Cycling: Ulmer: bubbly, chirpy and really serious

New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer puts on a brave face at a press conference just minutes before the start of the Womens Individual Time Trial, to announce she will not compete in the cycle event because of a back injury, at the Commonwealth Games, Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, March 21, 2006. Credit:NZPA/Wayne Drought

By EUGENE BINGHAM in Athens There are two kinds of Sarah Ulmer: the bubbling, smiling, effusive one, and the one behind the mask. The mask is the sleek riding helmet she slips on to whirr around cycling tracks faster than any woman has before. At the Olympic Velodrome in Athens, where Ulmer will seek gold in the 3000m individual pursuit, people have been lurking in the shadows trying to study the woman behind the mask. This week, as she trained during her two-hour sessions on the track, opponent’s coaches watched, arms folded to conceal their digital stopwatches, as she whizzed past. At the world championships, there was a British guy with a video camera taping and analysing races. Everybody wants to know how she goes so fast. It comes with the territory. Put yourself out there as the gold medal contender and the pack circles. It has happened to all favourites in these Games. Look at the attention thrust upon Michael Phelps. Ulmer’s signal to her rivals that she would be the favourite in Athens was magnanimous. In May, she not only took the world championship crown in Melbourne, but laid claim to the world record, snatching it from Dutch cycling great Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel. If they had not before, the world suddenly took notice. Van Moorsel has done her best in Athens to grab the attention back from the Kiwi upstart. Last weekend, she spectacularly crashed out of the road race right at the start-finish line in front of thousands of spectators, then came back brilliantly mid-week to successfully defend her time trial title. Her clash with Ulmer, if they both make it to the final, will be one of the line-ups of the Olympics. As we talk to Ulmer about her preparations, we’ve got the other Sarah in front of us - the bubbly, smiling effusive one. She pushes her sunglasses on top of her head, slips her shoes off and curls her legs up on the chair. Nearby is her team issue black backpack. She has tied a clean sock on the handle to make it distinctive from everyone else’s. It is a mark of her individuality, a character trait that pushed her towards pursuit riding. She could have been a road racer, but she prefers climbing on to the pursuit bike and letting rip. For the past two months, she and her coach and partner Brendon Cameron have been in France. “Brendon and I have been doing our own gig for the last couple of months. “We’ve been doing what we do at home but we’ve been doing it in France, just going through the motions and preparing like we do.” It’s a line that many competitors in Athens use: we’re just treating this like any other competition. Of course, it is not just any other competition, it is the Olympic Games, the pinnacle of sport. But Ulmer has experienced the Games twice, in Atlanta and Sydney, and knows how to confront them. This time, she did not arrive in the athletes village until after the opening ceremony to keep things a little more low-key. Four years ago, she had heartache in Sydney, missing out on a medal by a spoke-width margin, coming fourth, 0.08s behind third place. She said this week she did not dwell on the Sydney disappointment, but admitted that being world champion brought new pressures. “Yeah, definitely. But that is one of the things about being world champion. I’m still fizzing on what I did there and want to take that through to this competition.” Ulmer’s quest begins early tomorrow on the Malaysian hardwood track on the Olympic Velodrome. All going to plan, Sarah Ulmer, the one behind the mask, will be racing for gold early on Monday. ULMER’S EVENT 3000m individual pursuit. Qualifying, 1.50am tomorrow. First round, 3.25am tomorrow. Final, 2.40am Monday.