Cycling: Sergent chases elusive title

Jesse Sergent. Photo / Getty Images

Jesse Sergent has been lauded as one of the world's rising cycling stars with Olympic and world championships medals, as well as a number of stage wins on the road in the World Pro Tour, but he has a gap in his resume - a national road racing title.

The 23-year-old professional from Feilding hopes to put that right this weekend at the national road cycling championships in Christchurch.

Jack Bauer, who recently signed with Garmin Cervelo, is the pre-race favourite to claim his second road race honours on Sunday with Sergent among a group of challengers that includes European professional Jeremy Yates, US-based pros Jeremy Vennell and Patrick Bevin from Team Bissell, in-form Southlander Tom Scully who is returning to the Garmin development team, and former PureBlack riders Tim Gudsell and Scott Lyttle.

Sergent is preparing for a massive year on the track building towards the London Olympics and on the road with new glamour team Radioshack Nissan Trek, a merger of two powerhouse professional outfits, Radioshack and Leopard Trek.

His best chance at the weekend may come in Friday's time trial near Lincoln College.

Sergent won three individual time trials for Radioshack last year with prologue victories at the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, the Eneco Tour and Tour du Poitiou Charentes. He went on to claim overall stage honours in Belgium and French stage races to complete a remarkable debut year in road cycling's main game.

This was on top of his silver medal in the individual pursuit at the world track championships.

But success at home has so far eluded him. Sergent was second in the time trial at the nationals last year, finishing 28 seconds behind fellow Olympian Westley Gough, who will be racing in the track World Cup in Beijing this weekend.

Sergent's only other podium at the nationals was a third in the under-23 time trial won by Michael Vink in 2010.

The women's honours are wide open following the late withdrawal of world championship silver medallist Linda Villumsen. The GreenEdge professional has not recovered sufficiently from illness and has withdrawn on medical advice.

With Cath Cheatley still on the recovery trail and Joanne Kiesanowski competing in Beijing along with 2010 winner Rushlee Buchanan, there will be a new name on the trophy.

Hopefuls include Serena Sheridan, who raced in Europe last year, world track championship medallist Lauren Ellis, Auckland's Emily Collins, who enjoyed a superb season on the US pro circuit and diminutive Emma Crum, who gained experience in Europe. There will be interest in the efforts of multisporters Melanie Burke, who won the famed Zofingen long distance duathlon in 2011, and top rating triathlete Nicky Samuels.

Waikato's Sonia Waddell will not defend her national time trial title, instead leaving it open to two-time winner Alison Shanks and her fellow team's pursuit world medallists Ellis and Jaime Nielsen.

The depth of young talent will be on show in the under-23 battle, led by Tour of Southland winner Josh Atkins. He will be tested by the likes of Vink, Mid-Canterbury's Jason Christie, who enjoyed victories on the Kermesse circuit in Belgium in 2011, and US-based professional Patrick Bevin.

In the time trial, Christie and Vink are former titleholders while North Harbour's James Oram won a silver medal in the under-19 division at the world championships.

The championships begin with the time trials over 40km (men and under-23 men) and 25km (women) on Friday. The women's road race (123km) is on Saturday and the men's race (186km) on Sunday. Both races include the testing climb up the Cashmere Hills on each lap.