Bill Beacon
The Canadian Press

BROMONT, Que. -- Speed skater Susan Auch's bid to make Canada's cycling team for the 2000 Summer Olympics fell short, but there was action on the track nonetheless.

Toronto's Lori-Ann Meunzer upset Winnipeg's Tanya Dubnicoff to win the national championship 500-metre time trial yesterday, securing her ticket to the Games in Sydney.

Auch finished fourth behind Mandy Poitras of Langley, B.C.

"I'm not crushed -- I'm not even disappointed," said Auch, 34, a two-time Olympic speed-skating silver medallist. "There'll just be a bit of a let-down now because I've been totally focused on this."

The Winnipeg native, a cyclist who competed at the 1983 Canada Games road race, decided to take a shot at making the Olympic team in February.

She hoped to be one of the rare athletes to compete at both the Summer and Winter Games. Hayley Wickenheiser, who won a silver medal with the women's hockey team in Nagano in 1998, has secured a trip to Sydney on Canada's women's softball team.

Dubnicoff's strong showing at last year's world championships -- third in match sprints and eighth in the time trial -- allowed Canada to send two riders to Sydney.

With Meunzer nursing a back injury courtesy of a fall in an Edmonton ravine while mountain biking, it seemed a spot was there for the taking.

Sponsors provided the equipment and Auch started training hard. She had to meet Olympic qualifying standards twice, plus finish in the top two at the national championships.

She met the standard once and was close enough a second time, but the dream faded when Meunzer got back into shape and began to challenge for national supremacy.

On the hand-built, plywood velodrome in Bromont, about an hour southeast of Montreal, Auch was two seconds off the two leaders' times.

Now, she will reassess her future on two wheels. If she finds that cycling helps her skating, she'll keep doing it. If her skating performance drops, she'll drop the bike, for now.

"I tried as hard as I could," she said. "I'll see what happens. The big thing is how I skate this winter."

Dubnicoff roared by Meunzer to win the best-of-three match sprint final in two consecutive races.

An hour later, though, Meunzer won the time trial, in which cyclists race alone against the clock, in 36.435 seconds.

Dubnicoff, who posted 36.827 seconds, said she erred in racing at a lighter than usual gear on the smaller than usual Bromont track and found herself short of power. Meunzer wasn't buying it.

"She has experience; she should know," Meunzer said.

"I feel like I've arrived, that I'm really here and I'm not going away. I want to come home from Sydney with a medal, and my favourite colour is yellow (gold)."

Reprinted with permission

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