30 Jul 2012

Bauer does his best as Henderson sidelined

2:41 pm on 30 July 2012

One of New Zealand's great medal hopes - road cyclist Greg Henderson - had his Olympic dreams dashed by a stomach illness ahead of his race at the weekend.

Henderson had to pull out of the 250 kilometre race on the fifth of eight laps after suffering a bad stomach upset, leaving his support rider, Jack Bauer, to finish alone.

Bauer finished a creditable 10th in the race, which was won by Kazakhstan rider Alexandr Vinokurov in a sprint finish. Rigoberto Uran from Colombia won the silver medal.

Bauer was in the chase group that sprinted for third place but the bronze medal was claimed by Alexander Kristoff of Norway.

"I never really realised until the race was over that Greg had pulled out," Bauer told Morning Report.

"We were just riding at the back of the peloton and we had decided earlier that our gameplan was that if some of the 'power nations' started attacking, and sending riders up the road to the break, I would try to follow.

"Belgium and Italy started lighting things up, I realised ... we needed to be represented in that".

"When I left Greg to his own devices ... he said he wasn't feeling awesome".

Bauer's 10th placing was still the best result in 20 years for a New Zealander in the event, finishing in 10th place.