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Bike's peak Pezzo wins second mountain goldLatest: Thursday October 12, 2000 04:15 PM
FAIRFIELD, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Paola Pezzo of Italy won the gold medal Saturday in women's mountain biking. Barbara Blatter of Switzerland, the world's top-ranked rider, took the silver and two-time world champion Margarita Fullana of Spain, who was leading until she collided with Pezzo, got the bronze. Pezzo survived the collision on the fourth of five laps to successfully defend the Olympic title she won in Atlanta. Alison Dunlap of Colorado Springs, Colo., finished seventh, the top American on a team that had been optimistic about its medal chances, with three riders among the first 15 in the latest world rankings. "There were probably five or six of us who could have medaled, and I put myself in that group from the start," Dunlap said. "I wasn't going for top five. I was going for the win." The problem, though, came on the second lap. Dunlap was in second place when she banged into a rock. The force threw her handlebars into a tree and she bumped her hip, leaving a bruise. Not a major crash, but enough to spoil her day. "In order to be up there at the front, everything has to be perfect," she said. "Mentally, it threw me off. It took me a little bit for my legs to get going again. By then, the others were ahead of me." Pezzo waved an Italian flag and blew kisses to the crowd as she came into the finish chute. After crossing the line, she dropped from her pink bike and kissed the ground. Dunlap crossed the finish line 4:28 behind Pezzo. Ruthie Matthes of Durango, Colo., was 10th, almost six minutes later. Ann Trombley of Golden, Colo., finished 16th, more than 10 minutes later.
Each time the leaders completed a lap, the Americans were farther and farther behind, a result they blamed on the high-altitude professional races at ski areas around North America each summer. Two weeks ago, the Americans raced at Mammoth, Calif., which sits at some 9,000 feet. While their bodies and bikes made the trip to Sydney, the lungs of the U.S. riders never seemed to adjust. "I didn't have much steam the last few laps," Trombley said. "If I was to do it differently, I would have come down to sea level for the last few races of the summer. This course is different from all the places we've gone." While many of the Olympic riders also compete professionally in North America, U.S. team coach Stephane Girard noted that neither Pezzo, Blatter nor Fullana raced in Mammoth. Coming into the race, Pezzo said she would be happy with the bronze medal, but she rode as if she only had her eyes on the gold. After passing Blatter, who was in second at the time, Pezzo got Fullana with an aggressive move late in the fourth lap. She zipped past a rock drop and pulled up alongside Fullana. The Spaniard didn't appear to see Pezzo, and they bumped after coming shoulder to shoulder on a narrow, tree-lined path. Fullana went down and Pezzo went ahead, never to be challenged on the final lap. Blatter, who had led early on, overtook Fullana on the final lap. Dunlap, who placed 37th in the women's road race at the Atlanta Olympics, rode near the front through the first two laps but wore down when Blatter, Pezzo and Fullana started dueling for the lead. "I'm shocked Pezzo won because she looked so bad when I passed her," said Dunlap, who brought a No. 3 world ranking to Sydney. "It's a testament to how hard she knows how to fight." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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