Cycling: BikeNZ plays down criticism of coach

12.35pm - UPDATE

BikeNZ chief executive Rodger Thompson is playing it cool over alleged scathing criticism by team pursuiter Hayden Godfrey of Olympics track cycling coach Kurt Innes.

Radio Sport today reported that Godfrey, part of the New Zealand pursuit team who finished 10th and last in qualifying in Athens, had said on his website that Innes, a Canadian, was "difficult to communicate with", had "messed up team selection" for the Athens race and that "there were mistakes made because Innes is a sprints coach running a pursuit team for the first time".

However, Godfrey's remarks on the Olympics section of his website under the heading "Team pursuit, what went wrong" appear to have been removed this morning.

Godfrey later issued a clarification of his comments on the website in which he described the team's performance at the Games as "extremely disappointing".

He added: "I am frustrated that Kurt was not able to put in place a programme that gave us our best opportunity. He lacked experience in coaching Team Pursuit.

"His position of NZ coach extended only to the Team Pursuit and he had little involvement with other members of the squad. He did not seem interested in listening to feedback from riders."

Thompson had earlier said he did not know the content of Godfrey's comments on the website.

"I am not aware of exactly what Hayden said," Thompson said

"Athletes are entitled to make their own comment."

BikeNZ had started its Olympics debriefing yesterday by sending out questionnaires to all 18 Olympics team members.

"We are doing quite a thorough evaluation process and through that, Hayden will be consulted," Thompson said.

The process would continue with one-on-one individual debriefs between the cyclists and an independent person from the New Zealand Academy of Sport.

"It would be purely confidential, one-to-one and independent, outside of BikeNZ," Thompson said.

He said the process was being co-ordinated by high performance manager Warren Lister. However, Newstalk ZB reported that Lister has already stepped down from his post at Bike NZ due to family reasons.

- NZPA