UCI World Road Cycling Championships – NZ Wrap Day 4

Radioshack Leopard professional Jesse Sergent was the better of the Kiwis in 21st place in the individual time trial at the UCI World Road Cycling Championships in Italy today.

The Palmerston North rider found the flat and largely open course challenging and significantly different to most time trials in his young professional career.

The 58km course that finished in Florence was dominated by cycling’s powerhouses, won for a third time by German rider Tony Martin ahead of the Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins (GBR) who pipped four-time winner Fabian Cancellara (SUI) by just two seconds.

Martin was in a class of his own today, ahead at all but the first time check, as the Omega Pharma Quick Step pro powered to victory in 1hr 05min 36.65 sec. He averaged a tick under 53 kph to finish 46 seconds faster than Wiggins.

Sergent started more conservatively but moved to 17th fastest at the midway point, before finishing in 1hr 9min 25.06sec, just under four minutes from the winner’s time.

“Personally I just wanted to do constant power the whole way, so on the hill I was out of the seat straight away and then settled into a pace,” Sergent said.

“I was a little bit up and down. At times I had to back it off a little bit, not by choice but the way the legs were today.

“It was a time trial where it was pure resistance on the legs. There was no recovery or free-wheeling at all. It was like being on the erg for an hour at full gas.”

Rotorua’s Sam Bewley was 48th out of the 77 starters in 1hr 12min 36.67sec in his hit-out ahead of the weekend road race.

Australian Rohan Dennis, who has enjoyed an outstanding rookie year for Garmin Sharp, took the lead briefly before the big boys came out to play. Cancellara laid down an early marker but had to settle for third place after Wiggins overcame a 24 second deficit to grab the silver medal.

However Martin, the silver medallist at the London Olympics behind Wiggins, made it three wins in a row with a thoroughly dominant display.

There is no racing tomorrow with attention turning to the road racing. Auckland’s Devon Hiley and Maddie Campbell (Christchurch) will compete in the junior women’s race on Friday night (NZ time).

They are followed by the under-23 men with the BikeNZ combination Auckland’s Dion Smith and James Oram along with Christchurch rider Alex Frame on Saturday (NZ time).

The trio have been racing in USA and Europe with Smith riding for Champion Systems, Oram for Bontrager Cycling and Frame for Thuringer Energie.

Results, elite men time trial. 57.86km: Tony Martin (GER) 1:05.36.36, 1; Bradley Wiggins (GBR) 1:06.22.74, 2; Fabian Cancellara (SUI) 1:06.24.99, 3; Vasil Kiryienka (BLR) 1:07.02.66, 4; Taylor Phinney (USA) 1:07.44.65, 5. Also NZers: Jesse Sergent 1:09.22.56, 21; Sam Bewley 1:12.36.67, 48.