BEIJING -- Olympic competitors in the Madison, a tag-team track cycling race that can get a little close and a little hairy, completed its 50 kilometers with no crashes yesterday.

There were a couple casualties, though, including the strength in Bobby Lea's legs.

Lea, a Penn State graduate from Toptown, Pa., and Mike Friedman of Peters were contending in the 200-lap event early, picking up three points over the first three of 10 sprint laps and hanging with the peloton.

"We had it in the beginning," Friedman said. "And then the second half ... ."

That's when Lea's legs started to go. Friedman began to take longer turns, but the American team fell farther and farther back and finished 16^th and last, four laps out.

"The first half went according to plan," said Lea. "We wanted to relax and just keep good positioning, get a couple points if we could, which we did. But then the bottom just started to fall out for me and, all of a sudden, I started to realize I was in a bit of trouble.

"I was just hoping it was going to be a rough spot that I could get through and try and hold on recover and come back around, but it just didn't go that way."

Lea never had competed in a Madison of more than 40 kilometers.

"That extra 10K feels like a lifetime," he said. "Every time you race, you learn a lot. Hopefully, I can be a better partner for Mike next time."

The Argentine duo of Juan Esteban Curuchet and Walter Fernando Perez won the gold medal; Joan Llaneras and Antonio Tauler of Spain captured the silver; and Russia's Mikhail Ignatyev and Alexei Markov took the bronze.

Every other team was at least one lap behind the medalists.

The Americans were shut out of medals at the Velodrome, and Sarah Hammer broke her collarbone in a crash yesterday during the women's sprints.

"It's hard to say it's a setback," Friedman said. "We came here with full intentions of winning a medal. We had the ability. The fact that we're leaving without a medal is really unfortunate. We all put a hell of a lot of work into this year. We've come a long ways. Sometimes, it doesn't all come together."

Friedman, 25, and Lea, 24, were in their first Olympics and hope to try again in London in 2012.

For now, Friedman is going to switch training regimens and go back to road-racing for a couple months "and call it a season," he said.