Once in Moscow, the competition began in earnest. Radcliffe got a break when the top three teams, Russia, Rumania, and East Germany, drew the same heat in the preliminaries. Nevertheless, the 'Cliffe finished fourth in its heat. Bulgaria finished first in the Radcliffe heat, and joined Russia as automatic finalists.

The second day of racing pitted the six non-winners from the first day's two heats against each other, with the first four qualifying for the finals.

Radcliffe started well in the race, and a third of the way through, led both Poland and Czechoslovakia. But unfortunately, the 'Cliffe eight pulled a couple of crabs at the 500 meter mark, which was just enough to set them behind the rest of the closely-knit field. Radcliffe finished last and, along with the Czechs, failed to make the finals. Rumania, East Germany, Poland, and Hungary joined the Russians and Bulgarians in the finals the next day.

THE NEXT DAY, Radcliffe and Czechoslovakia squared off in the "petite finale." And after battling the wind for 45 minutes at the start, the 'Cliffe jumped off to a three to four seat lead after the first ten strokes. At that point, the Czech boat inexplicably turned into the Radcliffe lane, causing the entire race to be called back.

Then, after battling the wind some more, officials decided not to run the race at all. But Radcliffe and the Czechs agreed to race on their own, unofficially at least, to settle things. Radcliffe again jumped to a quick lead, and at 500 meters had a length margin. At that point the Czech team quit, and Radcliffe paddled home the rest of the way, an easy winner.

Despite the disappointment of finishing seventh out of eight teams, Radcliffe was not demoralized by its performance. "It was really an amazing showing to go over there and do as well as we did," Baker said last weeks. "Every race was closely fought, and even though we came in seventh, our time was only about 10 seconds behind the first-place Russians."

Baker stressed that the major element working against Radcliffe was inexperience. "We really weren't much behind the class teams from Russia and East Germany," he said. "It's just that we didn't really believe in ourselves as much as we needed to to succeed in international competition. But next year there will be the World Championships and we'll be back and ready."

It would make a great "road" movie. And from all indications it could have as many repeats as its late show predecessors.