Cycling: Crash sends Kiwi hopes tumbling

Melissa Holt is tended to after breaking her collarbone yesterday. Picture / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand's hopes took a huge dive in the 100km women's road cycling race yesterday thanks to the unintentional result of tactical riding.

With leading Australian contender Natalie Bates away in a five-strong break, teammate Olivia Gollan, back in the peloton, clipped defending champion Nicole Cooke's rear wheel and fell.

With nowhere to go, New Zealand's Melissa Holt crashed heavily and was out while Gollan was able to remount and eventually finish ninth.

Holt had no chance of avoiding the mayhem. After receiving roadside assistance, and fainting while on the stretcher, she was taken to hospital with a broken collarbone but returned to the Games village later.

That crash, before the nine-lap race had reached halfway, robbed New Zealand of their team captain and the rider Sarah Ulmer saw as their best hope.

"She was our captain and team leader," said Ulmer who was also stalled in the aftermath of the spill and had to power back to join the chasing pack.

"It was a real bummer and a huge blow for us.

"I ran over a wheel and had to stop. Susie [Wood] was also caught up in it and had a longer chase than me."

While the main group of riders in the 31-strong field sorted themselves out, the five-strong break, which included New Zealand's Toni Bradshaw, Bates, Canadian Mandy Poitras, Emma Jones (England) and Malaysian Noor Alias maintained their handy lead which stretched to more than two minutes at one stage.

With nearly three laps - around 38km - to ride, Bates, who was heavily criticised later for her lack of work while in the break, rode away.

She was unchallenged as she stretched the gap at the finish to over three minutes from teammate Oenone Wood who held off Cooke (Wales) to take silver.

Joanne Kiesanowski was the best of the New Zealanders in sixth place just 2s back from Wood in the testing uphill sprint to the line.

Ulmer was 17th, 24s behind Kiesanowski. "I did not have enough grunt today to do anything outstanding," said Ulmer.

"I was happy just to help the girls. It was a hard, but wicked, course and great to race on.

"We were happy with the composition of the break when it was away. Toni [Bradshaw] was as good as anyone in it.

"Once we knew Bates was there we could see what was coming."

Asked when she realised she did not have the "grunt" to go with the race, Ulmer said: "Two weeks ago. But I knew I could contribute to the team."

She did lead Kiesanowski out briefly at the race-end sprint. "She is our fastest sprinter and I tried to give her a clear ride to the finish."

Ulmer said she had not been troubled by the back problem which forced her out of the time trial last week but admitted that just when she races again would depend on getting herself back to 100 per cent.

She intends to start both the time trial and road race in September's world championships.