Cycling: Anderson takes feet off the pedals

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Gary Anderson admits there were times when, out on a long training ride battling the rain and wind, he seriously questioned why he was prepared "to bash myself silly."

Yesterday, in announcing his retirement, if not from cycling at least from the international stage, 34-year-old Anderson reflected on a career which firmly established him as New Zealand's finest track rider.

His eight Commonwealth Games medals are bettered only by pistol shooter Greg Yelavich's 10.

While Anderson treasures the memories of three Commonwealth golds, the bronze he won in the individual pursuit at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics - still the only Olympic medal hung around the neck of a Kiwi cyclist - remains his most prized.

Yet it was another race he did not win which still provides one of the big talking points of his long career.

In a controversial decision Anderson was denied gold in the 10-mile track finale at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.

Riding contrary to pre-race instructions, the Australians squeezed Anderson back to third and won the gold in the protest room at a jury hearing headed by an Australian.

Four years later in Auckland, Anderson gained his revenge with an epic ride in the same event. He followed that with a bonus second gold after winning his favoured individual pursuit.

Anderson first pushed the pedals as a 13-year-old. At least a dozen cycles and an estimated 300,000km later, Anderson is happy to reflect on a career of amazing highs, and some painful lows.

In a madison race in the United States in August 1998, Anderson crashed into a trackside podium. He suffered eight broken ribs, a punctured lung and multiple cuts and bruises. His career was, surely, over.

But Anderson was not prepared to quit.

He bounced back to win selection for the Sydney Olympics in a team which Anderson rates highly.

"We rode 4m 05s in Colombia in our build-up to Sydney," Anderson said.

"That was the fastest time ever ridden by a New Zealand pursuit team and more than 25s faster than we had managed in 1986 when I rode in a pursuit team for the first time."

Coached throughout by Ron Cheatley who became a father figure in his life, Anderson is proud of his drug-free image. "I was always annoyed that our sport was tainted by drugs. I saw it as cheating. I am proud to say there was never anything false in what I did."

At times he mixed track and road racing, and was good enough to win selection on the road - but without getting a start - for the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games.

Now with two young children and taking an almost fulltime role as house husband in the new home he and wife Niki have built in Wanganui, Anderson looks forward to the occasional ride, a bit of coaching for Cycling New Zealand and, eventually, a return to the track and some races as a "veteran."