Columnist Ron Kantowski: Armstrong hasn’t sparked a local cycling craze

Thursday, July 29, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's notes column appears Tuesday and Thursday. Reach him at 259-4088 or ron@lasvegassun.com

In states such as Colorado and New Mexico, places that lead the league in fresh air and healthy lungs, they are part of the landscape. Guys and gals wearing weird headgear and spandex suits, their calves stretched taut like guitar strings, pedalling as if there's no tomorrow but fast enough to get there.

They are cyclists, and now that Lance Armstrong has become the second American to win the Tour de France, the hope among the Las Vegas cycling community is that the pedal-pushing sport might even catch on here, like a 10-speed Schwinn in the 1970s.

"Probably, you're going to get people who have hung up the bike for a while thinking that, gee, maybe they should take the bike down (and start riding again)," said Deya Hawk, who owns and operates Peloton Sports, a shop catering to cycling enthusiasts in the Buffalo Bridge Shopping Center.

But Hawk said she hasn't noticed a surge in business since Armstrong donned the yellow jersey in the French Alps. "Not a big change, but then we've always dealt with customers who already follow the Tour," she said.

"But we sell the Trek brand (of bicycle) which is what Lance uses. So it can't hurt (business)."

That also was the sentiment over at the House of Bikes, out of which Stephen Morgan, whose family owns the shop, operates a local amateur cycling team sponsored by the Outback chain of steakhouses.

In fact, Morgan has a rider, 22-year-old Rene Saenz, who has pedalled with the U.S. National Team and trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

"It's not really an American sport and it's tough to make a living at it," said Morgan, who likewise hopes that the Tour de Lance will spawn some interest in two-pedal drive transportation.

"That's the thing with cycling in this country," he said. "You don't get any young people into it, and that's why America has trouble competing in Europe."

* I'M OUT OF THE GAME! It's probably too late for the baseball umpires to kiss and make up with the baseball owners. But if they want absolution from baseball fans, perhaps they should consider the Toshiyuki Tanaka approach to calling balls and strikes.

Tanaka, considered the premier umpire in Japanese baseball's Central League, was so distraught over making the wrong call during a recent game between the Chunichi Dragons and Yomiuri Giants that he suspended himself for three games.

When was the last time Bruce Froemming kicked himself out of the game?

"It wasn't just because of his own mistake," league spokesman Hideo Okoshi told the Associated Press. "Tanaka also wanted to show concern for what he said were a lot of misunderstandings lately by fans."

* HERALDING A PROFIT: If you ever got an NCAA athletic director into an interrogation room, turned on the bright light and did an Andy Sipowicz number on him, he probably would admit that fielding a women's athletic program is a no-win proposition. Here's why:

By now, most of you should be familiar with the University of Tennessee women's basketball program. Pat Summitt. Chamique Holdsclaw. Tamika Catchings. Rabid fans. More national titles than anybody, with the possible exception of John Wooden and the guy who coaches the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team, can shake a stick at.

This is a juggernaut that would make Irwin Rommel proud.

Yet the Lady Vols didn't turn a profit until their second straight national championship season of 1997-98, when the program exceeded expenses by $405,000. It was the first time in the 53-year history of Tennessee women's basketball that the Lady Vols finished in the black.

* ROBBING THE CRADLE: Wake Forest offered an incoming freshman quarterback prospect named Chris Leak an athletic scholarship last week. Nothing usual about that, until it was learned that Leak is an incoming high school freshman.

Leak's older brother, C.J., also is a quarterback at Wake but has yet to throw a pass. But according to the Charlotte Observer, Demon Deacons coach Jim Caldwell is so enamored of Leak's kid brother that he promised the 14-year-old sibling a full ride, provided Caldwell is still employed by the university following Chris Leak's senior prom.

In a related note, Caldwell also sent a recruiting letter to Joe Montana's pregnant wife.

* AROUND THE HORN: Local products Phil Glover (Clark High/Utah) and Grey Ruegamer (Bishop Gorman/Arizona State) have signed NFL contracts with the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins, respectively, and have reported to their NFL training camps. Glover is a linebacker, Ruegamer a center. ... Sonny Allen, the former coach of the Las Vegas Silver Streaks of the defunct World Basketball League, has made a big impact in his first season as head coach of the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs, now owned by the Maloof family of Las Vegas and Albuquerque, N.M. One of the WNBA's worst teams last year, the Monarchs have taken to the 63-year-old Allen's up-tempo style and are challenging for a playoff berth. ... The start of the college football season is still more than a month away, yet the Sun already has received its first promotional flier touting an All-American basket ball candidate. I'll bet you didn't know that Anthony Stacey became only the 29th player in Bowling Green history to score 1,000 career points when he converted a layup against Illinois-Chicago last year.