KEY POINTS:
Hayden Roulston has a bad heart _ some have accused him of being bad at heart after some behavioural issues _ but last night he showed he was all heart.
His silver medal in the men's 4000m individual pursuit at the Olympic velodrome in Laoshan was a worthy
reward after Roulston's return from health and discipline dramas that would have made a lesser man retire.
And, to add to an increasingly exciting cycling meeting for the New Zealand team, surprise package Alison Shanks will ride off for the bronze medal in the women's pursuit tonight.
Roulston's is a fascinating story of redemption and determination _ which he showed in his refusal to give in to the might of British world champion Bradley Wiggins last night. But Roulston has fought for more than even a silver medal.
Famously ending his time with the prestigious Discovery Channel team, Roulston's professional career looked to be damaged after an incident in a Christchurch bar.
He resuscitated his career by signing for Team HealthNet, but in a severe irony, given the name of the team, was invalided out after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat which he was told could have fatal consequences if he kept riding.
Unwilling to give up, he toyed with the idea of ignoring medical advice and took to the road again, winning the national road championship in 2006, and a number of other road and track titles.
That took him to the world championships in Manchester this year where he narrowly missed a medal by finishing fourth in both the individual and team pursuit events.
A gold would have been the perfect answer to the doctors and doubters but he had to square off against world champion, defending Olympic champion and Olympic record holder Wiggins, hot favourite for the gold medal since this competition began, late last night to achieve that.
He stretched Wiggins and had a small lead without ever imposing himself on the Briton who began to slowly turn up the heat until, with 1000m to go, he had a comfortable lead that stretched to 1.3s by the end.
But this will not be the last we have seen of Roulston. He will ride in the team pursuit tomorrow and the madison, with Greg Henderson, on Tuesday _ and they could be a formidable combination in that strange event that sees riders propel their team-mate forward.
He has done the work. In preparation, he replicated the exact programme in training camps in Bordeaux. Both times he surprised experts with his times and recovery rate.
This was supposed to be a rowing Olympics for New Zealand. But it could be a cycling one and a Roulston one.
Shanks also has a fine show for her bronze medal ride against Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine.
Kalitovska went over a second faster than Shanks in the ride-offs for the medal spots but the former Otago netballer, though very new to the sport, has been pulling her best times down hand over fist lately and it would be foolish to bet against her in this mood.
Last night she looked relaxed and contained after her pursuit victory over American Sarah Hammer, the 2006 and 2007 world time trial champion _ who was second behind the gold medal favourite, Britain's Rebecca Romero, in this year's world championships.
So Hammer's was no mean scalp and Shanks is plainly not overawed about Kalitovska.
"I just expected to come out here and do a personal best and get through the first round," said Shanks. "So it's nice to exceed expectations, although I always said that if you got in the second round anything could happen."
Asked about her opponent, she said: "I think it will be an even match-up."
A relaxed customer ("well, maybe on the outside," Shanks joked), she said it was a benefit having raced at the velodrome before.
"I raced here in December and it is such an advantage having raced here before and knowing you are on the same track and doing the same 12 laps."
She is also not the only cross-sport competitor riding for a medal.
Romero won a silver medal in the women's quadruple sculls in Athens four years ago and, even if she only wins silver, will become only the second woman ever to win an Olympic medal in two different sports. The other was Rosewitha Krause, of East Germany, who won a relay silver medal at Mexico in 1968 and then silver and bronze in handball in 1976 at Montreal and 1980 at Moscow respectively.
Greg Henderson came 10th in the points race last night.