Cycling: Ulmer's road to Austria starts in France

Sarah Ulmer

Sarah Ulmer's arrival at the national road cycling training base in Limoux, southern France, later this month is eagerly awaited.

The reigning Olympic and world 3000m individual pursuit champion, said last month she was switching to road racing and would focus on the time trial event with the world championships in Austria in September next year her main target.

National road cycling coach Jacques Landry said Ulmer had signed with a Swedish-based professional team, Sats, for the European season, but would be racing in Kiwi colours as her programme permitted.

"She will be bouncing between the two teams.

"Sarah will be arriving in France on May 19 and she will be based just south of Toulouse for two to three weeks doing some altitude training," Landry said.

"From mid-June she will be starting in the programme that we have here so she will be doing some races in Kiwi colours once again. Her first race isn't slated until mid-June.

Landry said it was great that Ulmer would be joining the national squad as she was a good leader.

"She is really charismatic and will be really good overall for the team."

There were a couple of riders in the squad who were having "a harder time than the others" and Landry believed Ulmer's presence would help them.

"Sarah can additionally help with guidance during a race. She will be a good team captain on the road guiding the girls - something we can't do as coaches or managers in the car following.

"She can actually contribute to good team tactics on the road as the team captain.

"Obviously on the high-performance side of things, we are very happy because she becomes a medal hopeful for the Commonwealth Games and obviously the world championships next year as well."

Meanwhile, the New Zealand women's team line up for the 10-day Tour de L'Aude on Saturday, their first real test in a European racing programme.

Landry said he thought a top five or top 10 finish by the New Zealanders was possible in one of the biggest women's stage races in the world.

The New Zealand team named for the tour - Johanna Buick, Michelle Kiesanowski, Tammy Boyd, Carissa Wilkes, Dale Tye and Toni Bradshaw - have adapted well to the European style of racing since arriving in March.

"This Tour de L'Aude would be their last race in our first phase of racing and, quite honestly, I think they have a good shot at a top five or top 10 finish which would be a good coup."

National teams from France, Russia, the United States, Germany, Spain, Canada and New Zealand as well as nine professional teams had entered.

Christchurch's Buick won a French Cup event near Paris on May 1, beating several French Olympic riders.

That finish was a result of the team riding well together to set Buick up for the win, Landry said.

"Obviously, Johanna is riding really well and she needs to be riding well in the tour because the route is very hilly. The terrain is almost like the Pyrenees with good 10 to 15 minute climbs so whatever the result in the tour, it would be from teamwork definitely.

"It should be interesting to see how they fare as a team.

"Since the tours of Geelong and Wellington [in February and early March], this will be their first stage race as a team."

Landry said the New Zealand team had worked intensely on tactics and technique to help them adapt to the European style of racing.

- NZPA