KEY POINTS:
Four years ago, Australian cyclist Katie Mactier went head to head with New Zealander Sarah Ulmer in a ride-off for gold and came off second best.
Now she's back aiming to claim the 3000m individual pursuit title for her own - and along the way she has
claimed a Kiwi heart.
Mactier is now engaged to former world cycling champion Greg Henderson, New Zealand's hope in the men's points race, and regardless of who wins and who loses in Beijing, the pair will be married in October.
For Henderson, having Mactier in the Olympic village has made his fourth Games all the more easier.
"The best thing is having my partner here," Henderson said yesterday. "We can just chill out together and we're both experienced and it's a really good thing."
There's also the small matter that this is Henderson's fourth Olympic Games. Experience counts for a lot when you're in the pressured environment of the athletes village and about to line up in a race you've trained years for.
But in Beijing yesterday, he looked as laid-back as a tourist, wearing a black New Zealand team hoodie and black skate shoes (what, no Crocs, the team's official footwear?).
"I remember the first [Games] I went to in 96, I was just amazed by the whole thing. 'Oh, look, that's ... '," he said. "I still love the team atmosphere, don't get me wrong, I love the track team and we're all mates but I don't get fazed by the enormity of the Olympic Games."
Neither is he worried about being one of the points race's marked men. His 10-year international career has yielded 17 New Zealand track and road titles and eight World Cup track gold medals, feats which mean others will be watching him closely in Saturday night's event.
"I think I've been marked for the last two or three years now but I won't change my race tactics at all now.
"There's no way they're going to let me sneak up track and take a lap on my own. My race tactic stays the same - whenever the break goes with key riders you have to be there."
He believes his preparation has been the best it ever has, having been released from his pro-team Team Columbia early so he could join the New Zealand track team in Bordeaux.
There he was able to simulate his races, including a practice points race with a motorbike. "It was a 30 or 40km effort all in one go. Obviously you can't simulate the randomness of a points race but it drew me out."
Other than training, he has been sleeping, watching movies, and eating.
And getting a little support from an Australian.
