I'd go with the wide-area, 7 point AF, and manually select the cyclist with the thumbpad, beginning with the AF system shifted to where you want to pick the cyclist up at first. In a horizontal shot, if they will be in the center, have a multi-AF-point pattern and set the multi-point group to where the cyclist will be. Leave some space for them to move into--don't let them "drive into the edge of the frame" or "drive out of the frame."
I have respect for gryphon's lair, but the way he is telling you, a beginner, to use a modern Nikon is very typical of a Canon users who has a 1.3x body or two and top-grade pro lenses with powerful AF motors and shallow depth of field...he is giving you a classic "pro-body + pro-glass" point of view that does not understand that Nikon has a system called Scene Recognition System, that measures the distance and the direction and the density (3-D) + used R-G-B color analysis to break down the R-G-B color components of a uniform, caucasian skin tone, whatever, to get achieve what Nikon calls Lock-On. Caucasian skin tone, Asian skin tone, red uniforms, blue sky, green grass, white balance (flickering stadium, constant daylight, the longitude and latitude of the city entered in the clock, the day and date, the EV level, the lens in use, and a whole boatload of information i ALL entered into the exposure system." Hardcore Photoshop users can quote chapter and verse on various R-G-B values of skin tone, wedding dress colors, tuxedo colors, pinks, yellows,etc. Same with the Nikon Scene Recognition system, or the 3-D Color Matrix system,etc,etc,etc.
I can appreciate that gryophonlair99 is an experienced sports shooter, but the question about how does a modern Nikon know shows a lack of familiarity with the difference between how Nikon meters and tis metering data to autofocus in its **modern** bodies, and also ignores the fact that with the lower-end Nikon cameras,using consumer lenses, the AF module itself is nowhere near as "strong" as that in his professional-level Canon 1D bodies. I'm tired of people who see every technological explanation as some dig at Canon or another brand, and that is not what this is about--this is about a beginner using a NIKON camera, a lower-level body, with consumer-lvele lenses, typically the 18-55, 70-300, or 55-200 lenses which have very weak AF motors, and fairly depth of field at longer distances, with very little subject/background isolation to "help" the AF system. In a word, the little Nikons like the D5000 are designed to be used by people with slow-speed consumer lenses that have focal length/aperture combos like 200mm and f/5.6, so that at 30 meters, EVERYTHING is fairly much more or less decently focused...and those lenses work a lot slower than top-level glass like my 200mm f/2 VR-G or 300/2.8 AFS-II--those lenses themselves have big,beefy AF motors, as do comparable Canon lenses.
The thing about the consumer-level Nikons is that they are designed for multi-area AF that works vastly differently than Canon has. This is not a dig at Canon, and it is something many people do not understand. My answer above was tailored to make a point to a beginner shooting a Nikon D5000--not a pro-level Canon with $6,000 and $8,000 lenses. The advice to use Center AF-only is not applicable to modern Nikons which have color-aware autofocus AND metering, linked together, when a beginner is running the camera, and is using modest consumer-level lenses with slow apertures. You NEED the predicative ability of AF-S focusing, not screw-drive lenses, and you need a bit of an edge in terms of rapid AF acquisition when using Nikon's modern, slow zooms like the 55-200 or the 70-300 f/4.5~5.6 lenses...they are not nearly as capable as the pro-level lenses that gryphonslair99 is used to using, and the D5000 does not have the same type of AF system as any Canon, or any pro-level 1-series Canon body.
So, there's a better explanation of why I suggest using more AF points when using the D5000...the center AF point is badly impacted by the f/5.6 max aperture of most consumer lenses when used on the D5000 and other low-end Nikon AF modules on the entry-level bodies. You need the extra "assist" to make that kind of beginner's gear work to its potential. If you mount a 200/2 or 300/2.8, you'll buy yourself $5,000 to $7,999 worth of focusing motor power, no expenses spared, and shallow depth of field, and you'll also get into cross-type AF and the ability to focus with a TC,etc,etc.
If you have beginner gear and a modern Nikon, you need to realize that trying to out-think the camera, or to make it work like equipment made even a few years earlier is not in your best interests. When you have a weak AF module, but a 3-D, color-distance-direction aware system waiting for YOU to pick the target and then allow the computer to follow the target wherever it moves in the frame, then you are using the technology the way Nikon has engineered the camera. You do not have the top-level lenses and bodies or the experience that gryponslair99 has, and so you need to set yopur gear up to use the kind of gear **YOU** have, which is a D5000, not a 1D series and a 400/2.8.
If you want to really,really understand the newer Nikon AF and metering systems, you might want to invest some money in one of the Thom Hogan "complete Guide to the Nikon D_____" books. There are so many different Nikon AF and metering systems nowadays, and there are many,many modes and the engineering is complicated, that it takes many,many pages and at least two weeks to even begin to understand how Nikon engineers have designed these new systems to work. The Complete Guide book series (19 books in all) are the best single-source books a pwrson can find to describe the how,what,and the why of multi-point AF. But the bottom line is this" with the consumer Nikons,and the slower f/stop lenses at outdoor distances, you are barely into cross-type AF at f/5.6, and frankly the AF system in the body and the AF system in the cheaper AF-S lenses is very weak compared to pro-level gear and f/2.8 or faster prime lenses, and the beginner needs to allow the camera to work the way Nikon designed it to work, for beginners, with consumer level equipment.
I hope that explains the logic sufficiently well. THis isn;lt about Nikon vs Canon, it's about modern,different engineering and how consumer level gear works best,as opposed to professional level lenses that cost 10 to 20 times more than a D5000 body, and lenses that bog down to f/5.6 at 150mm....not tele-primes.
