Cycling: World champs curtail London optimism

New Zealand cyclist Jesse Sergent. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The eyes of the track cycling world might be fixed upon Apeldoorn and the world championships, but the major nations will all be taking a sneaky peak 16 months into the future and some will like what they see more than others.

You can throw New Zealand into that "major nations" mix.

On the wheels of cyclists like Sarah Ulmer, Greg Henderson and Hayden Roulston, they have developed a world-class track programme. That programme was heavily weighted around endurance events until a crop of sprint cyclists, such as Eddie Dawkins and Sam Webster, were unearthed in the past couple of years.

Sparc has invested heavily in BikeNZ's programme - the $4.085 million is second only to rowing - and they have done so for one major reason: to win medals in London.

Even accounting for the fact that this could be considered a dress rehearsal before the dress rehearsal - the UCI holds world champs in Olympic year and they are set down for Melbourne in April - there might be some cause for alarm after the sluggish performance in Apeldoorn.

Jesse Sergent won silver in the individual pursuit, finishing well behind talented Australian Jack Bobridge, but the individual pursuit has been dropped from the Olympic programme.

BikeNZ has big hopes for the men's and women's team pursuits. The men finished out of the medals, a perplexing result that follows on the heels of their disintegration against Australia in the Commonwealth Games' gold medal ride-off last year. The women beat Australia for bronze in the Netherlands but were left to rue a ride that saw them miss the final by .7s.

"We went out too hot in the qualifying race. The track is quite cold and so it is really hard to judge your speed," Kaytee Boyd said. "We were pretty disappointed with the morning ride and really wanted to do our best tonight and we went pretty close to executing our plan perfectly.

"It's bitter-sweet for me because we've worked so hard and we know we've got it."

The men will feel the same and can take comfort in the knowledge Sergent, their strongest rider, was coming in on limited preparation and they have Roulston waiting in the wings. But with Dawkins and Webster bowing out early in the sprints, adding to the patchy results, optimism about a medal haul on London's boards might, for the first time, be starting to waver.

•New Zealand professional cycling team PureBlack Racing will make their debut on the US circuit when they line up for the three-day San Dimas race in California. The 12-strong team is on a six-month campaign of racing in North America.