Cycling: Ulmer close to world record

11.00pm - By GREG TOURELLE

SYDNEY - New Zealand cycling's golden girl Sarah Ulmer stunned the crowd with a breath-taking ride in the women's individual pursuit at the Dunc Grey Velodrome tonight, just missing out on a world record by three-tenths of a second.

Her unofficial time of three minutes 31.157 seconds places her in the top four of all time for the event and sets up an intriguing battle with current record-holder Leontien van Moorsel at the world championships in Melbourne later this month.

Her easy victory in this morning's heats gave her this year's UCI World Cup Classic title in the event and qualified her for the Athens Olympics, pending New Zealand Olympic Committee ratification.

But tonight she stepped up another gear, securing an ever-growing lead over Swiss Karin Thurig in the final and maintaining close to world record time throughout the 3km event.

Ulmer said she was where she wanted to be in terms of form leading into the world championships and Olympics and could only improve, given her preparation for the Sydney event.

"I haven't been feeling all that sharp the last few weeks, so I'm just as surprised as anyone.

"It's not the world record though...but it is a personal best and I'm stoked to bits."

- NZPA