Cycling: Ulmer battles the pack alone

By CHRIS RATTUE

"My mistake." That's how Sarah Ulmer summed up her disappointing fifth in the points race.

Ulmer missed an early break so played herself out of the hunt.

But the frailties of New Zealand women's cycling were exposed as Ulmer - who won the silver four years ago - was left to play a lone hand against the Australian pack.

And the Aussies were superb, with the gold going to 20-year-old Kathy Bates, the World Cup champion last year.

Bates and team-mates Rochelle Gilmore and Alison Wright are also road racers, which relates more to the points race than Ulmer's speciality the pursuit.

Ulmer had sprinter Fiona Carswell as support, but she was out of her depth and retired early.

Each country can have only one rider at world championships, but with up to three allowed at the Games, the tactics change drastically.

Ulmer let Bates, bronze medallist Clara Hughes from Canada and two other riders get a lap up, which brought a 10-point bonus.

Bates never looked in doubt from there, while Gilmore rode her way into silver as the Aussies dominated.

"I didn't feel that flash, but this isn't my specialty," said Ulmer, who begins the defence of her pursuit crown today.

"I've had a bit of luck in points races in the past and I needed it today. I couldn't cover every break and I didn't have the legs to get up to the break that happened. I know there's heaps of pressure on me ... but I didn't expect to win a medal in this event."

The men's individual pursuit riders found the going too tough, with Hayden Roulston, Heath Blackgrove and Hayden Godfrey failing to make the semifinals.

Godfrey was the quickest of the trio and set a personal best of 4m 25.898s. Roulston was a shade outside his personal best of 4m 27.567s and Blackgrove, who was 10th in the road time trial, recorded 4m 35.468s, also a personal best.

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