Cycling: Peden's pedal power provides class at Night of the Stars

Anthony Peden oozed class and power as he dominated the sprint races at the International Night of the Stars meeting in Wanganui.

After going through a qualifying round, heats and a semifinal, Peden recorded the best sprint time of the night - 11.146s - to overtake the junior world champion, Australian Mark French.

French, 17, took the initiative half a lap before the bell to hold out Peden, the former No 2 kierin rider in the world, until the two straightened for home.

Peden, a former Australian who competed for New Zealand at the Sydney Olympics, appeared to toy with the field in his specialist kierin event. He won by a big margin, finishing the last 200m lap in a sprint-quality time of 11.4s.

The young Australians dominated the 550m scratch race.

Mark Renshaw finished ahead of Dunedin's Nathan Seddon and French was third.

American Mike Tillman showed his endurance class when he held off Japan's top track rider, Koji Yoshii, and rising Australian star Renshaw to take the open miss and out.

A highlight of the race was the dispensation given to Sarah Ulmer to ride with the 19 men. She survived 11 laps in the event, which involves the last rider in the bunch dropping out of the race each lap.

Ulmer was back in action in the women's 550m scratch race, but the endurance rider was no match for the sprinters.

Top American rider Tanya Lindenmuth was made to fight hard for victory by Joanne Kiesanowski, the Christchurch rider who had a successful Oceania Games last year and then competed in World Cup events. Aucklander and Commonwealth Games prospect Elizabeth Williams was third.

After a failed assault on the national record by the pursuit teams, Greg Henderson rode away from American Tillman in the 1500m wheel race.

Henderson also looked good in the 5000m scratch event, taking the lead with two laps to go. But his international team-mate, Matt Randell, edged ahead with half a lap left.

In the 80-lap madison, Henderson and Lee Vertongen scored 36 points, ahead of the US and Australian pairing of Tillman and Renshaw on 16.

- NZPA