Cycling: Ulmer to face her major rivals for Olympic gold

SYDNEY - Sarah Ulmer doubts the winner of the individual pursuit world championships crown will necessarily carry a psychological advantage to the Athens Olympics.

Ulmer will line up against her main rivals for the gold medal for the first time this year in Melbourne on Friday, fresh from a near-world- record-shattering performance at the Sydney leg of the World Cup 11 days ago.

The 28-year-old Commonwealth champion is among the leading contenders at the world championships, which begin today, after she posted a personal best of 3m 31.157s - three-tenths of a second outside the world record - to easily win the 3000m endurance event at the World Cup.

Dutch world record-holder Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel, the defending Olympic and world champion, missed the World Cup as did Ulmer's other chief rivals, Australian Katie Mactier and Russian Olga Slyusareva.

Mactier, the world championship silver medallist, comfortably won the Australian championships pre-World Cup, and the Russian veteran has been a regular medallist at the worlds.

With Athens as the focus this year, Ulmer said the outcome in Melbourne would not definitely be a pointer to the podium in Greece in August.

"It's a world championship in its own right - it's not a warm-up for the Olympics," said Ulmer. "There's plenty of time before the Games to peak again so I think everyone will be treating it as the world championships that it is."

Zijlaard-Van Moorsel still needs to qualify for Athens and said that was her priority in Melbourne. "To secure a start in Athens I only need to place in the top 12," she said.

"I think it will be a hard competition in Melbourne. I think there are now five or six riders that can ride between 3:30 and 3:35," she said.

"There's a lot of girls that can be dangerous ... Sarah, Olga, Kate Bates [Australia], Karin Thurig [Switzerland] ... "

While Ulmer and the men's team pursuit quartet have pre-qualified for Athens, Melbourne is do-or-die for Anthony Peden and the men's madison duo of Greg Henderson and Hayden Roulston.

Peden received a fillip at the World Cup, where he scored a bronze in the keirin but would need to make a hotly contested final. The former world championship silver medallist can also book a berth in his pet event providing the team sprint hit their straps in the opening event.

One of the crucial events for Olympic qualification, a top-10 finish, will not only secure a start for the nations in the event in Athens but will also earn one starting position for each of the sprint, kilometre time trial and keirin events in Greece.

Australia, Britain, France and defending champions Germany are the hot medal tips.

Henderson and Roulston won silver at the 2003 worlds in Germany last August and had not raced again in the 50km tactical endurance event until a disappointing effort at the World Cup, where they failed to make the final.

BikeNZ head track coach Kurt Innes believed there was no cause for panic.

The pair spend most of their time on the road circuit and took time adapting to velodrome.

"They're world-class bike riders but unfortunately they came in a little under-done technically," Innes said.

Timing transitions and making sure they are well-placed for points-gathering sprints are aspects they have worked on since Sydney.

"They've made corrections and they've never looked better from what I can tell."

The madison is on Sunday, though Henderson will be among the first New Zealanders in action when he lines up in the points race after today's team sprint qualifying.

- NZPA