Horner Victorious In First Cycling Trial
Chris Horner, short on experience but smart enough to hook up with a strong breakaway pack midway through the race, won the first of the trials Sunday in Seattle for the Olympic cycling road racing team.
Horner made it across the finish line a few bike lengths ahead of Frankie Andreu, who made the most impressive show of strength by racing from the main pack to catch up with the breakaway group several minutes ahead.
The other two men’s road races are May 26 in Pittsburgh, which also features a major hill, and June 2 in Charlotte, N.C., a course more similar to the Atlanta Olympics course, with more rolling hills and some technical sections. The trials also include two individual time trials in addition to the three road races.
Points accumulated in the trials will be used to select two men and one woman for an Olympic team of five men and three women. The remaining members will be chosen by Olympic team coaches.
Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour DuPont last week, already has qualified for the team by virtue of his No. 11 ranking in the world and did not race Sunday. Armstrong won the World Professional Championship and is considered the strongest U.S. rider. The 1996 Olympics are the first in which professional cyclists are eligible.
“I thought the right guys were in the break,” said Horner, 24, of Lemon Grove, Calif. “I think it pretty much went the way it was supposed to go, except for me winning. That’s the biggest surprise, I guess.”
Chris Carmichael, national coaching director of the U.S. Cycling Federation, was pleased with Sunday’s results.
“I saw some big moves by some riders out there,” Carmichael said. He said he was impressed with Horner’s work with the breakaway.
“He didn’t miss a pull,” taking his turn at the front of the group to allow the others to draft, much as in auto racing.
March to the medals
World champion Lilia Podkopayeva won two gold medals Sunday in the apparatus finals at the European gymnastics championships in Birmingham, England. The 17-year-old Ukrainian, who won the overall title Saturday, also collected a bronze in the vault. Her golds came for the floor exercise and the uneven bars, but her victories were not outright. She shared top honors in floor exercise with Romanian Lavinia Milosovici, and tied Svetlana Chorkina of Russia and Simona Amanar of Romania on the uneven bars.
Carrying the torch
The route traveled 306 miles from Stillwater, Okla. to Fort Worth, Texas. Shannon Miller, silver and bronze medal gymnast from the 1992 Olympics, was among the torchbearers.
Footnote
“I wore contact lens for all those years of shooting,” said Connie Petracek, who qualified for her second Olympic shooting team despite poor eyesight. “I had a special extra large lens made for me. But it flattened my cornea in 1992. I had a little trouble. I had to give up my contact lens and go to coke-bottle glasses.”