Cycling: Kiwi riders grab World Cup gold

The novice New Zealand track cycling team have exceeded expectations by matching the medal haul of their more experienced predecessors in claiming two golds and a silver at the World Cup meet in Cali, Colombia.

The new-look men's team's pursuit team emulated last year's squad, taking gold in the final and recording the third fastest time by a Kiwi quartet - 4m 8.304s.

Lee Vertongen, Greg Henderson, Matthew Randall and Hayden Godfrey surprisingly qualified first, although top-rated teams from Germany, France and Britain were absent.

New Zealand overcame huge partisan support to beat Colombia by 4.5s in the final, practically lapping the hosts.

The win guaranteed New Zealand a spot in the world championships in Belgium in September.

"With a brand new team it's mind-boggling," coach Max Vertongen said.

"I was looking back thorough a newsletter where we put down our expectations and I was five seconds off the pace. I was hoping they'd do 4m 13s."

The pursuit team were missing veteran Gary Anderson, Tim Carswell and Brendon Cameron from the squad who made the quarter-finals at the Sydney Olympics.

The new lineup had never trained together before meeting up in Cali.

Vertongen attributed the results tothe team's enthusiasm.

"Lee and Greg put their input into the pursuit and the younger ones are responding. That in itself is infectious and builds a good culture in the whole team."

Henderson backed up from the team's pursuit and ended the competition in style, demolishing his rivals to take the points race gold - and also qualify for the world championships.

"I've been to 15 World Cups, the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, world championships and I've seen a lot of New Zealanders ride the points race, but never like this," Vertongen said. "Greg didn't just win the race, he killed them."

Henderson and two other riders lapped the field, which included world and Olympic champion Juan Llaneras, of Spain.

Godfrey set the tone when he rode to silver in the men's individual pursuit, becoming only the second New Zealander after Anderson to break the 4m 30s barrier.

Godfrey recorded a personal best of 4m 28.401s in qualifying, but could not foot it with last year's world championship bronze medallist Stefan Steinweg, of Germany, in the final.

Shane Melrose and Jason Allen missed out when the team's pursuit squad was trimmed to five and switched to other events.

Melrose rode 4m 32s in the men's individual pursuit (12s faster than his previous best in a non-competition ride) and Allen finished 10th in the kilometre time trial in 1m 05.723s, a two-second improvement on his previous best.

Sole female representative Joanne Kiesanowski lowered her personal best in the women's individual pursuit by 12s in recording a time of 3m 48.662s.

She finished ninth and earned one qualification point for the world championships. Sarah Ulmer, who is on the United States road circuit, will inherit the point and compete in later rounds of the World Cup.

Former Australian Anthony Peden's hard luck continued when he crashed at high-speed during practice two days before the meet.

Peden, whose Olympic campaign was disrupted by injury, crashed at 80 km/h when his front tyre blew. "He was in full flight, he absolutely decked it," Vertongen said.

The sprint specialist was lucky to escape with bruising and grazes.

Peden was patched up, but qualified only 14th in the men's sprint and was pulled out of the next round.

He may be back in action in his favoured event, the keirin.

Kiesanowski also lines up in the points race, while Henderson and Vertongen pair up in the madison.

Last year, New Zealand collected two golds (the team's pursuit and Ulmer in the women's individual pursuit) and a bronze, in the men's points race to Glen Thompson.

- NZPA