My life in sport: Jack Bauer

Jack Bauer. Photo / NZPA

From the public's point of view, Jack Bauer came from nowhere to finish second in the Tour of Southland, then beat our star cyclists Hayden Roulston and Julian Dean in the national road championships in Christchurch.

The 24-year-old had actually been very busy on the bike last year, winning nine races in cycling-obsessed Belgium where he rode for an amateur team that aims to help cyclists break into the big time.

BikeNZ's performance director Mark Elliott says people outside of the sport probably don't realise the significance of Bauer's achievements.

He has recorded an impressive string of victories in semi-pro races in Belgium, a world cycling stronghold.

On his return, Bauer stunned onlookers with his power during the Southland tour, even using his bike's big chain ring to charge up the brutal Crown Range.

Elliott says: "It may have been done before, but I've certainly never seen it. Jack is certainly a very powerful man.

"The big ring is used on the flat - everyone is on the small ring up that range and some probably wish they were on a mountain bike with a few granny gears to use.

"Jack is a big man, at over 1.9 metres, and to see someone that size on the big ring up those hills was something."

New Zealand cycling aims its best talent at the track, where there is a better chance of Olympic success compared to the higher-risk road race.

About a dozen riders are vying for our top-rated pursuit team at the 2012 Olympics in London, and BikeNZ are hoping Bauer - a big man who fits the ideal profile - will be a contender.

Bauer, whose heart is set on a career with a professional road team in Europe, has been training at the velodrome in Invercargill from where he talked to the Herald.

Do you see yourself as a come-from-nowhere story?

I guess it does appear like that but I have ridden and competed for years but on a part-time, recreational basis. I started a physical education degree in Dunedin which took four years and then worked as a personal trainer in Nelson.

Then I tried to work out how I could ride fulltime and take cycling seriously and decided on becoming a bike courier in central Wellington.

That got me super strong. So long as you don't embrace the general non-athletic courier lifestyle it is very good training.

I rode with an Auckland dude called Karl Murray on the Tour of Southland who said he had done a similar thing in his day.

Where were you born and raised?

Near Takaka, Golden Bay. I came from a little place called Parapara, 20 kilometres out of Takaka, the middle of nowhere really ... my mum [Carolyn] was a nurse but gave that up to home school my brothers and I. She's been doing that for the last 20 years.

I was entirely home schooled until university. I guess if you handle the home schooling all right you are generally an individualistic and motivated person and that's definitely how I see myself.

Cycling is an individual sport and the way I've come into it is by doing my own thing. Dad [Hans] is an artist, a real good potter who works from home. We're a pretty tight crew.

The word is you have a big cycling engine.

I guess I must do - hopefully I'm there at the end for the sprint finish. I've trained pretty hard since I was young, had my ups and downs, but at the moment things are going okay.

When did your road career start?

Road cycling started in 2005 as a one-off to ride the Tour of Southland. It was terrible and I thought "this isn't for me". I didn't pick up the road bike again until 2007. I'd been into mountain biking before then.

Best moment?

That [road championship] win on Sunday - it hasn't settled in, but that was a huge thing. To beat Roulston on the line made it even better, and Dean in third was the icing on the cake. I felt I rode a real aggressive race and took it off them fair and square.

Worst moment?

When I was a mountainbiker in 2005 and 2006. I really stepped up and took on a coach for the first time, and made the team for the world champs. But we just overdid things way too much.

I burnt myself out over the year, bombed everywhere, and got off the bike for a good while after that. I thought that might be it for cycling, that it was time to get a job and do other stuff. That was my dark moment for riding. Overtraining was the problem - I've been careful not to repeat the same thing again.

Track v road - where do you sit?

I've had very little help from anybody until I returned from Belgium late last year as a force to be reckoned with. On the basis of that, BikeNZ woke up and have given me a shot at the track and are helping me a little bit.

I'm just dipping my feet into track cycling seeing what it is all about - it's a completely different environment and game. To me the money is in road cycling and I want a professional contract. People tell me riding road and track is not an issue - you look at the likes of Hayden Roulston and a couple of other boys who do both.

It is something I would like to do, but still don't know enough about the track to know if I could do it. I want to prove to BikeNZ I have got some potential on the track but it will be my call at the end of the day. Of course I would love to be an Olympian ... for now I'm just learning to ride a track bike in a circle, following the black line ...

What is the next step in your road career?

I have a small-time pro team in England called Endura looking after me, but I want to make a pro tourteam like the ones Julian Dean and Hayden Roulston ride for. Findinga team is the only way to ride the grand tours and make the big bucks.

Favourite venue or race?

I love the Tour of Southland. The first time I rode there I couldn't believe how hard it was. It's such a testing race with everything - massive climbs, massive descents, terrible weather, terrible wind - a real Kiwi hardman type of race.

Hobbies?

Outside of cycling I'm a real keen musician, playing bass guitar. Unfortunately my band disbanded which is why I went to Belgium in the first place.

The band was called Dream Farm - four boys from Dunedin who got together in our uni days and then rocked up to Nelson and Wellington.

When the music career didn't really happen I went over to Belgium.

We played originals, alternative rock, hoping for the big time. I hope to put another band together one day. I played in a lot of pub and covers bands in my time. That's a lot of fun, just playing music.

When cycling started to go downhill for me is when the band started putting a lot more into it. I tried to juggle both but sooner or later one of them had to give.

Hero?

I'll have to dive back into the memories here ... it was hard to find a hero I liked in New Zealand. I'm not much into rugby or cricket. I was into basketball and the NBA as a kid. Michael Jordan.

Immediate plans?

A bit of down time, then the Tour of Wellington, that's all in the pipeline for now.