Pezzo clinches her piece of gold
By Matt Lanning

Distance: 31.9 kilometers (19.8 miles)
Temperature: 91 F
Humidity: 46 percent

The light breeze and cloud cover of the morning's men's race made way for clear skies, still air, and hot temperatures in the afternoon. It was a sizzler for the highly anticipated women's Olympic cross-country race, the one the crowd had been waiting for.

The U.S. men's team is strong, but nobody really expected a medal from Tinker Juarez or Don Myrah. The women's team, however, is a different story. America's fat-tire hopes for the last two years have been riding on Juli Furtado of Durango, Colorado. And the swarming media in Atlanta quickly singled her out for much hype and pre-race hoorahs. Much to Furtado's dismay, it was not her day. Rather, the first-ever mountain-bike gold went to Italy's Paola Pezzo. Canada's Alison Sydor earned the silver, with the bronze going to Susan DeMattei of the United States.

Perhaps it was a new training schedule, or maybe the pressure that cyclists everywhere were putting on her to win the gold. Whatever it was, Furtado came up empty at the clutch moment in the second lap when Pezzo made her break. Furtado was unable to respond.

She was overheating, and no amount of jersey unzipping was gonna help, said team manager Doug Martin, "She just needed to stop and put the hood up. She had to find a way to cool down."

Meanwhile, Furtado's teammate was moving up fast. Reminiscent of her medal-winning performance at the 1994 World Championships in Vail--when she won a medal after Furtado slumped--DeMattei lunged out from the shadows and commanded her way to a spot on the podium. She gritted her way past Furtado and other contenders such as Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle, Elsbeth Vink (Netherlands) and Annabella Stropparo (Italy).

Pezzo was able to build a bit of a gap, but Sydor and DeMattei rode together until the final lap when they took after Pezzo in a last-ditch pedal for gold. Sydor was able to close on Pezzo, but not enough to win.

The other North American rider, Lesley Tomlinson of Canada, rode well off the pace for most of the race, but picked up a handful of spots on the last lap--as well as some cuts and bruises in a fall--to finish an eventual thirteenth.

Pezzo's gold medal ride is a nice addition to her 1993 World Championship win in Metabief, France. This season she elected to take time off and skip the last four rounds of the Grundig/UCI World Cup here in North America in favor of training with the Italian federation. Apparently they did something right.

Matt Lanning is a frequent contributor to Outside Online