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SYDNEY - A nasty crash which hospitalised Marina Duvnjak and felled Olympic track champion Sarah Ulmer gave New Zealand's top women cyclists another day to forget on the Geelong Tour near Melbourne yesterday.
Duvnjak, part of New Zealand's six-strong No 1 team, suffered a dislocated shoulder while Ulmer, still troubled by a mystery left leg niggle, escaped with just scrapes and bruising and went on to finish the 115km third stage.
New Zealand coach Susy Pryde said X-rays cleared Duvnjak of a broken clavicle and she could recover in time for the World Cup race on Saturday.
No New Zealanders finished in the top-20 of yesterday's stage, with Michelle Hyland the best placed on general classification in 26th position, one minute 23 seconds behind British leader Nicole Cooke.
New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski, competing for Cooke's European-based Raleigh team, was just ahead of Hyland at 25th overall.
A frustrated Pryde reflected on a day when the New Zealand riders were well in contention for prominent finishes but were thwarted by the crash 30km from the end and the dominance of the powerful European teams Raleigh and T-Mobile.
"The results didn't reflect the ride we had," said Pryde.
"We went out with licence to create the breaks and not protect anyone and we were doing that really well ... I was disappointed with the number of crashes out there."
Pryde labelled the crash that brought down Duvnjak and Ulmer as "totally unnecessary" because riders were looking around and ran into the back wheels of those in front.
At that stage Duvnjak was forcing the pace up front.
Toni Bradshaw took over in a breakaway group of seven and looked likely for a top-10 finish but was swamped 4km from the end as the big teams took control.
Melissa Holt and Hyland made a late move but were also overtaken.
Today's fourth and final stage is 80km in a four-lap seafront circuit at Barwon Heads.
- NZPA
