Sarah Ulmer to take on ambassadorial role

Champion cyclist Sarah Ulmer has been appointed BNZ Team Ambassador to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

She says in the mid-1990s, when she was a promising teenage cyclist without much money, she talked BNZ into providing her with a credit card that was a financial lifeline when she went on her first international cycling competition.

"I doubt if the bank saw it that way, but it was a courageous decision by them," says Ulmer of the credit card and the international trip. "I was an outside prospect from nowhere but I needed to pay for that trip somehow. I think that credit card was like the cycle; it got a really good workout on that trip."

Ulmer is now the Olympic and World Champion individual pursuit cyclist and New Zealand Sportsperson of the Year.

She later briefly worked for BNZ in its Newmarket branch, in Auckland, before committing to a fulltime career in cycling. "The bank keeps popping up in my life," she says.

Ulmer is currently training in the south of France in preparation for the World Championships.