Cycling: Games programme higher priority than victories

The lure of international points at events in Wellington this week hasn't blinded New Zealand's top women cyclists to their main priority - the Commonwealth Games.

Valuable International Cycling Union (UCI) points will be at stake in the Tour of New Zealand, beginning today, and the World Cup road race on Sunday.

UCI points go towards gaining guaranteed starting places in top-tier events such as the world championships or the Olympics. But for New Zealand team manager Susy Pryde, winning either or both the events is the last thing on her mind.

"We'd like to have a good tour in our backyard but our biggest fish to fry this year are the Commonwealth Games," Pryde said.

The New Zealand women's team programme was aimed at winning the Games road race - and the three-day Tour of New Zealand and the World Cup road race were part of the journey. Successes were expected this week given the team's strong performances during last week's sojourn to Australia for the Tour of Geelong, where Melissa Holt finished second, and round one of the World Cup in which Tammy Boyd finished ninth.

"[But] Ultimately we are preparing for the Commonwealth Games - our objective is to win a gold medal there," said Pryde, who won silver medals in both the road race at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and mountain biking four years later in Manchester.

"From a BikeNZ high performance programme point of view, we had a good Geelong tour and raced well as a team at the World Cup in Australia so we expect to see some good results [this week]."

Pryde said a World Cup and tour win would be welcomed, but it was more important that the team stayed on track with the Games programme.

The aim was to strengthen the team for the Games and work through different scenarios and race tactics in both events.

She likened road racing to a game of chess on wheels and although, as team manger she outlined general race strategy, team members needed to be able to recognise and react to opponents' tactics while on the move.

The New Zealand team - Tamara Boyd, Toni Bradshaw, Michelle Hyland, Melissa Holt, Sarah Ulmer and Susie Wood - were in good form.

They had just come off their summer base season "so we really need to work the races and the riders and race strategies to our strengths ... we need to really try to catch the other teams on the back foot".

- NZPA