July 27/21 21:16 pm - Chatting with Olympians - Steve Bauer & the 1984 Olympics

Posted by Editor on 07/27/21
 

Steve Bauer is one of Canada's most recognized cyclists, and rightly so. Before all the professional accolades, Steve won a silver medal at the Olympics, in Los Angeles in 1984, when he was just outkicked for the gold by American Alexi Grewal. This remains Canada's only male Olympic road medal. In those days, the Olympics were not open to professionals and Steve turned professional right after the race, heading to Barcelona for the professional road race at the Worlds, where he won the bronze medal. His only other Olympic experience as a rider was in 1996 in Atlanta, when the event was opened to pros [he finished 41st]. Steve spoke with us about his Olympic experience.

Source: CP Images

"I was well prepared. I had done the Coors Classic [the premier stage race in North America at the time] prior, which was probably the best race to do before the Olympic Games. It was hot in Colorado so I was acclimatized. Obviously, it was at altitude, and going there before Los Angeles at sea level was a nice fit. Now all the pro riders do their altitude protocols before they go to the Giro or the Tour; it's just so common now, but not then.

I looked at the race as another big bike race. I didn't go the Village, I never saw the Village. I didn't go to the opening ceremonies because it was the day before the race. I booked myself into a hotel in Mission Viejo, I can't remember which one. It was basically like showing up at a big race and being self sufficient. Then the national team met me on the day and we did the bike race. That was my vision - to keep it simple.

The race itself is historic; I had a fantastic race. I tried to drop Alexi Grewal on the steep climb, but he just latched onto me and sat on for the remainder of the lap. I found out after the fact that he had been working quite hard on his sprint, and he just got me. What can I say, a bit of the 'agony of defeat'."

I asked him about the urban legend that he didn't contest the sprint so he could turn pro immediately - in those days, the Olympic champion had to wait until the next calendar year to turn pro.

Source: CP Images

"That's not true. I tried to win the race. I don't know if I was overgeared ... he had basically sat on from the top of that steep climb at the beginning of the lap to the sprint, he didn't take one pull at all. I took him to the line - I was concerned about the two chasers - Dag Otto Lauritzen and his Norwegian team mate. I didn't know who was chasing; it could have been the Americans, it could have been [Davis] Phinney. I didn't want to risk anybody come back to the sprint and I thought I could beat Grewal. So, that's why I took him to the line. Maybe that was my mistake; maybe I should have relinquished a bit of ground and let the race come back ... I don't know, those are the kind of hindsight things you never know and can't predict."

Source: CP Images

We also talked about the pros not being in the race, and whether it might be a good idea to exclude them, like men's soccer. Maybe restrict it to Under-25 aged riders?

"Actually that's not a bad idea. I think that ... who knows what the Olympic Committee would think about such a decision, but the Olympics being more of a youth or younger rider event wouldn't be a bad call. But then you would have to decide on whether or not they would be eligible if they had a WorldTour contract. Like the Worlds now - they have an Under-23 category.

The Olympics is complex, it complicates everything, even the Tour de France schedule is adjusted for the Olympics. The Olympics is an interesting monster; it's huge, costs a lot of money, usually countries go into debt to have it. So you have to wonder just how sustainable that is?

I asked Steve about how an Olympic medal compares to things like wearing the Yellow Jersey or medalling at the world championships?

"It's an interesting question. I think the Worlds, in my mind, was always the top one day race at the professional level. The Olympics was close, but at a sporting perspective it is not the same. At the Olympics you have a limited number of competitors per country; it's a little bit of a different animal, in that way. Just like in '96 when the race was five riders per team versus at the Worlds when it is up to nine riders per country. The Worlds is a much more difficult race, in a way, tactically. The Olympics tends to be more of an individual race because you have less team mates, which gives it a uniqueness.

When I was racing it was always the Worlds that was the goal and the big carrot. Even, internationally from a sporting perspective, it may not hold the same prestige - it's [Worlds] only cycling and doesn't have the global interest that the Olympics hold as a brand. Even though the sporting perspective may not have the same difficulty to win - that's belittling it a bit - but when you have the broader group of pros at the Worlds, it does tend to be a more difficult race."

We talked about coming back to the Olympics in 1996, as his career was starting to wind down.

"At that point in my career, it was like bookends, because it was the timeline of my amateur career, my pro career, and then at the end I'm back at the Olympics again. It was a great opportunity to go back to it, relive some of the excitement with it now as a professional road race.

There were some interesting twists - at that point I still felt I was the top rider in Canada and the team should support me 100%. Which it did for the most part until it created some concerns at the selection level. I didn't get my way [with the riders selected], but I won't into that in detail. That's the way it turned out.

Gord [Fraser], God love him, won a lot of bike races in his career and he's a great person and a great sports director, but at the time I didn't believe he could win the Olympics, and I think I was right about that. I thought I still had a shot to win, and I wanted the team be around me. It was as simple as that. It was the one selfish time that I could say that if the team could be behind me ... but the selection wasn't what I wanted, and I was vocal about it. I said 'this is the team I wanted to have with me' and it didn't turn out that way [he wouldn't say who his preferred selection was].

Gord got his shot at the Olympics, but didn't do as good as he maybe thought he could do. But neither did I, in fact. I missed the break; barely, but I did miss it. That's racing.

I think I tried to bridge and a couple of guys bridged off my move, and that was it, at a 100Ks to go the race is gone. I predicted that it would be a breakaway because nobody can control a race with five riders per team, it doesn't happen that way."

I asked Steve, from his perspective, if the Olympics is something a rider should focus on, or if you want to be a pro rider it is just something extra?

"I think the Olympics is a real chance for the individual. I think that it is an individual goal and an individual accomplishment. The value of the Olympics is for the individual and the country. There's only one person that gets the recognition, and that's the Olympic champion. Okay, I won a silver medal, which is a nice accolade and it is fantastic that I was able to do that. But from a professional team perspective, the only value is the winner. Greg van Avermaet as the 2016 Olympic champion has value; he is recognized as the Olympic champion. But it's hard to kind of remember who was second, you know. Is there any value to that for the professional team? For the professional sport, the way it is structured now, the Olympics has little value to teams unless you win.

It doesn't matter if Mike Woods does a nice tenth place, but if he wins then it's great for Canada, it's great for his team. But otherwise, it's more an individual kind of accomplishment. All Canada is supporting him, but back on his [pro] team, the real value is if he wins the race. And that's the only value for his professional contract, I think."