Cycling: Ulmer hits road for comeback

As well as regaining competition fitness, Sarah Ulmer is promoting her brand of cycles and clothing. Picture / Paul Estcourt

A testing 25km out-and-back course from Wanganui will be the acid test of Sarah Ulmer's comeback and attempt to qualify for March's Commonwealth Games and the world championships.

The Olympic 3000m pursuit champion will line up in Wanganui on December 3 in the Oceania Championships, her first real test since her golden ride in Athens more than a year ago.

"I have to prove I'm worthy of selection for the big races next year," Ulmer said yesterday. "To do that I will have to prove myself in the time trial and the road race at the Oceania Championships."

She has high hopes of riding both events at the Commonwealth Games but must first be selected. Much will depend on how she fares against the challenge from Australia's best.

"Times do not mean a lot," she said. "Really, it comes down to how well you do against the opposition. And that should be pretty strong given the Australians have the Olympic road champion and a rider who was in the top five or six at this year's world time trial championship."

Illness meant Ulmer missed the championships in Madrid and with it her planned time trial debut, but she is now back to full fitness and clocking 500-650km a week in training.

"It is a different kind of training," Ulmer said.

"The nuts and bolts are still the same but without the intensity that track demands.

"It is still a challenging schedule spread over six or seven days a week - sometimes with two sessions a day. Getting out on the road is the big part of it but I still spend time in the gym and doing weights."

Ulmer is convinced that the time she and coach/partner Brendon Cameron spent in France before the world championships was the ideal start to her new phase in a sport that has been a major part of her life since 1994.

"It was great to get away to train in better weather than we had here," said Ulmer, who spends much of her time riding the roads of the Waikato from her base in Cambridge.

Ulmer juggles her time on the bike with time off it to promote her new range of cycles, accessories and clothing aimed at women cyclists.

"When I decided to bring out a new bike range last October I was not riding. I had no plans at that stage to return. But after that I decided not to hang the bike and have tried to balance my time on the bike while working on the range."

The SUB Sarah Ulmer Brand range covers the spectrum from top-level bikes to something more comfortable (designed in association with manufacturer Avanti) and her Subwear range of clothing.

Ulmer now rides one of her own bikes.

"I designed it to fit me perfectly. The top tube is a bit shorter and we designed the handlebars from scratch."

Ulmer, 29, has renamed the Bike Day Out - the fun ride she instigated last year, which attracted 1600 female riders of all abilities - "Subride" and has added a second ride, which will be held at Lake Karapiro on November 13.

The second ride will be back at Clevedon on April 23.

Beyond that she has plans to take the event nationwide in 2007-08.