KEY POINTS:
By Peter Martinez of NZPA
New Zealand cycling star Sarah Ulmer will race the national road championships in Wellington next month.
While it is "for a bit of fun" according to coach and partner Brendon Cameron, the Upper Hutt races have an undertone of seriousness.
Cameron said there was no question the Ulmer remained committed to competing in the time trial at the 2007 world road championships in Stuttgart, Germany, in September.
"She is doing everything, with support from Australian Institute of Sports experts as well as New Zealand doctors and specialists to overcome the problem," Cameron told NZPA today.
"There's been no 'eureka, we have found it' and we are still doing a lot of diagnostic work."
Ulmer, affected by a problem that prevents her from producing full power in her left leg, has been back on the bike for the past four weeks after following a strict three-month recovery and rehabilitation programme.
"It is going to be her first race back and she is going to take it quietly and just have a bit of fun, really.
"It is quite a demanding course and we are not going to put too much pressure on her.
"It is still early days -- she's a little unfit and back in the gym now.
"She is back in full training but at a very low intensity, just doing long, slow miles.
"We are looking hopefully at the world champs in Germany -- we don't want to rush things too early."
Ulmer had a brilliant early summer of 2005/2006 when the former Olympic and world track champion, won the national and Oceania road and time trial titles, the women's Tour of New Zealand and the World Cup round in Wellington.
But the problem surfaced in March just before the start of the Melbourne Commonwealth Games time trial forcing her withdrawal.
She was limited to a support role in the road race a few days later.
The injury, which Ulmer has described as a "nerve problem which is more of a nuisance than a serious injury", also ruled her out of last September's world championships in Austria.
Cameron said there was no silver bullet to fixing the long standing problem.
"It is not pinpointed a 100 per cent -- you might want to put a dollar each way.
"We have been working so hard in the past six months to isolate it but it's still early days.
" We don't know for sure until we start getting into a bit of intensity.
"But we have to finish Plan A and exhausted all the options before we switch to Plan B."
"We will know by mid-summer if Plan A is a goer, but if not, we should have plenty of time to go to another option."
- NZPA
