Cycling: Raceday test for Ulmer

SYDNEY - Sarah Ulmer will not know how badly her cycling medal prospects have been affected by injury until the first day of individual pursuit competition on Sunday.

Ulmer has a pinched abdominal nerve, which has seriously hampered her build-up. She first noticed the injury when she arrived at the New Zealand training camp in Adelaide two weeks ago and spent the first week off her bike.

She has had regular medical treatment and, after a light session around the Dunc Gray Velodrome, Ulmer said the injury had improved.

"I'm taking up more than my fair share of the physios' time at the moment, but hopefully within the next week my condition will be gone," she said.

"It hasn't been the most ideal build-up unfortunately, but I trained for a few days before I came here so hopefully that, along with another week here, will get me through.

"But we won't know what sort of effect having the week off and the injury has had until I actually race."

Ulmer, 24, initially felt pain in her hamstring but a scan revealed it was a secondary injury caused by the pinched nerve.

New Zealand coach Ron Cheatley feared Ulmer would need to rely on the base fitness work she completed earlier in the year, rather than a specialised, tapered build-up.

The injury came at the worst possible time for Ulmer, who had an excellent series of results this year on the track and road.

"It was a sweet build-up until pretty much three weeks ago," she said. "I still wouldn't do anything differently."

The individual pursuit - in which she was seventh at the Atlanta Games - remains her main target, but Ulmer has no plan to pull out of the points race because of the injury.

She was astonished at being gold medal favourite for the points race in Sports Illustrated magazine's pre-Games medals predictions.

- NZPA