Cycling: World champion to race at home

Linda Villumsen won the Elite Women's time trial at the 2015 UCI world road cycling championships; Graham Watson.

A New Zealand world champion cyclist will line up at the national road championships in Napier for the first time.

Linda Villumsen became the first Kiwi to win a UCI road world championship when she won the time trial in the United States during September.

More than 100 elite riders will contest the championships which form part of a summer cycling carnival in Hawke's Bay from January 8-10.

"To win this race and wear the New Zealand jersey in races in Europe is much sought-after and something the riders and their teams value greatly. So they are well-motivated to win this," said event ambassador Julian Dean, who remembers the kudos he received wearing the national jersey in the Tour de France.

"To be the national champion is a point of difference in the peloton and you receive significantly more profile."

The road race course comprises a loop around the Puketapu circuit before returning for a number of laps over an inner city course that takes in Napier Hill and finishes on Marine Parade.

Villumsen will be defending the title she won in Christchurch earlier this year.

She heads a women's field that includes 2010 and 2014 champion Rushlee Buchanan, 2013 winner Courtney Lowe and double Olympian Joanne Kiesanowski, who won the national honours in 2003.

It also includes double time trial champion Jaime Nielsen and triathletes Kate McIlroy and Sophie Corbridge.

The men's field includes five UCI professionals in Greg Henderson, Sam Bewley, Jesse Sergent, George Bennett and Patrick Bevin.