BEIJING -- Any casual observer taking a glance at the road cycling race results from the opening weekend of the Beijing Olympics almost certainly wouldn't find reason to be impressed with American racers David Zabriskie and Christine Thorburn.
Zabriskie's showing Saturday? DNF: Did not finish, an early departure from the brutally long men's race.
Thorburn's result Sunday? She crossed the line 52nd, beating only nine other finishers and ending up nearly nine minutes behind women's gold medalist Nicole Cooke of Great Britain.
Strange as it sounds, however, Zabriskie and Thorburn might have performed as well -- or better -- than any of the eight Americans who competed in those road tests from downtown Beijing to the Great Wall. And that could bode favorably for both on Wednesday, when the U.S. returns to the road course for the time trials, where the Americans expect to fare well.
Their task was to chase down leaders and try to keep their other teammates in the race, knowing that they would be sacrificing their own chances of winning to do so. So they spent tons of energy doing just that, and though it didn't result in any American medals, both came away satisfied that they did their job.
"The road race was a huge goal for me as a team event," Thorburn said Sunday, as cold rain pelted the riders and slicked the course, turning an already tough event into one that bordered on absolutely dangerous. "Now I've seen the course and the setup for Wednesday. And I definitely would say I saw a lot of the key time trialists backing off when it got bad out here."
Safety first, indeed.
If nothing else, Sunday's rain washed away the haze that shrouded the view of the section of the Great Wall overlooking the finish line -- it was almost perfectly clear there Monday, with only a thin layer of white hovering over the very tallest sections -- but left the course laden with potentially disastrous spots.
There were at least four crashes in the women's road race, including one that sent Kristin Armstrong sprawling to the blacktop. She emerged unharmed and will join Thorburn on Wednesday as the U.S. women's representatives in the time trial, where Armstrong has claimed gold and silver at the past two world championships.
Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer will ride for the U.S. in the men's time trial.
At the Athens Olympics, the Americans won three medals in cycling, all of them in time trials: Tyler Hamilton took gold and Bobby Julich bronze in the men's race, and Dede Barry won silver in the women's TT.
"We should have a great chance Wednesday," Armstrong said.
In a way, the road races for Zabriskie and Thorburn turned into training rides for the rider-against-clock event Wednesday, when the only tactic to be used is to pedal as hard as one can for as long as one can. That's not the way to win a long road race, but is a great way to prep for a time trial.
"They did an amazing job," said U.S. men's road racer Christian Vande Velde, who was fifth in the Tour de France last month. "They slaughtered themselves. Everyone on our team is a fabulous time trialist before they were a fabulous road racer, so that's important."
The decision to abandon the course early and do some hard work to help men's teammates Vande Velde, Leipheimer and George Hincapie might have been particularly smart for Zabriskie, who missed the 2008 Tour de France while recovering from a broken back.
He doesn't have the mileage base he would prefer to be able to vie for victory on a long trek like the 152-mile Olympic road race -- but believes he has got more than enough energy to battle for gold in the time trial.
"I don't know how I would feel if I was to have finished the entire thing," Zabriskie said. "I really don't have the endurance that a lot of the other guys have, just because of the time I've had off. But I think I'll be competitive on Wednesday."
