Cycling: Plan b has a silver lining for Roulston

Hayden Roulston salutes the crowd at the medal ceremony. Picture / Mark Mitchell

A day after the ride he described as the most disappointing of his life, Hayden Roulston returned to the velodrome last night to dramatically grab a silver medal in the 160-lap, 40km, points race.

With teammate and hot favourite Greg Henderson never a factor after being targeted by a concerted European attack, the New Zealand camp switched to plan B and got Roulston within sight of victory.

"We had two plans," head coach Terry Gyde admitted later. "Once we saw what the whole British squad - the English, Scottish, Welsh and Isle of Man riders - were doing we switched our focus to Hayden.

"Greg [Henderson] is pretty distraught but once he was out of contention he and Richard Bowker worked magnificently for Hayden. I'm sure he will come back on Sunday night for the scratch race a much stronger rider."

The points - sprinted for every 10 laps - were well spread early with seven different riders being first across.

The difference came when eventual winner, Australian Sean Finning, joined Roulston and four others in grabbing a lap - worth 20 points - on the field.

Finning, Roulston, Welshman Geraint Thomas and Scot Evan Oliphant dominated the second half of the race with Finning well-supported by his teammates.

Roulston rode superbly and after 40 laps had a chance of splitting the field but found no support when he most needed it and was left to cover his rivals to ensure his piece of silver.

"We came here to win," said Roulston who amassed 119 points to trail Finning by 18 and head Thomas by nine. "On that count it is disappointing but I'm happy to go away with silver.

"I tried as hard as I could and I'm very grateful for the support I had from Greg and Richard."

Roulston admitted he was down after his poor effort in the individual pursuit on Thursday night when he admitted he rode the wrong gearing but said that disappointment left him as soon as he got off his bike.

"I was up against the best of the best and I had to dig deep. This [the medal] is definitely up there with anything I have done at this level."

Henderson finished the race well back with just 24 points with Bowker ahead of him in 12th with 38.

But it was a case of one which got away from the New Zealanders who will return to the track today to chase something better in the team pursuit before tomorrow night's all out assault on the scratch race - an event in which Henderson won his world championship here two years ago.