Cycling: Young Kiwi on top of the world

By CHRIS DANIELS

Teenager Jeremy Yates is being hailed a national hero after he blitzed a field of top international cyclists to win the world junior men's road cycling championships.

Yates, aged 18, a seventh former at St John's College in Hastings, claimed victory right in the heart of France, a world cycling superpower, on Saturday.

As the only New Zealander in the field, Yates convincingly beat 166 others in the 127km road race in Plouay, Brittany, tearing up the last three or four kilometres in front of 100,000 spectators to record 2h 59.26s.

Coach Garry Bell said the crowd went crazy when Yates crossed the finish line. "He's a total hero here in France."

Former Cycling New Zealand president Bruce Goldsworthy said: "Potentially it's the biggest thing to happen to New Zealand cycling. This could really set Jeremy up in cycling."

Not only did he beat the other individuals, but he had to compete against the tactics of each country's team, many with up to 10 riders.

"It's very difficult to comprehend," said Mr Goldsworthy.

"It just blows you away to think that someone can come out of New Zealand and do this."

Yates competed against about 200 people cycling at his level in New Zealand, he said.

Any small European town meeting would attract that many cyclists.

"It was a very brave move to go over there by himself."

Proud father Bryan Yates told the Herald that his son, while dedicated to the sport, was a normal teenager who still went to parties, did well at school and held down a part-time job at a local bakery.

Jeremy had phoned home just half an hour after winning the race "totally over the moon, on cloud nine," said Mr Yates.

"When he went overseas he thought that any cyclist from France or Italy by definition had to be superhuman.

"I told him, 'These guys are going to be on level-pegging with you; they are not going to be much better'."

Yates followed in the footsteps of older brother Matthew, now riding semi-professionally in Belgium, but was determined not to miss out on teenage life.

"He's pretty normal, he's always concentrated on his training to get where he is, but he's always said he's got no intentions of leading the hermit life that Matthew did."

The Yates family had made many sacrifices to help their son achieve his success, with Jeremy receiving little official support.

Although Cycling New Zealand received $750,000 from the Sports Foundation, the only help it had given Yates was paying for his accommodation in France.

The rest of his expenses have been paid for by his parents.

Cycling New Zealand had preferred to give financial help to the Olympic track cyclists - none of whom came home with a medal.



Yates, who will arrive home tomorrow, is also keen to compete for New Zealand at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.

But Bryan Yates wants to make sure his son applies himself to study.

He said he hoped Jeremy would be back at school on Wednesday.

A piece of transtasman sporting silverware returned home at the weekend when the New Zealand shearing team beat Australia at Armidale, Northern New South Wales, on Saturday night.

The Kiwi trio, David Fagan (Te Kuiti), Grant Smith (Rakaia) and Darin Forde (Winton), beat their Australian counterparts by four points to win the Walker-Keats Cup, symbol of shearing supremacy between the countries.