Beijing Olympic Games

Golden girl: Armstrong wins cycling time trial

By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP)—Standing on the medal podium, looking out at the Great Wall and hearing “The Star-Spangled Banner” blare in her honor, American cyclist Kristin Armstrong was still fighting a bit of disbelief.

“I couldn’t really believe it,” she marveled.

Believe it. She’ll forever be introduced as an Olympic champion, just the second American female cyclist to earn that title.

Armstrong won the gold medal in the road time trial Wednesday, her time of 34:51.72 over the 14.6-mile course nearly a half-minute better than Britain’s Emma Pooley. Armstrong joined only Connie Carpenter-Phinney, who won the road race at Los Angeles 24 years ago, as U.S. women’s cycling gold medalists.

“Awesome,” Armstrong mumbled through her tears as she wrapped her arms around husband Joe Savola at the finish line. “It’s so awesome.”

Levi Leipheimer felt the same way, even without a trip to the very top of the medal stand.

He won the bronze in the men’s time trial a few hours after Armstrong finished her golden ride, giving the U.S. its second medal of the day—and with track and BMX still remaining, it would be a disappointment if USA Cycling doesn’t exceed its haul of three medals from the 2004 Athens Olympics, all of which came in time trials.

Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara won gold and Sweden’s Gustav Larsson took silver for the men.

“The time trial, you can control a lot more,” said Leipheimer, who was spent after his 29.2-mile sprint. “You’re out there by yourself against the clock and the strongest rider usually wins. I think the Americans, we have a culture of time trialing. We do a lot of these races in America and we have a history of being strong time trialists.”

They lived up to that reputation Wednesday.

Christine Thorburn was fifth in the women’s race for the U.S., missing a medal by about three seconds in her Olympic farewell. David Zabriskie was 12th in the men’s race.

In the women’s race, Switzerland’s Karin Thurig was third, about a minute off Armstrong’s time. French legend Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli—49 years old, in her seventh Olympics—was fourth, just ahead of Thorburn, whose in-helmet radio conked out during the race and left her unable to know split times.

Nonetheless, Thorburn was thrilled for Armstrong.

“She’s been preparing impeccably for the last four years, frankly,” Thorburn said. “She was totally ready and totally deserving.”

It completes a stirring cycle for Armstrong, who turned to cycling only after arthritis in her hips forced her to abandon a career as a professional triathlete. She made the 2004 Olympic team, but was left off the two-woman roster for the time trial in Athens, a decision that pained her deeply.

In the end, it worked out perfectly.

“The moment that I had today, it’s one of those dreams you have as a child in America,” Armstrong said.

And now, maybe she’ll stop being asked if she’s related to that OTHER Armstrong, the one named Lance who has seven Tour de France championships on his resume. (She’s not.) She one-upped Lance on Wednesday—his best Olympic finish was a bronze.

“It’s the most amazing day of my life,” Armstrong said. “I’ve been working for this for the last eight years, especially the last four, and to time everything right on one day is an accomplishment of its own.”

She won the bronze medal at the world championships in 2005, then was the gold medalist a year later, when she truly began believing she could find her way to the medal stand in Beijing. Armstrong was the silver medalist at last year’s world championships, saying that defeat wound up motivating her even more for this race.

The seeds for this Beijing triumph were planted halfway around the world, in her hometown of Boise.

Using GPS equipment and Google maps, Armstrong somehow figured out that there was a course on nearby Idaho roads that almost perfectly matched the climbs and descents of the terrain in Beijing. So for six weeks before heading to China, she trained over and over on that stretch of road, hoping for a little hometown advantage in Beijing.

“Man, it’s indescribable,” U.S. coach Jim Miller said. “We had splits we wanted to hit from the get-go and she was on top of everyone. We were right on, the training was on and she had the best bike here. There wasn’t a stone we left unturned and she got the reward.”

So did Leipheimer.

Smarting from being left out of the Tour de France this year—his Astana team was banned for past doping-related issues, none of which involved Leipheimer—the American spent his summer training at altitude in the United States, prepping for Beijing.

“I did my best with the situation I had,” Leipheimer said. “Not being in the Tour de France really motivated me to prepare as hard as I could. It made me very motivated for the Olympics. And I’ve got to say, it’s fantastic to get a medal for the United States.”

Cancellara, the two-time reigning world champion, simply blew the men’s field away, to the surprise of none of his fellow competitors. His time was 1 hour, 2 minutes, 11.43 seconds, 33.36 seconds ahead of Larsson and about 70 seconds ahead of Leipheimer, who edged Spain’s Alberto Contador for the bronze by 91/2 seconds.

“This was my goal,” Cancellara said. “This is what I worked so hard for, for so long.”

Armstrong could barely contain her glee as she stepped atop the medal podium, thrust her arms in the air and then bowed to have Olympic gold draped around her neck.

Watching nearby, Miller kept his sunglasses on, only because he couldn’t stop crying.

Miller was in the unenviable position four years ago of having to decide that Armstrong wouldn’t ride that Athens time trial. That wound up being a glorious day for USA Cycling, with Tyler Hamilton and Bobby Julich winning gold and bronze for the men and Barry claiming silver for the women.

“We had a dinner that night and I told somebody that this was easily the greatest day of cycling in my life,” Miller said. “And this …”

He choked up, unable to say any more, unable to say that this was now his greatest day in cycling.

He didn’t have to. Armstrong’s joyous look on top of the Olympic medal podium said it better than he ever could.