Bicycle Road-Racing Route To Olympics Starts Here

They say "Skid Row" got its name from Seattle, where early loggers skidded logs down Yesler Way toward Elliott Bay and where you can spot city natives because they call it Skid Road.

But for 100 or so bicycle riders who will hit Seattle's streets today, it's the trip up Yesler that counts, because it could lead to Atlanta and the Olympics.

The climb up Skid Road is the major feature in the 12.6-mile downtown course - the first of three selection races to pick a U.S. Olympics men's cycling road-racing team.

The second trials race is scheduled next Sunday in Pittsburgh, the final race June 1 in Charlotte, N.C. Trials for the women's team are scheduled for May 23 in Wheeling, W.Va., May 26 in Pittsburgh and June 1 in Charlotte, N.C.

The U.S. national road-racing championships have been contested on the Seattle course the past two years, and the men's race here this year is doing double duty as an Olympic trial and the national amateur championship.

Both amateurs and pros will be riding. The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team trials mark the first time professional and amateur cyclists will be competing for spots on the Olympic team. Previously, only amateurs were eligible for the Games.

But the open competition hasn't left amateurs feeling they'll be racing for second place.

"They expect to be racing against the best. They don't have that much opportunity to race against the best riders and they are looking forward to it," said Steve Penny, managing director of the U.S. Cycling Federation, in a telephone interview from headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Points accumulated in the trials will be used to select two men and one woman for an Olympic road-racing team of five men and three women. The remaining members will be chosen by coaches of the U.S. Olympic team.

The points format for road-team members is not new, but holding the races at several different sites is. Because professional racers will be included in the Summer Games, it was more difficult working out a schedule for the trials that did not conflict with other races.

Of the three trials courses, the one at Charlotte will be most like the Olympic course at Atlanta.

"There are more rolling hills in Georgia, where clearly the climb up Yesler will challenge this group of athletes more than the climbing in Atlanta will do," USCF spokeswoman Cheryl Kvasnicka said.

Pittsburgh's course also "has a tough climb," she said. "It's considered one of the toughest one-day events in the country."

Seattle offers the "most challenging course from a racing perspective," Penny said. "The climbs are difficult, but there are other sections that can determine the winner.

"In Pittsburgh, the climb is going to determine the race. They'll do the one climb 11 times and the person who's ahead at the top on the last climb will win the race," Penny said.

"There are quite a few turns" on the Charlotte course, he said. "There are no significant climbs, although there are some uphill sections. The Atlanta course is about the same, with some technical sections. They are very, very similar."

The riders will do 10 laps on the Seattle course, for a total of 126 miles. The Pittsburgh race is 108 miles and Charlotte is the longest at 137.2 miles.

Most of the pros are coming off the Tour DuPont, which ended last Sunday on the East Coast. Several of the top U.S. amateurs have been racing in Europe.

Some of the top pros expected to ride are Andy Hampsten, the 1988 Tour of Italy champion and a mountain-stage winner in the Tour de France; Steve Hegg, a gold-medal winner on the track in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; Norm Alvis, who rode in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul; 1988 Olympian Frankie Andreu; and George Hincapie.

Lance Armstrong, the 1993 World Professional Champion, has earned an automatic berth based on his top-15 international ranking, where he's ranked 11th in the world, and is passing up the Seattle race.

Top amateurs competing will be Jeff Evanshine of the U.S. national team and Chann McRae, who won the national championship in Seattle last year.

The Seattle race marks a return to Washington state for Olympic cycling trials. Spokane was the host city for the 1984 and 1988 Olympic road trials.