Cycling: Pro road career is on right track

Jesse Sergent. Photo / Getty Images

Track specialist Jesse Sergent notched his first professional win on European roads when he won the prologue in Belgium's Driedaagse van Westvlaanderen race yesterday.

The Team Radioshack rider finished the 7km prologue course in 8m 14s, which put him in the tour leader's jersey and gave him an early lead in the points and young rider (under-23) classifications.

Fellow Kiwi and team-mate Sam Bewley was third, 10 seconds down on Sergent with another Radioshack rider, Sebastien Rosseler second.

Jack Bauer, the 2010 New Zealand road champion, was 53rd for his Endura team, after finishing 37 seconds down on Sergent.

"This is my first pro victory," said Sergent, who, along with Bewley, won an Olympics bronze medal at Beijing and at last year's world championships in the team pursuit.

"This is pretty special and I am happy to give back something to the people who have believed in me," he said on the cyclingnews.com website.

"This morning after I checked the course I felt quite confident. It was not a technical course; there were only three corners and long straights."

Sergent and Bewley signed with Lance Armstrong's under-23 development team in 2008 before being offered contracts with the American's Radioshack senior squad late last year. It still allows him to ride on the track, where last year he was the world's second best rider in the individual pursuit.

- NZPA