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August 12, 2004 7:06 pm

McCartney steps up to the spotlight

By Bryce Miller

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece — In the last-name world of elite road cycling, where U.S. names such as Hamilton, Hincapie and Julich are synonymous with the Tour de France, he’s just Jason.

The five-man U.S. team at the Summer Olympics features four with Tour experience.

Then there’s Jason McCartney, the Hawaiian-born rider whose training includes the dusty gravel roads outside his home in Coralville, Iowa.

"He’s the breakthrough American, I guess you could say," George Hincapie said.

The U.S. team preparing for Saturday’s Olympic road race owns a combined 13 Tour appearances — and that’s without Lance Armstrong, who decided to skip the Games after winning his sixth Tour title this summer.

Hincapie and Bobby Julich each have raced in four Tours, Tyler Hamilton has competed in three and Levi Leipheimer in two.

"I was a little nervous at first," McCartney, 30, said of coming to Athens with the well-decorated team. "But you get hanging out with them and you’re like one of the boys."

McCartney earned his shot at racing this weekend by winning the U.S. selection race earlier this year in Redlands, Calif.

Earlier this year, he won a stage in the prestigious Tour de Georgia that included Armstrong.

McCartney, who was born in Honolulu and moved to Iowa with his mother when he "was three or four," developed an interest in riding when he worked in an Iowa City bike shop. He began racing in Europe in the early 1990s and left racing in 1994 before deciding to return four years later.

Then, this year, the wins in Georgia and California pushed him to the press conference podium on Thursday in Athens, alongside the sport’s elite.

McCartney promised he hasn’t been caught star-gazing on his own team, though.

"Everybody’s human," McCartney said. "If you let the fact that ‘This guy’s done this’ or ‘This guy’s done that’, then you’re not going to do what you’re supposed to do."

McCartney and his U.S. teammates said rides this week on the slick road course in Greece created concerns for everyone on a bike.

"The streets just look like glass — even when it’s dry," he said.

McCartney compared parts of the course to places he’s ridden in South America, with "crummy cars, leaking oil all over the road."

A couple of weeks ago, McCartney injured his right leg in a crash on the way to fourth place at a race in Altoona, Pa.

An Olympic berth and rides past places such as Athens’ famed Acropolis have strong motivational powers, however, for Hamilton, Hincapie, Julich — and Jason.

"When we were riding around town, I was definitely checking it out," McCartney said.

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