Cycling: Australian winner focuses on the finish line

By EUGENE BINGHAM

ATHENS - Amid the drama and suspense of the women's cycle road race, there was a very simple lesson: look backwards at your peril.

Defending Olympic champion, Leontien Zijlaard van Moorsel, great rival on the track of Sarah Ulmer, was taken to hospital after a backwards glance sent her crashing to the ground in the road race yesterday.

Then, in the last sprint for gold, German rider Judith Arndt turned to see where Australian Sara Carrigan was as they closed in on the line. Carrigan snatched the opportunity to whip past Arndt and claim gold.

If the Olympic race is supposed to be a showcase of the sport, a display of the rigours and trials which take it into the realms of a feat worthy of the best in the world, the women in the field at Athens did everything that was asked of them.

There was the spectacular exit of the Olympic champion, the victory of a little-known rider who played a tactically brilliant hand, and the bitterness of defeat for Arndt, who gestured with her finger in anger as she crossed the line and was fined for unsportsman-like behaviour.

New Zealander Joanne Kiesanowski played her part in the drama, finishing 17th to almost match Julian Dean's 15th-place effort in the men's race the day before.

For 118.8km the women sweated in the heat, buffeted by the winds that caused the rowing to be postponed.

The dramatic crash of van Moorsel with two laps to go was the defining moment of the nine-lap race around central Athens' historic sites.

The 34-year-old Dutch rider was a darling of the Sydney Games, winning three gold medals to crown an incredible comeback from anorexia that threatened to end her career.

Lining up in the first of her three events in Athens - including an anticipated clash with Ulmer in the 3000m individual pursuit - she was beginning to control the race when she tipped another rider's wheel while looking behind her.

Several other riders fell, including Canadian Lyne Bessette, another race favourite.

Van Moorsel slumped on the side of the course before being taken away on a stretcher, nursing her shoulder, hip and elbow.

The Dutch team doctor, Tjeerd de Vries, said later that she had been checked at a local hospital, but was already planning to take part in her other events.

The crash played into the hands of the Australians, who were one of the strongest teams along with the Dutch.

Carrigan, together with the World Cup leader, Oenone Wood, and Olivia Gollan, seized control of the paleton.

Carrigan said that when she got away on the decisive break, she knew that Wood, in particular, would be controlling the chase group.

"Despite what people believe, cycling is a team sport and it was a matter of which one of us was going to be up on the podium today," said the 24-year-old from the Gold Coast.

The girl who took up cycling at school as part of a talent identification programme where pupils were given a bike for 10 weeks to see if they liked the sport had become an Olympic champion.

Wood finished fourth and Gollan 12th.

Kiesanowski, a professional rider who has managed several top-10 World Cup finishes this year, could only imagine what would have happened if she had been in a stronger team.

Her two fellow New Zealand riders, Melissa Holt and Michelle Hyland, fell away early.

Kiesanowski finished in 3h 25m 42s, one of 22 riders who were 1m 18s behind Carrigan.

"I wouldn't say I'm happy, but I'm satisfied."

The race turned on being in the right place at the right time to catch decisive breaks.

"I wasn't up there enough at the crest of the hill," Kiesanowski said. "The whole big domino effect happens [and you lose contact with the leaders]."

Holt pulled out after five laps, suffering from cramps, and Hyland, one of the youngest in the field, said she kept going because she knew her parents had travelled a long way to support her.

Maureen and Barry Hyland, from Gisborne, had found a position on the major climb in the race, Lykavittos Hill, and yelled for their daughter every time she passed.

"The sight of them kept me going," Michelle said. "Every lap I thought about pulling out, but I thought, no bugger it, I'm going to finish."

The 20-year-old took up cycling eight months ago after suffering a shoulder injury which forced her to give up triathlons.

She finished 56th with a group of seven riders, proud of her achievement and hoping that she will be able to look back on the race one day as the start of a good career in the sport.

Sometimes it's good to look back.