Stadium Side: Hamish Bond reveals his inspiration to move to cycling

Hamish Bond was already one of New Zealand's greatest all-time sportsmen but then he decided to take himself completely out of his comfort zone and strive for the near impossible.

The two-time Olympic gold medal winning rower completed a remarkable career in the sport at the conclusion of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Over an eight-year period he and Eric Murray won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the men's pair, a stunning seven consecutive world championship gold medals and returned an unbeaten record over the two Olympic cycles – they were simply unbeatable.

But that wasn't enough for the former Otago Boys High student.

Bond turned his focus to cycling and embarked on a bid to win a gold medal at the men's time trial at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Hamish Bond won Bronze in the Men's Individual Cycling Time Trial. Photo / Getty

For most people this kind of thing would be nothing more than a pipe dream but Bond is a notoriously hard-worker and a believer that 100 percent commitment in work ethic can overcome natural talent.

He demonstrated that incredible amount of hard graft with countless hours that propelled him to reach new peaks during his rowing career and is now using that same concept to achieve the same in a different sport.

Obviously there is some natural transfer from one code to another – being an endurance athlete in one sport naturally lends itself to elements of other sports but he is trying to cram a career's worth of hard work into a four-year cycle.

Bond sat down with The Herald to talk about his move to cycling, what is driving him to expand the boundaries and about what makes him tick.