Cycling: Jesse Sergent's a road hog

Jesse Sergent is balancing ambitions on the track and road. Photo / Brett Phibbs

New Zealand's top cyclist Jesse Sergent may have ridden his last 4000m individual pursuit race.

His employers have marked 2012 as the year he will make an almost complete transition from track to road.

Riding the team pursuit at the London Olympics is the exception to that rule but, with no individual pursuit on the Games programme, it is unlikely he'll race that event at April's world championships, despite earning a silver medal in it last year.

Sergent has a contract with arguably the world's strongest road team, the recently merged RadioShack Nissan Trek (RSNT), and they are keen to develop him as a road rider before launching him on to the 2013 grand tours through France, Italy and Spain.

At RSNT, Sergent is being groomed by pro-cycling manager Johan Bruyneel, the man who directed Lance Armstrong to seven Tour de France titles (1999-2005) and Alberto Contador to one (2007).

It follows the promise shown by Sergent in his two stage victories in Belgian and French races last year and three wins in prologues (the short time trials before races to determine which rider wears the leader's jersey on the first stage).

Hence Sergent's priority is to his employers rather than BikeNZ - but a happy medium has been reached.

"I've been given some big opportunities as a road rider but the Olympics is something I don't want to throw away less than seven months out," he says. "My team's given me a chance to have a decent build-up for London. After that, I'd like to see how far things can go on the road. Crossing to the track on a regular basis will not be ideal if I'm building towards grand tour rides.

"In contrast, the road helps with the team pursuit by building a base fitness more than anything, plus racing maximises my competitive spirit rather than just going out and training.

"The speed required at the end of the road race is a skill that can be directly applied to the track. That is hard to replicate in training. [As a comparison] the whole Australian pursuit team is made up of pro riders. Like me, they're doing big road mileages to get a base fitness for endurance, strength and power."

BikeNZ head track coach Tim Carswell says: "Jesse's been a huge part of the men's endurance programme for years and has never failed to deliver. The challenge is how we fit him into our programme because his pro team are developing him as a grand tour rider. Still, we've got Jesse at important parts of our year and the base work he's doing should meld in well."

Carswell says there is a slim chance all might not be lost for Sergent as a potential individual Olympic medallist on the track.

"There's a possibility the IP may come back into the Olympics after 2012. It depends on the IOC [International Olympic Committee] and whether they are prepared to offer more medals in track cycling. They cut back the numbers to cater for an athlete swell in areas like BMX but a return of the IP, madison and kilo time trial events are possibilities."

Sergent's next assignment is racing for RSNT in the Tour Downunder, which starts in Adelaide today.