Cycling: Under-23s 'pretty much on mark' for a strong showing

Peter Latham

New Zealand are capable of a strong showing at this week's world road cycling championships in Austria, says national road coach Jacques Landry.

Landry said from BikeNZ's road training base in France that the form of the three under-23 riders - Peter Latham, Tim Gudsell and Logan Hutchings - were "on the mark" .

This gave optimism that Latham would be able to match or improve on the under-23 time trial bronze medal he won at last year's championships in Spain.

New Zealand are sending just the under-23 men's trio after Julian Dean's crash during the Tour of Poland shredded plans to send a senior men's team.

Landry said Latham and Hutchings would ride the time trial tomorrow and would be joined by Tim Gudsell for Sunday's road race.

Joanne Kiesanowski and Toni Bradshaw will represent New Zealand in the elite women's road race in Austria, also on Sunday.

"The form of the team is pretty much on the mark right now," Landry said. "Tim is coming off as a guest rider with a European pro team and his form is very good."

Gudsell, who had been racing "pretty much every day" since mid-August, was being rested to get him into top shape for the road race.

Latham and Logan had pushed their case to ride the time trial with outstanding performances at the Chrono Champenois event at Betheny in the Champagne district about 100km east of Paris on September 10.

Latham finished third, clocking 36m 75s over the 40.4 km time trial and Hutchings finished sixth, four seconds behind. Landry said Latham was the fastest under-23 rider in the field and Logan third fastest.

The world championship would be over 39.54km.

Landry said as far as the 176.68km under-23 road race went, New Zealand could, barring any mishaps, score a top five finish and possibly a spot on the podium.

"We have a good chance for a medal. Obviously this will depend on luck as well which is a bit of a factor if we consider Tim crashed with one lap to go last year and Pete punctured on the last lap.

"Barring any mishaps, we have a good chance to score a top five and possibly a podium."

Despite other leading nations such as Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States and Australia able to field five-man teams for the road race, Landry felt New Zealand were not disadvantaged by having three.

"Last year, we had five riders but we only qualified three this year due to bad luck. It's not a big issue - I'm convinced we have the best three under-23 riders we have had in a while."

As for the women, Kiesanowski was coming off a big year, helping her Swiss Univega Pro team to top the overall standings in the recently concluded World Cup series.

Bradshaw had been developing every year since 2004 when she began training in Europe and Landry expected the duo to put in good performances in the 136.2km road race.

- NZPA