From: Maj.Taylor ([email hidden])
Subject: Lance and the TdF (long)
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.racing
Date: 1993-05-31 08:06:40 PST
The following is reprinted _without_ permission of AP, but enquiring minds
want to know.
By MATT HARVEY, AP Sports Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Lance Armstrong's participation in the Tour
de France should be a boost for the young U.S. cyclist's career, even
though he does not plan to finish it.
Armstrong's coach, Noel Dejonckheere, revealed the plan after
Armstrong won the five-day, 493.5-mile Kmart Classic stage race Sunday in
Charleston.
"I think Lance is going to start the Tour de France and ride the first
10 to 12 days for experience," the Motorola coach said. "We may let him
get a taste of the mountains for one or two days, then come back here."
Armstrong said he is ready for the challenge.
"Now whether or not the team feels I'm ready ... I don't think they're
afraid of the mental aspect. They're afraid of the physical aspect.
"It's a tough race for a 21-year-old, first-year pro to do," he said.
Before Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, flies to Europe, he has some
unfinished business in the United States. He goes for the Thrift Triple
Crown when he competes in the 156-mile CoreStates USPRO Cycling
Championship next Sunday in Philadelphia.
The Kmart Classic was the second stage of the triple crown. Armstrong
won the first leg, the 120-mile Thrift Drug Classic in Pittsburgh, on May
23. If Armstrong wins all three races, Motorola collects $50,000 annually
over the next 20 years or a one-time installment of $600,000.
"(CoreStates) is a one-day event," said Hegg, who finished seventh in
the Kmart Classic. "The guy's riding great. His chances are as good as
anybody else's. But with a week off, anything can happen."
Armstrong took command of the West Virginia race during the first day,
winning a 1.5-mile time trial to set the order for the first real stage, a
100-mile ride circuit ride in the mountains of northeastern West Virginia.
"When we looked at the book they gave us with info on the race, we
definitely thought stage one would be the hardest," Dejonckheere said.
So Motorola mapped out a strategy for Armstrong to win that stage, and
he did.
He came into Sunday's final stage, a 100-mile circuit race in
Charleston, with a 54-second lead over Coors Light's Michael Engleman, 35,
of Boulder, Colo.
Frankie Andreu, one of Armstrong's teammates, said Motorola only
worried Sunday about 15 riders who were within range of Armstrong for the
overall lead.
When none of those riders tried to break away on the moderately hilly
course, Armstrong and his teammates were content to remain in the pack.
Simone Biasci of the Italian team Mercatone Uno beat Chevrolet-L.A.
Sherriff's Jamie Paolinetti, 28, of Playa Del Rey, Calif., to win the
stage by 2 seconds. They were 1:30 ahead of the rest of the pack that
included Armstrong, but were so far behind coming into the day that they
could not even break the top 10 of the overall standings.
Engleman finished second overall in the Kmart Classic, followed by
Saturn's Brian Walton, 27, of Vancouver, Canada, who was 2:45 behind.
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