Hampsten Has Steepest Hill Left

A severe cold spell effectively paralyzed recreation-crazy Boulder, Colo., last winter. For about a week, this refuge for world-class runners, triathletes, cyclists and rock climbers was eerily silent as temperatures stayed below zero.

Not even the heartiest of folk was willing to test the inhospitable elements--until Andy Hampsten got this crazy notion to ride to the Continental Divide.

Hampsten is one of the world’s finest cyclists, and in some ways, one of the oddest. He thrives on improbable adventures perhaps as much as winning races.

So, when Hampsten called, Davis Phinney knew something was up.

“We like to look for ultimate challenges,” Phinney said. “We look for things that people would say, ‘No way! Nobody does that!’ ”

What no one in his right mind would undertake on this frigid day was a mountain bike excursion through the wilderness. Phinney, also an outstanding professional cyclist, obviously was not among the right-minded.

Although the temperature was minus-20 in the sun, Hampsten and Phinney started up the Rockies southeast of town.

But after about 3 1/2 hours of riding snow-covered paths, Phinney’s body ached from the penetrating cold. He had had enough, and headed back.

“It had to be 60 below with the wind chill going down the canyon at 30 to 40 m.p.h.,” Phinney recalled. “We had no exposed skin, but our goggles were steamed over and frozen. We could barely see.”

That did not deter Hampsten, however. He continued upward for 1 1/2 more hours to the rocky ridges of the Divide at Eldora, Colo.

And on his descent late in the day, the lone cyclist was offered a ride by a disbelieving friend who was driving down from a local ski slope. “No, no, I’m OK,” Hampsten said, waving him off.

Such dogged determination is typical of Hampsten’s do-it-myself spirit. It also could contribute to a successful run in his biggest adventure of the summer--the 77th Tour de France.

Hampsten said he is ready to erase three years of frustration in the world’s most prestigious bicycle race, which starts today with a four-mile time trial in a theme park at Futurescope, France. The 2,137-mile race will follow a clockwise route around France, ending July 22 in Paris on the Champs-Elysee.

Although there is a futility in predictions, Hampsten is expected to be one of the leaders when this Tour de France ends.

That is a familiar refrain. Since a fourth-place finish in his debut tour in 1986, Hampsten has been expected to become the only U.S. rider other than Greg LeMond to win in France.

But in 1987 and ‘88, Hampsten caught colds that turned into bronchitis as he kept cycling.

“But my body was so exhausted that it turned into a lung infection,” Hampsten said after completing an early stage in the Tour de Suisse recently. “It is so ludicrous that while I’m at my best fitness, my body is pathetically weak and susceptible to any kind of parasite.”

Last year Hampsten was slowed by food poisoning.

“In all three years, I really felt the pain,” he said. “Even though I was sick, I went as hard as I could. Instead of being with the leaders, I would be in the third or fourth group. The hardest thing about the Tour de France is trying to survive in one piece.”

Phinney, Hampsten’s best friend and comrade in adventure biking, offers another perspective.

“I think he just doesn’t hit it right,” he said. “In the race where he doesn’t have the pressure, he ends up winning. He gets in the tour and the big bomb of pressure goes off. It gets to him. To live with that pressure for three weeks is difficult for everyone. It’s like being expected to hit a home run every night in the World Series.”

The times when legs feel limp and synchronization is just another word for technocrats, Hampsten is unbearable to be around. His pursuit of perfection leaves little room for error, and he becomes obstinate and uncooperative.

Although Hampsten says he has learned to control the pressure, Phinney sees the inner explosions as inevitable. He thinks Hampsten needs insulation from members of the European cycling community with whom he spends half his time.

Hampsten, a member of the 7-Eleven racing team, lives in Yverdon, Switzerland, during the competitive season. The setting is lovely alongside Lake Nuechatel, but devoid of familiar surroundings. It is simply too European for his taste.

So, Hampsten tries to overcompensate. He loads his suitcase with such amenities as tortillas and beans.

Still . . .

“He as much as anyone needs to plop himself into a completely different environment,” Phinney said. “Over there, it crushes your spirit. You feel your soul seeping out of the Belgian atmosphere.”

In Boulder, Hampsten lives in an old log cabin adjacent to the Flat Irons, slabs of granite rising like skyscrapers above the city. Hampsten does not have a television and although he owns a Porsche, he putters around town in a VW Beetle.

Hampsten, 28, seldom associates with other Boulder athletes, instead hanging out with poets, artists, jugglers and their ilk.

“His friends are all Beat characters,” Phinney said. “At his parties, people are telling stories and teaching juggling. It’s really a different scene.”

Hampsten owns a small home in Moab, Utah, where he and his buddies find the solitude they seek when the walls of Boulder close in on them. There, they ride mountain bikes past the red sandstone of Canyonland Country.

But the happiness of such experiences cannot extinguish the angst of Tour de France failures. So, the casualness ends when Hampsten mounts his bicycle. Phinney said their training rides, such as the one to the Continental Divide last winter, develop an unshakeable resolve.

In the 1988 Giro d’Italia, Hampsten’s persistence was unwavering. As cyclists struggled with a fierce storm in the Dolomites, Hampsten plowed along the icy roads, taking the lead he did not relinquish that day.

Such dramatic rides have earned Hampsten a reputation as perhaps the world’s best mountain climber, which is essential for the Tour de France. After relatively flat routes for the first eight stages, this year’s Tour starts the notorious climbs of the Alps and Pyrenees July 9.

Climbing is a simple test of cyclist against mountain, one painful revolution of the pedal after another. Hampsten simply does it.

“He kind of gets this thing in his mind and he will follow it through,” said Muriel Sharp, a 1984 Olympic cyclist for Great Britain. “I used to ride with him a lot. Some days he wouldn’t say much at all, just ride. He really focuses on things.”

Hampsten credits his endurance to the strong winds of North Dakota, where he learned to ride. His parents, Richard and Elizabeth Hampsten, teach Renaissance English at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

“From the very beginning, growing up in a flat place, I was determined to do well in the mountains,” Hampsten said. “When I’m really fit, I feel pretty comfortable in the mountains.”

In 1986, Hampsten was the domestique , or worker, who helped teammate LeMond become the first American tour victor. Last year, he was a straggler as LeMond--no longer a teammate--overtook France’s Laurent Fignon on the final day and won in what has been called the tour’s most dramatic finish.

Most observers discount LeMond’s chances of defending his title. Hampsten, however, seems on schedule.

Hampsten had a mediocre spring, but looked strong in early June. He finished eighth in the Dauphine Libere, a weeklong French race that gives riders a feeling for what to expect during the Tour de France.

Hampsten purposely bypassed the Giro d’Italia for the Tour de Suisse, which he has won twice. He finished third last week.

“We’re really trying to time our fitness to peak during the Tour de France,” Hampsten said of 7-Eleven’s strategy this year. “The science of peaking is a bit of a mystery for all of us. We’re just hoping we hit it right.”

Hampsten has been criticized for peaking too soon with tour victories in Switzerland and Italy. Some say he wore himself out the last three years by not allowing enough time to recuperate between races.

Hampsten disagrees. He said a week between the Swiss tour and today’s start in France is about right. Any more time, Hampsten said, and he would enter another race. “Racing is the best training,” he said. “If I had time to train, I would be nervous what kind of training to do.”

PAST TEN WINNERS

1989: Greg LeMond, U.S.

1988: Pedro Delgado, Spain

1987: Stephen Roche, Ireland

1986: Greg Lemond, U.S.

1985: Bernard Hinault, Fr.

1984: Laurent Fignon, Fr.

1983: Laurent Fignon, Fr.

1982: Bernard Hinault, Fr.

1981: Bernard Hinault, Fr.

1980: Joop Zoetemilk, Neth.