KEY POINTS:
Convalescing New Zealand cyclist Catherine Cheatley hopes surgery to enlarge a vein in her left thigh will soon have her bid to make the Beijing Olympics back on track.
Cheatley, the 2006 national women's road race champion, is recovering in Christchurch Hospital from a vein graft needed after a crash last year in the United States prevented her from reaching top-line speed.
Her track form in the Oceania Games in Invercargill last November was unusually slow, prompting a reassessment of her leg.
A scan identified the problem which, according to her husband Dayle Cheatley, is "quite a common injury in top cyclists".
"What they did was to take a vein out of her ankle, and attach it to the main artery which comes out of the stomach supplying blood to her leg," he told The Wanganui Chronicle.
Catherine Cheatley hoped to be back in training by the end of this month in a bid to compete at the track world championships in Manchester at the end of March, where she is targeting the points race.
"Bike NZ has given her a free run, to get her fit and hopefully right for the worlds and Olympics," Dayle Cheatley said.
- NZPA
