Cycling: Wallace's pressure

SHAUN WALLACE is riding the world 5,000 metres professional pursuit championship here with a handicap, the Olympic reputation of the Lotus bike.

He is the first to be armed with a made-to-measure version of the monocoque bike that brought Chris Boardman British cycling's first Olympic gold for 72 years, and later carried him to a world five-kilometre record.

Wallace managed to override the mounting pressure last night with the third-fastest qualifying time, 5min 48.072sec, which was just over three seconds slower than the defending champion, Francis Moreau, of France, who clocked 5:44.949. Second fastest was Arturas Kasputis, of Lithuania, with 5:47.798.

Paul McHugh's reappearance in world-standard sprinting was brief. The British professional champion from Liverpool was 15th in the 200- metre time-trial qualification from which the fastest 12 went forward to the eighth-finals.