Cycling: One step from shiny tin

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Southern man and cyclist Greg Henderson knows how to put things simply.

Upon winning the world championship scratch race back in May, a cycling magazine quoted him as saying: "Shit, I'm bloody world champion. This calls for a nudie lap."

Early yesterday, after finishing in the most incredible points race seen at an Olympics, the professional cyclist from Dunedin glanced up at the scoreboard with hope.

"Awww ... fourth," he said. "You ride your guts out and you get fourth. One more place and you'd have a bit of shiny tin to put round your neck."

It's as eloquent a way as necessary to describe the agony of fourth. There is no crueller place to finish than one step from the dais, especially at an Olympics.

Ask Henderson's team-mate, gold-medal winning individual pursuit rider Sarah Ulmer. She finished an agonising 0.08s off bronze at Sydney in 2000.

Fourth again at the world championships last year, she considered giving up.

Fortunately, of course, she didn't. Henderson, 27, is no quitter either. For the few years, he has been riding professionally in the United States, but retains a proud connection to Kiwi culture, describing himself as his pro team's social events organiser.

Henderson is not the quiet achiever of New Zealand cycling, but he is an achiever who does not get the recognition of say, Ulmer, or Tour de France rider Julian Dean.

When he became world champion, his race was straight after Ulmer's and she received far more glory. Not that Henderson minded.

He quite liked the fact that Ulmer's success rubbed off on him.

Today, he lines up with Hayden Roulston in the Madison, which is like a slingshot, two-man version of the points race.

The points race is a mad 160-lap circuit of the track. Points are accumulated by winning sprints every 10 laps. Twenty bonus points are also awarded to riders who can lap the field.

The constant sprints turn this event into 20 races within a race. Yesterday's Olympic race was something even crazier.

It is usually a tactical affair, with riders easing themselves into positions from which to pounce during the sprint laps. But yesterday, an unheralded 19-year-old Russian, Mikhail Ignatyev, threw tactical niceties out the window and won.

He admitted afterwards that things were slightly unusual.

"The race was far from a classical race," Ignatyev said. "Two times I had to ride the race alone."

Henderson's take on the race was, of course, less reserved.

"Mate, was it on. It was attack, after attack after attack. Unbelievably aggressive.

"The guy who won it, he lapped the field four times. I lapped the field three times. Ninety per cent of bike races, you lap the field three times, you win it."

Ignatyev finished with 93 points, Spaniard Joan Llaneras scored 82 for silver, and German Guido Fulst was third on 79.

Henderson, who had 68 points, stormed into contention in the second half of the race after an easy first half, a tactic borne out of his disappointment from the world championships, where he rode hard in the first 80 laps of the points race, only to fade away in the next 80 and finish 12th.

As a result of the change in approach, he was able to finish strongly, including leading an attack in the dying stages of the race that earned him 20 points. Unfortunately, Llaneras hitched on to the attack at the last minute to pick up the 20 points too.

Had Llaneras not been able to do that, Henderson may well have been handed a bit of shiny tin to hang round his neck.

That may have warranted a nudie lap.