Former Idaho Women?s Challenge champ collects Olympic silver
Dede Barry second in time trial
The race has been gone for a couple of years, but local cycling fans still remember the Women?s Challenge Bike Race and synonymous with the event is former champion, Dede Demet.
Demet, now going by her married surname of Barry, won the silver medal in the women?s time trial Wednesday at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. It is only the fourth medal ever won by an American woman in road cycling.
Barry of Boulder, Colorado, was 24 seconds behind gold medalist Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel of the Netherlands. Zijlaard-van Moorsel, the defending gold medalist completed the 14.9-mile course in 31 minutes and 11 seconds. Christine Thorburn of the United States finished fourth.
The second and fourth place finishes by Barry and Thorburn should put to rest the controversy of naming them to the time Olympic time trial team instead of Boise rider Kristin Armstrong.
Armstrong had the best time trial showings leading up to the Olympics with a pair of top three finishes in international events, but was passed over by the USA Cycling selection board in favor of Barry and Thorburn. She planned to appeal the decision, but changed her mind after meeting with her teammates.
Armstrong, a University of Idaho graduate, went on to finish eighth in Sunday?s road race. Thorburn was 15th and Barry 16th.
Armstrong left Athens on Thursday, and plans to vacation in Sun Valley this weekend.
The 32-year old Barry, the Women?s Challenge champion in 1995, is married to Canadian rider Michael Barry, a member of the U.S. Postal Service team headed up by Lance Armstrong.
The Women?s Challenge was staged for 19 years in Idaho from 1984 to 2002 before title sponsorship funds dried up.
