Cycling: No back-pedalling in capital races as Games loom

Even though the Commonwealth Games are just over two weeks away, the New Zealand women's road cycling team are expected to pull out all the stops in the three-day Tour of New Zealand starting tomorrow, and the World Cup on Sunday.

Both events are in Wellington.

"I still see it as a training block and I am expecting the athletes to be racing hard, and they'll have some extremely good racing in that period," said BikeNZ high performance director Michael Flynn.

There is also the incentive of keeping the tour title at home - Catherine Sell is the defending champion but the Wanganui rider is unavailable as she is in Launceston, Tasmania, preparing for the Games with the track team.

The 186km tour which takes in undulating Wairarapa hinterland on the second day, has been put on to help keep the riders sharp in the week before the second leg of the women's World Cup road series.

The first leg of the World Cup was held last Sunday in Geelong, New South Wales, where the New Zealanders were shut out of the podium positions.

The tour will also provide the New Zealand road racers - Tamara Boyd, Toni Bradshaw, Michelle Hyland, Sarah Ulmer, Susie Wood and Melissa Holt, another chance to develop their team riding after Holt finished second in Geelong last week.

Top rated New Zealand road rider Joanne Kiesanowski will not be in New Zealand colours - she'll be riding for the Swiss Univega Pro team in the tour and World Cup.

Two of Kiesanowski's teammates are Welsh star Nicole Cooke, the 2002 Commonwealth Games road race champion who finished second in last year's world championships in Spain, and Australian Games rider Emma Rickard.

The field also includes the three top ranked road riders in the world - Australia's Oenone Wood (team Equipe Nurnberger Verschirung, Germany), Sweden's Susanne Ljungskog (composite team) and Germany's Judith Arndt (team T-Mobile, Germany).

One big name missing from the field is Australian Athens Olympics road champion Sara Carrigan.

Queenslander Carrigan is concentrating on preparing for the Commonwealth Games time trial, where she could be Ulmer's biggest threat.

A notable entry is Alexis Rhodes, who has made a courageous comeback from horrific injuries after a car ploughed into six members of the Australian team training in Germany last July, killing Amy Gillett.

She will race in both Wellington events for the Australian national team. Rhodes, who was on life support for several days, has been named in the Australian Commonwealth Games team.

She is expected to ride both track and road events.

- NZPA