KEY POINTS:
Catherine Cheatley continued a proud New Zealand cycling tradition when she won bronze in the women's points race at the world track championships in Spain today.
Cheatley was the third New Zealander to reach the podium in the event -- Karen Holliday won gold in Japan in 1990 and Sarah Ulmer a bronze in Germany in 1999.
Cheatley collected 27 points, just two behind silver medallist Mie Bekker Lacota of Denmark, to earn New Zealand's only medal at Majorca.
Australian Katherine Bates notched 35 points to take gold in the 25km race.
Cheatley's bronze was the first by New Zealand at a world track championships since Greg Henderson's scratch race silver in Los Angeles in 2005.
A year before in Sydney, New Zealand won two golds -- Ulmer in the 3000m individual pursuit and Henderson in the scratch race.
Cheatley said she took it fairly easy in the first few laps before she and group of four riders went ahead.
"The Mexican (Belem Guerrero Mendez) broke away and I decided I had to go for it," she said.
"A couple of riders came with me and there were four of us up the road and we just lapped it out and took a lap on the field."
Being a lap up meant Cheatley and her three companions could pick up the bulk of the points in all of the sprints until the finish.
When Bates joined the breakaway she already had some points up her sleeve from the earlier sprints, while Cheatley had none.
Her coach, Ron Cheatley, was thrilled with his daughter-in-law's performance. She is married to Ron's son, Dayle.
Ron Cheatley, a New Zealand track and road coach over four Olympics and four Commonwealth Games, who retired in 2000, told NZPA from Wanganui that Catherine had applied the perfect tactics to get on the podium.
He said the plan was for Catherine to wait until after the first few sprints.
"The idea was for her to make her move and take a couple with her and that's pretty much what happened with about 50 laps to go," said the coach, who got regular updates from friends in Spain.
He said he was confident of Catherine's form because of her performance the previous night, when she finished 15th in the scratch race.
"I told her to have a real good aggressive scratch race and just check herself (out) -- she did and broke away three times and looked the most aggressive rider (so) I knew her form was good."
"Catherine was just two points from the silver so it was pretty close," he said.
"I was just thinking, we've placed in that title three times -- Karen Holliday won it in 1990 in Japan, and Sarah Ulmer got third in 1999 and now Catherine.
"That's three New Zealanders with whom I have been involved with (for this event) so I'm quite pleased."
New Zealand pair Peter Latham and Marc Ryan did not finish the men's madison.
- NZPA
