Cycling: Mission achieved for Ulmer

By CHRIS RATTUE

"Wicked" is a favourite Sarah Ulmer word, and she was still using it with abandon nearly a day after winning her gold medal.

The 26-year-old, whose Games began as the country's flagbearer, is about to change her lifestyle and leave behind the career of a cyclist on the move overseas.

Ulmer celebrated her 3000m individual pursuit triumph in Manchester by staying up all night.

But the brilliant cyclist, who has won a place in New Zealand sporting lore, wasn't in party mode. The euphoria of winning the gold medal, a personal best time, and defending her Games crown, left her unable to sleep.

There were just 13 hours between the pursuit final and road race.

Ulmer got just half-an-hour's kip before taking to the country lanes of Rivington near Bolton, where she finished 29th - 7 1/2 minutes behind winner Nicole Cooke, of Wales.

Ulmer's latest pursuit gold medal will help her to make major lifestyle adjustments with peace of mind.

She still has her sights set on the Olympics in Athens in two years. But no longer will she spend up to seven months a year training overseas.

She was overseas for just eight weeks before going to Manchester. Setting a Games record of 3m 32.467s in beating Australian Kathy Bates in the pursuit final, Ulmer proved she could still succeed without expensive and extensive overseas campaigns.

Ulmer, her father Gary and national cyclist boyfriend Brendon Cameron organised her training regime, rather than being part of the national squad's system.

Ulmer stored most of her possessions at her parents' home in Auckland and moved with Cameron to Cambridge, where there are excellent training conditions.

Now, the couple will find a home in Auckland and Ulmer is starting to consider a career away from cycling.

"I've never competed on such little sleep. I'm absolutely exhausted now," she said after the road race.

"I never gave myself a chance. My training hadn't been designed for it.

"But it's been mission accomplished in the pursuit and it's a great feeling of self-satisfaction to have gone faster than I've ever gone before. Now the Games are really over for me, it is wicked - it's such a cool feeling having achieved what I set out to do.

"I've never been in a position of defending such a major title and it is an amazing feeling to have done it.

"Now it's 'Home James.' I'm really looking forward to getting home. New Zealand is far too good a place to keep spending the amount of time I have overseas.

"Maybe I won't be a fulltime cyclist any more. I've lived by the support of my sponsors and the sports academy. Maybe it's time to start earning some money. I don't really know what lies ahead, but it's time to do a bit of thinking about it."

These were Ulmer's third Commonwealth Games and apart from the two pursuit golds, she also won silver in the points race in Malaysia four years ago.

In the Manchester road race, Cooke overshot a corner near the end, but recovered to win a sprint finish in 2h 35m 17s over the eight-lap, 93.5km course.

Canada's Susan Palmer-Komar was second and England's Rachel Heal third.

New Zealand's best was Ros Reekie-May, who was in the leading bunch of seven, but who dipped out in the race home and finished fifth.

Melissa Holt was 11th, Vanessa Guyton 18th and Kirsty Robb 23rd.

Australian Margaret Hemsley was headed for gold, but she crashed on the second-to-last lap. She finished 12th.



New Zealander Glen Mitchell finished fourth in the men's road race, losing out on a medal in a finish against noted sprinter Baden Cooke.

Australians Stuart O'Grady, Cadel Evans and Cooke took the medals, with O'Grady gaining his third Games gold medal after winning the scratch and team pursuit golds in Canada eight years ago.

O'Grady, a top professional, won by more than two minutes.

New Zealanders Hayden Roulston and Gordon McCauley finished sixth and 33rd.

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

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