Cycling: Far from a trivial pursuit

MELBOURNE - For what it's worth, New Zealand won bronze in the men's pursuit final last night. Truth be known it was worth very little after agonisingly missing out on the gold-medal ride by less than a second this morning.

Jason Allen, riding in the morning's qualification, had a bad day, costing the Kiwis a shot at the final.

Rider Tim Gudsell described winning bronze as a "hollow feeling".

Track coach Terry Gyde was unequivocal: "There's not a word in the New Zealand dictionary that could describe how I feel."

Gyde watched in horror yesterday as Allen rode up the wall halfway through his second lap stint in the lead and eventually pulled out at the 3km mark.

"Hayden [Godfrey] was already having problems... but I'm not going to blame Jason."

New Zealand lost all chance of competing in the final but were still far too good for the Malaysians, who qualified 17 seconds slower, in the ride-off for bronze. New Zealand caught Malaysia well before halfway.

Peter Latham, in his first ride of the meet, Marc Ryan, Godfrey and Gudsell collected bronze.

In the final, England upset Australia and Gyde noted that New Zealand was up with their pace before the bronze medal ride finished.

Also last night, Auckland rider Justin Grace lost in the quarter-finals of the men's sprint and Liz Williams lost her bronze medal ride-off with Kerrie Meares of Australia.

The track cycling programme concludes tomorrow with the women's pursuit featuring young Auckland rider Paddy Walker, and the men's team sprint.

Greg Henderson will be looking to bounce back from Friday's disappointment in the points race with a strong performance in the scratch race. He will be joined by Godfrey and Gudsell.

-HERALD ON SUNDAY