Cycling: Tough going for Kiwis at world champs

New Zealander Rosalind Reekie-May finished 22nd in the women's elite road race at the world championships in Portugal.

Reekie-May, who has won in the United States this season, was in a pack of 13 riders that finished 2m 48s behind winner Rasa Polikeviciute.

The Pittsburgh-based 29-year-old cut out the demanding 121km race in 3h 14m 53s.

Aucklander Kirsty Robb, who has raced solidly in Europe this year, was among 41 riders who failed to finish.

Robb, 22, had struggled in the time trial on Wednesday.

Winner Polikeviciute, 31, had hard-working Frenchwoman Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli to thank as she led a Lithuanian quinella.

She headed compatriot, 1999 world champion Edita Pucinskaite, in a three-way sprint finish.

World time-trial champion and five-time world road race champion Longo-Ciprelli was third in 3h 12m 5s.

Longo-Ciprelli made most of the running in the later stages of the sun-drenched course.

The favourites, including Switzerland's Nicole Brandli and Judith Brandt, of Germany, dropped out of contention as the leaders turned up the pressure.

The heat forced a number of riders to abandon the race at an early stage.

In the under-23 event, Reekie-May's fellow New Zealander Jeremy Yates dropped out early, flagging it away as Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych set a hectic pace.

Popovych, who has been in outstanding form, and his Ukrainian team-mates blew the field apart, with Yates, from Hawkes Bay, one of many to call it a day.

Yates, the junior world road champion last year, has been riding with Mapei Espoirs in Italy this season.

A team official said he quit after 100km of the 169.4km race. "He didn't have the legs," the official said.

"Most of the field pulled out. It was certainly fast and hard."

Popovych improved on the silver medal he won last year, covering the course in 4h 2m 43s.

He and Giampaolo Caruso, of Italy, broke away from the pack on lap 11 of the 14-lap race, but Popovych powered away from the Italian rider on the final lap.

Caruso was 17s behind, and Ruslan Gryschenko got the bronze medal for Ukraine.

- NZPA