Panevezys, the northern city where Polikeviciute, 31, was born, was especially delighted with her victory. Two bus-loads of Polikeviciute fans and a convoy of cars made the 160-kilometer journey from there to Vilnius to join in the welcome.
"Of course we expected some medals in Lisbon. But gold and silver is a fantastic result," Valentinas Rutkauskas, general director of the Lithuanian Cycling Federation, told The Baltic Times. At the airport Polikeviciute, clearly moved, said, "I didn't expect so many people would come to congratulate me." But she looked exhausted and said she had "not slept for a week."
Pucinskaite is a member of Italy's Acco Due O team and she spent a week in Italy celebrating her victory.
"There was a ceremony in Venice. Lots of people came, and they applauded when I rode the honorary circle," she said.
Now she will have a month's vacation. Asked what she would do with her free time, she answered, "I'll eat." She weighs 50 kilograms.
Polikeviciute said she was sharing her victory with her identical twin sister Jolanta Polikeviciute, who placed 11th at the championship in Lisbon. "Only twins will understand me. We are one person. She is I. She is happy, like me."
Rasa hinted that she might have been hoping for a little more competition. "I'm not sure this was the race that impressed me the most. Maybe the 1999 world championship in Verona, when Edita became world champion, was even more impressive," Polikeviciute said.
It was a pity, she said, that Lithuanian cyclists seemed to be competing among themselves in Lisbon. But it was certainly lucky for the Lithuanian cyclists that French cyclist Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, 43, who won bronze, didn't quite get up enough steam to snatch away the gold in a tough fight she threw in at the finish.
Conservative MP Vytautas Landsbergis, who was returning from a political conference in Canada, happened to be traveling to Vilnius on the same plane from Frankfurt. But it was only on seeing the happy crowd that he realized he had been flying with the world champion.
"I was thinking in the plane that her face was somewhat familiar," he said, and hurried to congratulate Polikeviciute.
Polikeviciute has a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Her husband is Russian and lives in Moscow. Her nine-year-old son Arturas goes to school in Panevezys. She herself spends a lot of time training in Mallorca, Mexico and other exotic spots.
Silver medalist Pucinskaite, who is also a columnist in an Italian cycling magazine, will return to Lithuania on Nov. 10, a day after marrying her cycling club's masseur, Roberto Rossi.
All leading Lithuanian female cyclists train with Italian cycling teams but represent Lithuania in world championships and the Olympic Games.
Lithuanian cyclists have consistently been among the leaders in women's road cycling for the past 10 years. In 1998, Diana Ziliute became world cycling champion in the Netherlands and was bronze medalist at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She placed eighth at Lisbon.
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