updated 6:46 p.m. ET Sept. 4, 2004

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - It happened in the Lodgepole Bar and Grill, not on a podium in Athens, but Erin Mirabella finally got her bronze medal.

A USA Cycling official surprised Mirabella with the medal Friday night in this resort town where she and her husband are vacationing.

Mirabella was declared the third-place finisher in the Olympic women’s track cycling points race when Colombia’s Maria Calle-Williams was disqualified for a positive drug test.

But the announcement came on Aug. 29, too late to get the medal to Mirabella before the close of the Olympics, so she was told to expect it in the mail after she returned home to La Habra, Calif.

Instead, USA Cycling’s Ethan Bosch made the 145-mile drive from the group’s headquarters in Colorado Springs to present the medal to Mirabella during her vacation at the Grand Timber Lodge.

Front desk manager Kelley Jensen arranged champagne and the Olympic podium music for the impromptu awards ceremony at the bar and grill.

“I like to call it my gift from God,” a grinning Mirabella said of the medal.

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