U.S. Postal Service arrives on time in Paris

PARIS -- All jokes about the slow-moving United States Postal Service aside, the second U.S.-based team to compete in the Tour de France arrived intact and undamaged at the Champs-Elysees on Sunday.

The team's nine riders -- six international members and three Americans -- all finished the 84th edition of cycling's grand event. The team didn't have a stage victory or even a podium (top-three) stage appearance. But the Tour de France is many races within a race, and the riders emblazoned with jerseys featuring red, white and blue postage stamps joined only Telekom and Festina as the teams with all riders finishing.

"It's

George Hincapie of the U.S. Postal Service team finished 104th overall. Allsport

really important that we finished the race," said George Hincapie shortly after the New York native placed fifth in the final stage and placed 104th of the 139 finishers. "It shows that we deserved to be here, for years to come, too."

HINCAPIE'S SENTIMENTS ECHOED THE FEELINGS of the American squad that pushed, prodded and raced its way into the event.

The Society of the Tour de France is not above politics. And although rumors circulated for weeks that the team would be given one of the six "wild-card" team entries, the confirmation wasn't announced until mid-June.

"The team had to race so hard just to get here, a few weeks ago I was worried," said Jill Jemison, a team spokesperson and wife of Marty Jemison of Park City, Utah, who placed 96th. "We were pretty tired."

But the team was there in Normandy when the race started July 5. And for the first week, through the "flat" stages as the race approached the base of the Pyrenees, the U.S. Postal Service rode itself into third place in the team standings.

WITH SUCH SUB-PLOTS AS BEST CLIMBER and sprinter, the team classification is calculated with each team's top three finishers in each stage. With the other sub-categories, it helps maintain interest throughout the peloton (race field), particularly in a race where the leader is far ahead of his competitors.

Such was the case with winner Jan Ullrich. The first German race titlist eventually built more than a nine-minute lead and held the leader's yellow jersey for the final 12 days. The race also had its share of controversy -- ejected riders and coaches and relegations -- to maintain interest.

But meanwhile, the Postal Service team was steadily helping amass the best U.S. presence at the Tour de France since the heydays of 7-Eleven, which in the mid-'80s fielded the likes of Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney and Jeff Pierce -- all stage winners.

But combined with the finish of Bobby Julich, Tyler Hamilton and Frankie Andreu of the French team, the six U.S.-rider finish gave renewed hopes to American cycling, which hasn't exactly had the greatest focus in recent years.

As the race progressed into the Pyrenees and Alps, the Postal Service had its difficult moments. Viatcheslav Ekimov of Russia, a several-time Tour de France veteran, fell off on stages in which he was expected to do well.

HINCAPIE AND JEMISON HAD OFF DAYS AND lacked motivation. Yet the team eventually accumulated six top-10 stage finishes.

And while it wasn't an American the team found itself supporting in the overall standings, that's the way cycling works. As expected, Jean-Cyril Robin of France quickly emerged as the team's highest ranked rider.

"The thing we really feel good about is J.C. (Robin) finishing 15th overall," said team director Mark Gorski, the 1984 Olympic sprint gold medalist. "That's a really good, solid finish ... and with the whole team finishing as a first-year program in its first Tour de France, I think we did incredibly well. We were in the race every day, and I think it's the beginning of more things we can do."

Many races, from single-day World Cup events to other tours, remain in the season. But Gorski is already planning for next season. The Postal Service team has plans to hire two "high-profile" riders, according to Gorski, who wants to develop several young American riders, too.

In the meantime, the Postal Service, with its multimillion dollar budget, has one year remaining under the terms of the team's three-year contract.

Whether the sponsor believes such exposure for a mail service not available outside the U.S. is warranted past next year is unknown.

But for this year, from Normandy to Paris, over mountaintops and through cornfields, what was promised was delivered.

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