Terry Maddaford: Cyclists not sitting on their laurels

Terry Maddaford

Many of New Zealand's greatest sporting triumphs have come from sportsmen and women sitting on their backsides. The record medal haul at the Los Angeles Olympics 25 years ago stands out.

In an amazing performance, New Zealand won eight golds and a bronze - in canoeing, equestrian, rowing and yachting - sitting down.

These days that theme continues with New Zealand cyclists making their mark at the highest level.

A funding boost from Sparc, top coaches, a precise sports-science input and superb athletes - often from small-town New Zealand - have combined to keep the sport firmly on the world map.

New Zealand success on the track at world cycling championships did not come until Karen Holliday won gold in the points race in 1990. Some years earlier Craig Adair had given the New Zealand team at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games a tremendous fillip with his stunning first-night win in the 1000m time trial.

Ten years later Gary Anderson broke through for New Zealand's first Olympic medal with bronze in the individual pursuit in Barcelona.

The floodgates haven't exactly burst open since but as a sport once dominated by Europeans (at least until stricter doping controls) has become more international, Kiwis have enjoyed a healthy share of success.

Led by the redoubtable Ron Cheatley, trackside when his protege Anderson claimed that coveted medal and at many of great moments in the sport since, cycling made New Zealanders sit up and take notice.

Cheatley's superb contribution has now been followed by BikeNZ high-performance director Mark Elliott and his outstanding deputy Tim Carswell - the duo playing a huge part in further lifting the sport's profile through the deeds of dedicated cyclists.

Elliott, after making his mark in a similar role with Triathlon New Zealand, has been bloody-minded in turning attention away from the road - where New Zealand has produced many top performers - to the track.

That single-minded determination has quickly borne fruit but, he insists, success at this week's championships is only the tentative first step in an ambitious "Power to Podium" programme aimed at taking the track by storm at the 2012 London Olympics.

The past triumphs by Holliday, Sarah Ulmer, Greg Henderson and Hayden Godfrey laid the foundation. Alison Shanks has continued that momentum but one feels Elliott has even greater plans.

The new indoor velodrome in Invercargill gives Elliott a state-of-the-art facility on which to launch his ambitious programme.

He has a huge base to work with.

Cycling is a sport accessible to most New Zealanders. The wall-to-wall coverage of the world's greatest race - the Tour de France - has boosted interest. Secondary school racing is booming. From quantity comes quality as someone like Ulmer, from Diocesan School in Auckland, can attest.

There is no substitute for hard work but having some inherit sporting talent certainly helps.

Shanks was good enough to play netball for New Zealand A before dabbling in triathlon and then the fulltime switch to cycling. Fellow 3000m team pursuit silver medallist Jaime Nielsen was a more than useful rower - four medals at last month's national championships - as is Sonia Waddell who too has turned her attention to pedals rather than oars.

With sports science and technology - New Zealand has long been a world leader in the production of road and track frames - the raw talent and now Elliott heading the programme, cycling's future seems assured.