.
The U.S. plan was for the other four team members to help Armstrong win the gold. They tried, and when Frankie Andreu saw it wasn't going to happen, he pedaled away, then barely held on for fourth place.
Andreu, of Dearborn, Mich., led after 12 laps, trying to pave the way for Armstrong. Armstrong climbed to second after 13 laps, while Andreu had dropped to seventh.
After Armstrong took the lead on the following lap, he quickly fell back to ninth, alongside Andreu on the 15th lap.
``When Sorensen and Sciandri got away [at that juncture], I said to Lance, 'Do you want to bridge [the gap]?''' Andreu said after the race. ``And he said, `I'm kind of tired.' That's when I went. In the beginning, I thought I might be able to catch them, but then I saw I wasn't gaining any time.
``I was dying. It's hard by yourself. Those last two kilometers were forever ... We were doing what we wanted to do, what we were supposed to do. Lance was just very marked. I had much more freedom than he did. Lance takes two pedal strokes and guys get all over him.''
Andreu was as close as 38 seconds behind with one lap remaining. He finished 1:14 behind Richard. It was more Olympic frustration for the United States, which has won only two medals in the 100-year history of the event - Alexi Grewal's gold at Los Angeles in 1984 and a bronze by Carl Schutte at the 1912 Stockholm Games.
Armstrong said the American team wasn't organized enough to make his breakaway work.
``That's what it's all about, taking risks,'' he said. ``Some work and some do not. I've done that move a lot before.''
Armstrong, who rode in the Barcelona Games before turning pro, improved his finish just two spots from his first Olympics. There were 194 starters, with 116 finishing. The other U.S. riders were Greg Randolph (74th), George Hincapie (76th) and Steve Hegg (93rd), who has a gold medal in track cycling from the Los Angeles Games.
Miguel Indurain of Spain, who won the Tour de France five consecutive times placed 26th. This year's Tour champ, Bjarne Riis of Denmark, was 87th.
``It was fantastic,'' said Andreu of the atmosphere. ``So many people yelling, it was just like Europe. It was a charge. It was great having the Olympics on home soil.''
Andreu, 29, was 25th in this year's Tour DuPont and 111th in the Tour de France. He was the only American to finish that race in 1994. He also led the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The Belgium race that vaulted Armstrong in those standings, Liege-Bastogne, was won by Wednesday's gold medalist. Armstrong was second.
Asked about his recent successes in France and the Olympics compared to Armstrong, Andreu said, ``I am not a better rider than Lance.''
On this day, he was.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 linesby CNB