CONYERS, Ga. (CP) -- Dirt caked her shins and her skin-tight racing suit
was soaked from head to foot, but the knowledge she'd won the silver medal in
the new Olympic mountain biking event was a cleansing shower for Alison Sydor.
It wasn't gold as she'd hoped. Yet, she'd given it her best shot on a sizzling 34-degree C afternoon that drove many of the 38,000 spectators into the woods for shade.
"Racing is taking what you have on the day and giving your best effort and making the most of it," she said before heading off to receive her precious medal Tuesday. "I certainly feel as if I did that today.
"I'm not disappointed at all."
Sydor, 29, the 1994 and '95 world champion from North Vancouver, was 67 seconds behind Paola Pezzo of Italy after 31.9 kilometres, which was three laps around a daredevil's trail dipping and diving through trees and across fields.
Lesley Tomlinson of Vancouver was 10 minutes behind Pezzo for 13th spot among 29.
"She had an awesome day and it's not a surprise to me that she won," Sydor said of Pezzo, who was world champ in 1993. "She's a rider who can win the big races.
"The best mountain bike rider won the race."
Sydor, her legs pumping like pistons, led early and often but couldn't put any distance between herself and others in the lead pack as is her norm.
"At the very start I knew I wasn't having an awesome day," she said. "When I went hard, I wasn't dropping everybody.
"So, I just kept a pace where I wasn't getting dropped myself. But then nobody else wanted to go by so that's why I took the lead a lot."
Shortly after the halfway mark, Pezzo, who had jumped up and lost little time after a first-lap crash, took control.
"She went ahead and she just kept going," said Sydor. "From then on, it was really a race for the silver."
The Italian team had foresaken participation in most World Cup meets this year.
"They focused their whole season on this race," said Sydor. "They put a lot of pressure on themselves and Pezzo came through.
"She had an awesome day. I had a great day, not an awesome day."
Tomlinson had a badly scraped right leg from a first-lap fall.
"It stings right now because I'm all salty but I'll be all right."
The world championships usually are held in September and the heat was an opponent for all the racers.
"We don't race in heat and humidity like this on a regular basis -- maybe once or twice a year," said Sydor. "It's just one more factor to consider in your race preparations.
"I took a bottle at every single feed zone and tried to finish it. That's probably one of the factors contributing to having a strong finish."
She gained ground in the closing 500 metres but Pezzo had too big a lead to overcome.
"She's tough," Iouri Kachirine, who coaches Sydor, said of his racer. "She fights right to the end.
"Athletes always want to be on the top but, after she realizes she did as much as she could do, I think she'll be happy."
