Motivated And On A Roll -- Rider Still Challenging Eickhoff

Lucy Tyler lies in a Houston hospital bed, her arm broken, the right side of her head fractured in several places and the quadriceps in her right thigh severely gashed.

It is April 1989. She is having the best year of her 4-year-old cycling career, leading the Sundance Grand Prix national points standings. But suddenly she is having the worst season of her life.

Hours earlier, Tyler and several of her cycling teammates were pedaling outside the Houston track, warming up, when a car swerved into their path at 50 mph. Tyler absorbed much more of the impact than the other riders, and the crash knocked her through the car's windshield.

She will suffer from amnesia over the next 27 months.

Yet, amid the pain, amid the confusion from the amnesia, she never lets go of one thing she knows.

Motivation.

Two weeks later, Tyler is back on the track racing. -----------------------------

REDMOND - Lucy Tyler Vinnicombe stood atop the medal platform at Marymoor Velodrome in Redmond last night and accepted a gold medal at the U.S. Track Cycling Championships.

It is her first national victory in the kilometer time trial. She won with a ride of 1 minute, 15.66 seconds, almost a second faster than Juliana Nowlan of La Mesa, Calif.

"Ever since the crash, I've been really motivated," said Vinnicombe, who last week married Martin Vinnicombe, a former world kilometer cycling champion. "Getting more and more motivated."

And putting more distance between herself and her season of pain.

"I tried so hard," Vinnicombe said, recalling her training during the winter before the accident.

"You finally start to get somewhere. I was starting to win some races. I wasn't going to lose it.

"I think the amnesia probably helped a little," the Largo, Fla., native said of her on-the-track rehabilitation in 1989. "I was riding, and it was painful. I think I would forget about the pain the next time I went out.

"I don't remember most of the season."

On the day of the accident, she was leading the national points series, but finished second by two points behind Janie Eickhoff, then an 18-year-old phenomenon.

"You do everything you can to prepare, and something like that (accident) happens. It robs you of your whole dream," Vinnicombe, 26, said. "The whole year was really screwed up."

It got worse after the season ended. She tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended from competition for a year.

Vinnicombe said she failed the drug test because of sinus medication she took after the accident.

"Nobody would ever accept my excuse," she said. "It (the accident) caved in the side of my head. My sinuses were crushed."

Her answer to the lost season was three silver medals (pursuit, points, scratch) won in an Australian national competition last March.

"I was the silver bullet. That's what Martin called me," Vinnicombe said. "Now I'm coming back and starting to get some form."

Not to mention a husband-coach.

She met her future husband in January while training in his native Australia. They were married last Saturday in a rose garden in Allentown, Pa.

"If it's good, it's good, isn't it?" said Martin, 26.

It was never better than last night in Redmond. The highest tier after the longest road.

Vinnicombe also won her quarterfinal 3,000-meter pursuit heat, clocking in at 4:00.71 to defeat Susan Elias of Readfield, Maine (4:01.88). Eickhoff of Los Alamitos, Calif., turned in the best quarterfinal time, 3:52.78.

Also advancing: Kendra Kneeland, Cupertino, Calif., and Mindee Mayfield, Lakewood, Colo.

Kirkland's Julie Gregg gave the partisan crowd of 300 spectators an exciting 20 minutes during the women's kilometer time trial last night. That was about how long she owned the top time before finishing in fourth place (1:17.55).

"I've only ridden the kilo five times, and that was by far the best I've done," said Gregg, who last attempted the event a month ago in qualifying for the nationals. Her time then was 1:20.7.

Gregg, 25, has more experience in the sprints. She placed fourth in the 1990 nationals.

The women's kilometer was the only finals event last night.

Ken Carpenter of La Mesa, Calif., moved closer to defending his national men's sprint championship when he breezed to victory in his second-round heat last night. The 1988 Olympian was to race in the quarterfinals today.

Matt Hamon of Colorado Springs, Colo., turned in a 4:49.54 performance, leading the men's 4,000-meter pursuit quarterfinals. Miami's Carl Sundquist, a three-time national champion in the event, recorded the fourth-best time, 4:51.97, but it was good enough to carry him past Adam Laurent and into today's semifinals. ---------------------

MARYMOOR VELODROME SCHEDULE

-- Tonight: Men's sprint semifinals (first ride), 7-7:10; men's sprint final (5th-8th places), 7:10-7:15; women's sprint (second round), 7:15-7:55; men's sprint semifinals (second ride), 7:55-8:05; women's individual pursuit finals, 8:15-8:25; men's individual pursuit finals, 8:30-8:40; men's sprint (third ride, if necessary), 9:15-9:20; women's sprint (second-round repechage), 9:20-10. -- Tomorrow's morning session: Tandem sprint (qualifying), 10-10:40; women's sprint quarterfinals (first ride), 10:50-11:10; tandem sprint quarterfinals (first ride), 11:10-11:30; women's sprint quarterfinal (second ride), 11:30-11:50; tandem sprint quarterfinal (second ride), 11:50-12:10; women's sprint quarterfinal (third ride, if necessary), 12:10-12:20; tandem sprint quarterfinal (third ride, if necessary), 12:20-12:30; team pursuit (qualifying), 12:45-2; women's points race (qualifying), 2:10-2:45.