BEIJING (AP) Instead of coming to Beijing two weeks ago for the Olympic opening ceremony and all that the games can offer, the U.S. mountain bike team trained in South Korea, hoping that staying sharp there would lead to medal performances.
The idea didn't quite work as planned for the Americans on Saturday.
Mary McConneloug was seventh and Georgia Gould finished eighth in the 16.6-mile women's race, both losing sight of eventual gold medalist Sabine Spitz of Germany early and never catching up. Spitz cruised to gold in 1 hour, 45 minutes, 11 seconds, with Poland's Maja Wloszczowska winning the silver and Russia's Irina Kalentieva taking the bronze.
McConneloug finished in 1:50:34, 17 seconds ahead of Gould, marking the first time two U.S. women had finished in the top eight of the Olympic field.
"It's definitely solid," Gould said. "There's room for improvement, which is good. I was definitely hoping that I'd be able to pull off a medal, but you've got to have something to reach for and I finished strong. Got to be happy with that."
In the 22.1-mile men's race, Adam Craig of the U.S. went a lap down just as the race was ending and was officially credited with a 29th-place finish. Todd Wells dropped out a lap earlier, placing 43rd. Neither ever challenged France's Julien Absalon, who held off countryman Jean-Christophe Peraud and Switzerland's Nino Schurter for his second straight Olympic title.
"You give what you have to give," Craig said. "I didn't have a whole lot to give today, and I'm more disappointed to miss the opportunity to have people fired up about mountain biking back at home. Maybe next time."
The U.S. finished with five medals in cycling at the Beijing Games, its third-best showing in an Olympiad, topped by only the 21 won at St. Louis in 1904 (when no other nations raced) and the nine at Los Angeles in 1984, when the Eastern bloc boycotted. Kristin Armstrong was the lone winner of gold for USA Cycling; she prevailed in the women's road time trial.
Weather played a huge role in the Olympic women's mountain bike race: Heavy rain Thursday made the course too slippery to safely navigate in some sections and too muddy in others, so the event was pushed back from Friday to Saturday - when racers were greeted by a bright, sunny, 88-degree day, hardly optimal for an endurance event.
Four riders dropped out, including reigning gold medalist Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway, who cited mechanical problems, and Canadian medal hopeful Marie-Helene Premont. Spain's Margarita Fullana also departed early, offering a simple reason.
"I am too tired," she said.
McConneloug and Gould, though, had plenty left for the final lap.
Mindful to conserve energy throughout, when many racers simply went out too fast in pursuit of Spitz, each passed three racers along the last loop for their top-eight finishes.
"When it's this hot, it's almost like you're moving in slow motion," ''You're constantly just pinning it and then trying to find rest, but this course really doesn't have any rest. It really required all my focus just to stay like the motivated out there and be like the dragon."
McConneloug is a free spirit, someone who's always wishing other racers good luck at the starting line and embraces them warmly afterward, even if they've beaten her.
Her biggest complaints about these Olympics? No time for her daily nap, and no place in the athlete's village for yoga.
"I had no time for it," McConneloug said. "That's something a cyclist needs to do to be centered and prepare."
Still, those issues were nothing when compared to her drama-filled 2004 experience.
McConneloug had to go the courts to keep her spot on the Athens Olympic team, after controversy broke out over USA Cycling's selection process for that squad. It wound up pitting McConneloug unwittingly against teammate Sue Haywood, who also thought she merited the lone spot on the '04 squad.
McConneloug's side ultimately prevailed, she finished ninth in Athens and improved two spots Saturday.
"It was a better experience," McConneloug said. "It wasn't any easier, because it's really difficult to be ranked. And it was nice to be able to know what to expect coming here."
Like McConneloug, Wells and Craig also knew what to expect.
Both arrived in Beijing on Wednesday night, feeling strong and thinking the work they put in at the Korea training camp would lead to a breakthrough.
It didn't happen, and by the time the first lap was over, the leaders were already gone.
That's when Wells knew a medal simply wasn't going to happen.
"In mountain biking, you kind of know in the beginning of the race whether you're going to have a good day or a bad day," Wells said. "You might fade a little or gain a little during the race, but if you're having an exceptionally bad day or an exceptionally good day, not a lot changes out there."
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