KEY POINTS:
Dunedin cyclist Greg Henderson was half a wheel away from missing the first major tour of the season.
The 2004 track world champion finished in a share of fourth place in the final of the points race at the UCI World Cup track event in Los Angeles last night.
He then caught a flight to Adelaide, where he is due to arrive hours before the Tour Downunder.
Henderson will ride in the opening round of the UCI Pro Tour for his professional High Road team, formerly T-Mobile.
Had he won the final sprint instead of being edged out by Poland's Rafal Ratajczyk, he would have finished third, and staying for the medal presentation would have meant missing his flight.
As it was, his fourth placing was mission accomplished in the third of four UCI World Cup meets. The points should be sufficient to qualify him for the world championships and virtually assure New Zealand of a spot in this event at the Beijing Olympics.
"It was a top ride from Greg tonight," BikeNZ manager John Rastrick said.
"He was right on his game and looked pretty impressive throughout.
"It is a major achievement for him right now to be training for such a tough tour like Tour Downunder and also able to produce this sort of form at a World Cup track meet.
"He is definitely stronger than he was for the last World Cup a month ago but he said that he is missing track-specific speed.
"His team are giving him some good time to prepare for the world track championships and with some good time behind the moto on the track, there's plenty of improvement in him and I am sure we will see a very competitive rider."
Rastrick said it was a tall order for Henderson to come off a long flight into such a big tour.
"It is a world-class event and the temperatures are usually really high in South Australia. Greg won't want to be a passenger in that Tour, he will want to play a strong role as well."
Henderson took out the opening sprint of the 120-lap, 30km final, as well as the eighth sprint and was second in the final sprint, with Australia's Cameron Meyer winning the event after an aggressive ride.
Christchurch's Joanne Kiesanowski finished midfield in the final of the women's scratch race over 10km.
Earlier, Blenheim's Jason Allen just missed out on qualifying for the medal ride-off in the men's individual pursuit. The 24-year-old, who was a member of the World Cup winning team pursuit two years ago, was elevated to the event, with Marc Ryan spelled this week as he is all but assured of a Beijing berth.
Allen rode a superb 4m 29.129s, one of a handful of New Zealanders to go under the 4m 30s barrier, to be fifth fastest, missing out on the medal round by 1.4s.
Meanwhile, BMX riders Sarah Walker and Marc Willers won round six of the BMX UCI Oceania Ranking Series in Melbourne yesterday.
Walker won all three of her championship heats in emphatic fashion. The world No 2 now leads the Oceania series which offers qualifying points for the Beijing Olympics.
Willers took out the grand final of the men's round, despite starting from the outside lane for the final. He also now leads the Oceania series.
