Cycling: Start of the long road back

Sarah Ulmer thought she had retired in Athens. But there's another mountain to climb.

''I am not retiring from cycling and I am not pregnant."

With that, Olympic champion Sarah Ulmer ended months of speculation yesterday, announcing her intention to continue in the sport but in a different discipline.

The 29-year-old has achieved everything possible in the 3000m individual pursuit - an Olympic gold medal, two Commonwealth Games gold medals and the world record.

So she has decided to try her hand at road racing - the 25km individual time-trial - an Olympic and Commonwealth Games event. Although the event is similar to the individual pursuit, the difference is that Ulmer will leave behind the comfort of the wooden floorboards and take to the road, hills and whatever conditions the weather delivers.

"It is a totally different event and is basically a totally different sport," she said.

"As far as I am concerned it is [a] total clean slate and I am starting from absolute rock bottom. I have no idea how I'll go but it is wickedly exciting."

Ulmer's announcement came eight months after her gold-medal performance in Athens.

"To be honest, when I finished the Olympics, for me that was going to be it. I told myself right up to the Olympic Games that was going to be my last race and that was how I approached it. After I'd finished the race I thought I had retired.

"But I am not ready to retire, I am not ready to give up the sport, not ready to give up cycling, but I am equally not ready to go back to the same event I have done for 12 years.

"I feel like I have done all I can do in that event ... I think I have got the best out of myself in that event. This is something that is totally a new challenge."

She said the decision to change disciplines and not retire was one she mulled over for months and she came to a decision in only the past couple of weeks.

"The coolest thing is knowing I still love the sport.

"So often when you are trying so hard for a competition you lose sight of the reasons you do it. Obviously you are focusing on a gold but the reason I do it is I love riding my bike."

Ulmer will keep the same team who helped her succeed in Athens - coach and partner Brendan Cameron, trainer David Slyfield, BikeNZ track coach Terry Gyde and manager Roger Mortimer.

She is targeting the world championships in Austria in September next year, but is not looking any further than that. It is unlikely she will be ready for the March Commonwealth Games but it depends on how she progresses.

Ulmer has done time-trials over the years but concedes her performances have been "average to poor".

Bike NZ high-performance manager Michael Flynn said he did not think the transition from track to road would be easy for her because she wanted to be the best in the world.

"But she has already had years of road experience in her track preparation over the last 10 years, so the transition will be a lot easier than for someone coming off track who has specifically been on track.

"The difficulty will be the transition from road ... into specific time-trialling."

But she had ample time to do that by September 2006.

"You are talking about an athlete who has been training and preparing, gaining experience since she was at the junior world championships in 1993.

"You are talking about an experienced, talented, elite athlete and you are also talking about a team of people behind her who worked together to get a 3m 24s [world record 3000m individual pursuit time] - so I have no question about her preparation time."

Ulmer's new journey will begin in France where she will work on her base fitness.

"I know my limitations. I am never going to be an alpine, hilly tour rider ... if another event is going to suit me this will be it, but it is different enough to be a new challenge."

Cameron said he hoped the courses were all flat and fast.

"And all bloody downhill," Ulmer laughs.