Kiwi professionals begin world road cycling championships

Five New Zealand riders take part in the opening team time trial to kick-start the UCI World Road Championships in Italy.

They will participate in their professional trade teams tonight (NZ time) in Tuscany.

The team time trial, involving national teams, was a regular part of the world championships for more than 30 years until 1994. It was brought back last year but for professional trade teams, with all World Tour teams required to compete.

Linda Villumsen and Emily Collins are part of the new Wiggle Honda women’s team that could surprise in their 42.8km test over mostly flat, straight roads from the garden city of Pistoia to the historic city of Florence.

The men’s course over 57.2km begins at the spa town of Montecatini Terme and picks up the women’s course into Florence.

Greg Henderson will ride for his Lotto Belisol team who are banking on speed over the flat terrain with the Kiwi and fellow sprinter Andre Greipel in their line-up.

Olympic medallist Jesse Sergent and fellow time trial exponent Hayden Roulston are in a strong Radioshack Leopard combination looking for leadership from multi-world champion Fabian Cancellara.

“We completed our final Team Time Trial preparations today,” said Sergent. “We checked out the full course which is all new roads and super fast.”

The team time trial involves teams of six with the time taken on the fourth finisher.

The individual time trials begin on Tuesday (NZ time) with James Oram (Auckland) and Michael Vink (Christchurch) in the under-23 men ahead of Villumsen chasing her fifth straight medal in the elite women’s time trial on Wednesday. She won a bronze medal in Switzerland in 2009, bronze in Australia in 2010, silver behind Judith Arndt in her native Denmark in 2011 and bronze behind Arndt and Evelyn Stevens in the Netherlands last year.

Sergent and Sam Bewley (Orica GreenEDGE) compete in the elite men’s time trial on Thursday before the attention switches to the road races starting on Friday on what many believe is one of the toughest courses for many years.

The men’s road course of 272kms includes 10 laps of a 16.5km circuit after an initial 107km from Florence with a total of nearly 60kms of climbing distance and vertical climb of 3kms. The women’s course covers 130kms mostly of the same daunting circuit.

The BikeNZ team is:

Elite men: George Bennett (Nelson, Radioshack Leopard, road race); Jack Bauer (Takaka, Garmin Sharp, road race); Jesse Sergent (Feilding, Radioshack Leopard, Time trial); Sam Bewley (Rotorua, Orica GreenEDGE, time trial, road race).

Elite women: Linda Villumsen (Auckland, Wiggle Honda, time trial, road race); Emily Collins (Auckland, Wiggle Honda, road race), Reta Trotman (Dunedin, Maxx Solar Stevens, road race); Jo Kiesanowski (Christchurch, Team TIBCO, road race).

Under-23 Men: James Oram (Bontrager Cycling, North Harbour, time trial, road race), Michael Vink (Christchurch, time trial); Dion Smith (Champion Systems, Auckland, road race); Alex Frame (Thuringer Energie, Christchurch, road race).

Junior women: Devon Hiley (Auckland, road race); Madison Campbell (Christchurch, road race).