Lost Cyclist Finds He’s the Winner

Bruno Cornillet of France, who, after 102 miles, got lost seconds before the finish line Monday, was declared the winner of the Sonoma-Sacramento leg of the Coors International bicycle race.

The judges ruled that the Cornillet, 23, of the Peugeot Team, won the race even though he crossed the finish line fifth.

The first cyclist to finish was Greg LeMond, this year’s Tour de France winner, with an unofficial time of 3:58:53.

But LeMond was given second place after the judges decided that Cornillet would have won the event if he had not inadvertently taken a wrong turn less than a block from the state Capitol, then made another bad turn after asking spectators for directions in downtown Sacramento.

Cornillet said he was confused by the road markings and the traffic, and that onlookers had difficulty understanding him when he asked for help. He had been leading by nearly 20 seconds when he got lost.

LeMond said he agreed with the judges’ ruling. “He deserves the victory,” LeMond said. “It wasn’t his fault he was taken off the course. I remember the course from last year. . . . It was a poorly marked corner.”

Behind Cornillet and LeMond were Raul Alcala of 7-Eleven, Jaanus Kuum of Schwinn-Icy Hot and Andy Hampsten of Levi’s.

Cornillet is the overall leader in the 17-stage, 15-day event that takes riders across 1,065 miles in California, Nevada and Colorado.

On Monday night, Davis Phinney of Boulder, Colo., and a member of 7-Eleven, won the Old Sacramento Criterium in an unofficial time of 1:15:16. The criterium covered 35 miles of twisting course between the historic waterfront area and the Crocker Art Museum, including two blocks of cobblestones.