Bicycle Racing

Soccer 1, Cycling 0. That isn't a matchup Galaxy officials wanted splashed across any Southland marquee, and it certainly isn't a scoreline Olympic Velodrome officials wished to see anywhere at any time, but in the very real contest for prime real estate on the Cal State Dominguez Hills campus, that is how it stands. Fighting to preserve the velodrome from the bulldozers that would raze the facility in order to create a 30,000-seat stadium for the Galaxy, the Southern California Velodrome Assn.

It began 10 years ago on the streets of Rancho Palos Verdes. Tom Fritts would come home from work, place his 7-year-old son Kenny on the back of their tandem bicycle and go for a ride. Hours later they would return home. But Kenny Fritts wasn't satisfied. He wanted to ride longer and faster. And soon he wanted the front seat. So Fritts, a bicycle enthusiast, bought his son a mountain bike. "He had a feeling he wanted to race," said Fritts, 47.

The NFL and the NHL are household abbreviations and their events dominate the TV screen. By contrast, Bob Frazier of Chatsworth has spent the last six years peddling the NCL, which is less widely known and is seen on TV only about a dozen times a year. NCL stands for the National Cycle League, which began in 1989 and was designed to make bicycle races attractive to U.S. audiences and sponsors.

In the winter of 1992, Tom Cody--surfer, motocross racer and tennis player from Topanga Canyon--discovered the harsh realities of European bicycle racing. Cody lived and worked on a chicken farm, sorting eggs and helping sheep give birth, as part of his daily chores with a Dutch cycling team. "They think you have to work . . . to show you what you could be doing and would be doing if you don't succeed in cycling," Cody said.

Nevin Musgrave figures that when it comes to tandem bicycle racing, he's got about the best possible partner pedaling behind him. A blind man. And Ray Patterson--who is that blind man--thinks he's finally found a sport in which he can participate with absolutely no handicap. After all, when you're stoking from the rear and hunched over so your nose is just about touching your partner's tail bone, what's there to see?

Under the cover of expanding the sport of international bicycle racing into California, a noted Colorado brewery this week sent nearly 100 riders out onto the highways and byways of the Golden State, plus a corner of Nevada, in search of a greater market share for its product. Drafting along behind were a convenience-store chain, a tea company, a power-tool manufacturer and assorted other enterprises, all with teams of cyclists wearing enough commercial logos to make NASCAR and CART envious.

Long before television piped the Tour de France into your living room, even before the Tour de France was considered important enough to rate a line in America's newspapers, there were six-day bicycle races. The first one, in New York City in 1899, was four years before the first Tour de France.

Selected club rides around Orange County: * Laguna Hills Bicycle Club: Sponsored by BS Bicisport Bicycles at the corner of La Paz and Moulton Parkway, this U.S. Cycling Federation club offers both weekday and weekend rides for experienced cyclists. Marcel Calborn, a former European professional rider who also markets custom bikes in his own name, offers coaching for this fast-paced group. Training rides of 21 miles start at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Bubba Harris peers down at the 4-year old by his side. Wearing wraparound sunglasses, Harris smiles confidently as he tutors the rookie. Get more air off the jumps, Harris says. Don't be afraid to take chances. The child looks up at his idol and nods. Anything Harris says must be permanently filed in cerebral storage. The youngster will later boast to his friends that he met Bubba Harris. Bubba Harris is 10 years old. * The sport is BMX bicycle racing and it is taken seriously.

He has reigned for years as a sports hero in Europe, has twice won bicycling's most prestigious race and has graced the cover of Sport Illustrated as last year's "Sportsman of the Year." But drop Greg LeMond's name in this country and you might see a few blank stares. Over the next few weeks, Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp.