Sunday, October 1, 2000
Cycling News Online

British riders trail as veteran rides to glory

Viacheslav Ekimov of Russia on route to winning gold in the men's individual time-trial. Picture: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

IT HAD been billed as a straight battle between Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and the Olympic road-race gold medallist Jan Ullrich, but cycling's final event, the men's individual time trial, belonged to the Russian Viacheslav Ekimov. He covered the 46.8km course in 57.40min and beat Ullrich by eight seconds, Armstrong was a further 26 seconds behind in third place.

A gold medallist in Seoul 12 years before, Ekimov was outstanding yesterday and led the time trial from start to finish. He has always been a hugely respected rider but this performance was arguably the greatest of his career.

"This is the happiest day of my sporting life," said the 34-year-old. "I know that this was my last Olympics and I now know how it feels to be on top of Mount Everest. I am happy about what I have done and I would say that this is a happy ending."

Ekimov and Armstrong are teammates on the US Postal team and the American was generous in his praise of the Russian.

"Many years ago we used to go head-to-head in time trials and he was a tough rival. To win the Tour de France with 'Eki' in the team is a lot easier than winning it without him," Armstrong said. "He was in our team three years ago, he was allowed to leave and I was upset about that. Getting him back was a priority and I'm glad we did."

It was a disappointing day for Great Britain's two representatives, Chris Boardman and David Millar, who both finished well down the field. Having won the opening time trial in the Tour de France, Millar might have been expected to perform well in Sydney. Mentally tired after the Tour, he tried to do too much and paid for it: "When I went across the line after the first lap, I thought, 'Oh Jesus, not two more'."

Millar eventually finished 16th of 38 starters, five places behind 11th-placed Boardman. Afterwards Boardman talked about his osteopenia, a condition that causes a mild thinning of the bone mass, and how he had asked the International Cycling Union for approval to use testosterone in the treatment of his ailment.

"At first they indicated that I could go ahead," he said. "Later they had second thoughts and rescinded the original decision. I thought about challenging it but as the condition is not life-threatening, I tried to put it out of my mind and get on with racing.

Boardman, who won the gold medal in the time trial in Barcelona in 1992, described his health as fragile and said: "I haven't been able to recover from the intense training regime that a cyclist needs.

"I have only two hours of racing before I retire: the world- championship time trial and the attempt to establish a new one-hour world record. I will make the attempt in Manchester."

DAVID WALSH
Sunday Times