Cycling: Leuchs ranks 15th in world

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

New Zealand mountainbike hope Kashi Leuchs has established himself as the world's No 1 under-23 rider on the final descent to Sydney.

After a seventh and a 13th in the latest World Cup events in Canada, Leuchs is now ranked 15th in the world, bolstering his confidence for a strong placing at the Olympics.

New Zealand's other Olympic mountainbiker, Susy Pryde, will not go off-road before the Games - her contract with an American professional road team says she must stay on the tarmac until Sydney.

But she was seventh in a three-day road race, the Daytona Pro-Am in the United States, this week.

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