Cycling: Henderson returns to road racing

Track cyclist Greg Henderson is heading back to the road.

Henderson won silver in the scratch race at the World Championships in Los Angeles over the weekend and he is now preparing to ride some longer distances after being called up to Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team.

Henderson is heading to Colorado to prepare for the American Tour of Georgia in three weeks.

He said it was a big move going from the track to such a strong road team and the longer stages could be tough early on.

However, while he acknowledged it would not be easy to change from one discipline to the other, he has done it before.

He is currently fast for an hour, but some of the road stages are 240 kilometres-long.

With the World Championships now over, Henderson has placed his faith in Terry Gyde as the best candidate for the permanent national coaching job.

Gyde's New Zealand team met most of its goals in Los Angeles and now talk refocuses on who will be appointed to the track position fulltime.

Henderson said Gyde is the right man for the position and the logical choice after leading riders to gold and silver at the last two world championships.

Gyde will spend a week with his family before re-entering talks with Bike NZ about the job.

- NEWSTALK ZB