Sarah's Not-So-Secret Weapon
When Sarah Ulmer left New Zealand for the Athens Olympic Games she carried with her a not-so-secret weapon. Packed away among all her luggage in a nondescript brown cardboard box was the racing bike Ulmer - and the country - hopes will carry her to gold in the 3000m women's individual pursuit.
The space-age looking two-wheeler bears little resemblance to a standard bicycle and Ulmer, 28, has only ridden it in anger six times. But she has never been beaten on the black bike and in three of those rides the Cambridge-based queen of the track has recorded some stunning results.
Her first outing on the bike was at the World Cup in Sydney in May, where she won the competition and came within 0.3 seconds of the world record. Two weeks later she used it to set a new world record of three minutes 30.604 seconds at the world track cycling championships in Melbourne, in the process defeating former world record holder Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel of the Netherlands.
She was also astride the bike two days later when she became just the second New Zealander to be crowned world champion.
The bike was developed in Christchurch by Milton Bloomfield and his company, Dynamic Composites, and New Zealand bike manufacturer Avanti. Five months were spent developing plans, building and testing a bike specifically for Ulmer.
It is about 30 per cent lighter than her previous bike and significantly stiffer. Bloomfield said his designs for Ulmer's new bike targeted alterations in the connection of handlebars to frame. "The handlebars on your normal bike, the stem clamps on to the steering tube above the frame," Bloomfield said. "This bike, the handlebars are going underneath the frame."
The venture with Dynamic Composites came about because Ulmer - a two-time Olympian and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist - was unhappy with the Australian-made BT bike she was racing and wanted Kiwi-made wheels to take her to Athens and hopefully Olympic gold.
However, Ulmer has remained tight-lipped about the bike, preferring to let her performances speak for themselves.
"I think it's more to do with the person riding it than the bike itself."
The Cycling Disciplines
Road Racing
The first Olympic road race was held at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, staged over the marathon course, with riders going around twice, pedalling their way over 87km. Women did not get their chance until 1984. Time trials were first introduced at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
There are just two events on the Olympic road racing programme, the road race and the time trial. Men and women compete separately in both. In the road races, which begin with a massed start, the men race over 239km and the women 120km. In the time trial, raced against the clock, the men race over 46.8km and the women 31.2km, with riders starting at 90-second intervals. New Zealand has four spots in the men's road race and three in the women's race. As well, New Zealand has one male rider - who must come from the road race team - in the time trial. The men's road race is on August 14, the day after the opening ceremony, and the women's the following day. Both courses are in central Athens.
The men's and women's individual time trials are on August 18 at the Vouliagmeni Olympic Centre.
Mountain Biking
Men's and women's mountain bike cross-country races feature at the Olympics for the third time. The men race between 40 and 50km and the women 30 and 40km. The final decision on course distances are left until the night before the race, when officials check the weather and aim for the leading male rider to complete the course in two hours 15 minutes, and the leading woman in two hours. Organisers aim for the men to cover six or seven laps of the course and the women five or six.
Both races are at the Parnitha Olympic Mountain Bike Venue, with the women racing on August 27 and the men the following day.
Track
This is where the most intense action happens as riders fling themselves around a banked track at speeds up to 60kmh. The velodrome is a 250-metre long wooden track made of afzelia hard wood. The banking at the two bends is 42 degrees and on the two straights 12 degrees.
Track action starts on August 20 and runs for five days.
The Team
Track: Sarah Ulmer (Cambridge) individual pursuit, points race; Greg Henderson (Dunedin) points race, madison; Hayden Roulston (Ashburton) madison; Marc Ryan (Timaru), Hayden Godfrey (Christchurch), Matthew Randall (Invercargill), Peter Latham (Te Awamutu), Timothy Gudsell (Kihikihi) team pursuit; Anthony Peden (Newcastle, Australia) keirin.
Road: Julian Dean (Waihi), Jeremy Yates (Hastings), Heath Blackgrove (Waimate), Robin Reid (Blenheim) men's road race; Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch), Melissa Holt (Cambridge), Michelle Hyland (Te Awamutu) women's road race.
Mountainbiking: Kashi Leuchs (Dunedin) men's cross country; Robyn Wong (Wellington) women's cross country.
Christchurch-Built Bike
Sarah Ulmer's latest version of a track-racing bike has been developed in Christchurch by Milton Bloomfield with input from Ulmer's partner and coach, former cyclist Brendon Cameron.
The $25,000 aerodynamic bike is designed specifically for Ulmer, who says Cameron takes care of the mechanical side. "He does most of it. I just want it to be a cool colour really," she said.
The idea for the new bike came from the Britten motorcycle, where the entire frame is made in one piece of fibreglass. It also appealed that the bike could be made in New Zealand.
"I'm a pretty patriotic person and I wanted to ride a New Zealand-made bike."
Ulmer undertook wind-tunnel testing in Christchurch, where the bike, along with racing uniforms and helmets, was tested.
She said the old-style, sharply aerodynamic helmets seen at previous cycling competitions had now been outlawed because they did not offer enough protection. In Athens, Ulmer will wear a standard, padded helmet to protect her head in the unlikely event of a crash. "The other ones were basically like ice cream containers, they didn't protect you at all."
Christchurch-Built Bike
Tyres: $300 each
Frame: $12,000
Handle bars: $2000
Chain and wheels: $10,000