KEY POINTS:
There's no mistaking the fire that burns behind Peter Latham's eyes. After breaking his back in a crash five months ago, the Te Awamutu rider is keen to make the New Zealand pursuit team for the Beijing Olympics.
Nothing less than a spot on the podium, preferably the
top tier, in Beijing will satisfy him - and he thinks New Zealand have the guns to achieve it.
But first, there's the small matter of making the team.
Latham, 24, has had some badly timed injuries in the past.
At the end of 2005, he was the golden boy of Kiwi cycling after becoming the first New Zealander to win a world road championship medal by finishing third in the under-23 time trial.
But he re-injured his left shoulder, dislocating it in a fall in the Oceania points race in Wanganui which affected his buildup to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
The result was a bronze medal in the 4000m teams pursuit with Jason Allen, Hayden Godfrey, Tim Gudsell and Marc Ryan.
Five months ago, Latham fell at the foot of the Pyrenees while racing with his French road team and broke his back.
"It wasn't a big crash but I fell badly," he said. "I was in hospital for a week and then had to wear a cast for three months."
A fit Latham would be the first pencilled in for the New Zealand pursuit team on experience alone. At 19 he was racing in the world championships, at 20 he was in the Athens Olympics where the team finished 10th, and was a member of the squad that was top ranked at the end of the World Cup series in 2004.
Latham acknowledged that a fresh group of young riders have stepped up. BikeNZ has been grooming a large squad of riders for the pursuit team in the past couple of years and the scrap for a ticket to Beijing is intense.
Westley Gough, Jesse Sergent, Sam Bewley and Darren Shea, who powered New Zealand to the 2005 world junior teams pursuit title, are in the reckoning, as are the more experienced Marc Ryan, Jason Allen, Tim Gudsell, Hayden Godfrey and Latham.
Bewley, Gough, Gudsell and Ryan hold the national record of four minutes, 05.177 seconds, which they set at the Beijing World Cup round one week after the combination of Bewley, Gough, Ryan and Sergent had published a new mark of 4min 05.301secs in Sydney.
Britain and Australia will be the major stumbling blocks in Beijing but New Zealand have beaten their combinations before.
"We need to go three or four seconds faster, in the low four minutes," Latham said.
"We are definitely capable of it - it's just a matter of getting that right combination and putting it together on the right day - and the right day has to be race day.
"The times the team are starting to do now, we are genuine contenders for Beijing and everyone's excited about it - with so much competition in the squad, everyone's going to get faster.
"I'm one of the most experienced guys in the team - I like to think that when I'm going good, I can really contribute, steer the team."
Latham, who was 26th overall to be top performer of the BikeNZ track squad in the Wellington Classic five-day tour, has a couple of months left to prove he is the man to lead the side in Beijing.
"Basically, I have to show the selectors ... that I'm back to full fitness.
"The competition for a spot in the pursuit team is pretty cut-throat [but] I'm pretty confident I'll be there and help the team go fast."
- NZPA
