Cycling: The podium beckons

Cycling has the potential for major medal muscle for New Zealand in Delhi. Photo / Getty Images

Sam Bewley is slumping onto the sofa at his apartment in Girona, Spain after several hard days on the bike. Harder than usual, that is. He has his hand in a cast, courtesy of a broken thumb after escaping a maniacal local driver. He has slipped a packet of frozen peas out of the freezer as well to aid a niggly knee injury.

He has just polished off an "all you can eat'' feed of sushi for 12 euros at a favourite haunt across the road and popped the fifth series of Outrageous Fortune in the DVD player. It is a gift from his girlfriend and something Kiwi to cherish after a day burning through the calories pursuing his pedalling dreams. Bro Town is next on the viewing agenda.

The 23-year-old, who won bronze as part of the New Zealand team pursuit at the Beijing Olympics, is fast adjusting to life as a professional cyclist. He has lived in Girona since February and had his own place since April.

At least 70 pro riders live in the town so he is always finding others to share the training burden or meet down the road for a feed since joining Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team in October.

"The best part is not having to go to events any more in the back of a small car with my knees around my head,'' Bewley says.

"We've got a team bus these days. The team staff do everything for you; laundry, food, you name it. All you've got to do is ride your bike.''

For now, it also means carrying a lot of water bottles on tours as a domestique (a rider who supports one of the star cyclists) but Bewley harbours a robust ambition to ride the Tour de France by 2013.

That is on hold for the next six weeks. His contract states he can take time out to race for New Zealand at significant international events, meaning he's preparing for the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

"It's not going to top the Olympics but a couple of golds would be great to reflect the investment and value in cycling at the moment courtesy of Sparc, BikeNZ and ourselves. We've all put a lot of time and money in.''

Back to Bewley's lounge.

His Kiwiana viewing choices are the perfect antidote to any hint of homesickness but he will get a better dose of home when he joins his bros' at their Bordeaux training camp next week. He will be back on the velodrome boards after taking bronze at the world championships earlier in the year with Jesse Sergent, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan and Peter Latham in the team pursuit in Denmark.

Bewley and his bros should not require any of their own outrageous fortune to make the step up on the track, but they might need it (and a few extra rolls of sushi) when it comes to the road race events in Delhi.

New Zealand has not won any medals in the men's road race since Mark Rendell and Brian Fowler took gold and silver respectively at the Victoria Games in 1994. However, Gordon McCauley won a bronze in the time trial at Melbourne.

With Greg Henderson renowned as a sprinter and Hayden Roulston capable of adapting to most cycling disciplines, New Zealand has a sound chance on a flat road race course, consisting of 12 laps of just under 14km for men and eight laps for women, through the centre of the Indian capital.

Bewley and Sergent are likely to have special roles in the New Zealand team as candidates who will make the transition from the track to the road.

Sergent, now also a member of the RadioShack team, is likely to race the 40km time trial but Bewley could be recruited to make up a maximum team of six for the 167km road race.

He will support and protect Henderson and Roulston, again as a domestique, in his team-mates' quest for individual victory. There are no prizes for teams.

"I'm going to be working solely in the velodrome for three weeks prior to the Games,'' Bewley says. "But I've had a big six months on the road and changed my training to reflect being a full-time pro road cyclist. I think I'm in a reasonable position to support others.''

Likewise Sergent has been adjusting his training. He has been working under the management of 10-time Tour de France rider Axel Merckx, son of the Belgian cycling legend Eddie.

He has accepted a contract as a stagiaire (the working equivalent of a trainee) since August as he progresses into the top ranks. Sergent began with the Tour of Denmark at the start of the month and is doing a mixture of four and one-day races at present.

"In the meantime, I've been building my fitness and strength towards Delhi, doing some power training on the road to build towards the track.

"It involves powering away between 15 seconds and five minutes at a time. I've also been practising standing starts.''

The relaxed Sergent's keeping an open mind as to what Delhi might hold: "It'll probably be hot, muggy and humid like Beijing. . . and we succeeded there.''

Andy Reid, director of the road programme for BikeNZ and managing the team in Delhi, is optimistic about the road race course for his riders: "There are lots of action-packed turns, it'll be a bit like racing in Europe around town squares. There was going to be a change to the course with a small climb around the presidential grounds but now it is dead flat.

"It suits our guys. We're not mountain goats. If it had been a really hilly course then we'd have little chance but it plays into our hands, with Greg, Hayden and anyone else like Sam coming from the track. It's almost 100km shorter than your average world championship course.''

As one of the few venues that has been finished, Reid expects the velodrome to produce some fast times: "Delhi has produced one of the best velodromes in the world. I went there in May and the track had already been laid with some superficial beautification work going on around the stadium. It'll still be fast because, despite the air conditioning, it's warm in there and temperature plays a crucial role in speed. The hotter it is, the less dense the air and the atoms are not as close together so cyclists can move easier.''

In contrast, the atoms in a gold medal don't move much but they're still considered hot. New Zealand has its best chance in generations to secure up to a dozen next month.

PEDAL MEDAL METTLE
BikeNZ has put up candidates capable of securing up to a dozen medals. Australia and England provide the toughest competition across all events but a number of their athletes have pulled out in the lead-up, citing security and Olympic qualification preferences at the European Championships as their reasons.

* With 11 Olympic and Commonwealth Games between them, Greg
Henderson and Hayden Roulston could well make the transition from track to road race medals.

* Gordon McCauley took a bronze at Melbourne in the time trial
but Jesse Sergent could be hard to stop, particularly if he comes off the euphoria of victory in the individual pursuit (IP). He will be the IP favourite after taking silver at the world championships behind American RadioShack rider Taylor Phinney, who is now his pro teammate.

* Sergent will be joined by a combination of Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Westley Gough and Peter Latham to contend for New Zealand's first gold in the team pursuit since Auckland 1990.

* New Zealand has not won a team sprint medal at the Games. The Kiwi team of Eddie Dawkins, Adam Stewart and Sam Webster finished fifth at this year's world championships compared to Britain's third and Australia's seventh. Remember Britain splits into England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and various islands so that further enhances Kiwi chances.

* Dawkins, 21, is already the top-Commonwealth's top-ranked kilo
time triallist. He becomes fourth-ranked in the sprint too if all the
top Brits give that event a swerve, as expected. Likewise world champion
Sir Christopher Hoy's absence means 19-year-old Webster is second-ranked in the keirin and Simon Van Velthooven could contest
as well.

* Former Danish rider Linda Villumsen was third in last year's world championships time trial before adopting New Zealand as her nationality. Cath Cheatley could also contend as a former world track championship medallist now racing professionally in the US. Melissa Holt returns to focus on the individual roadrace time trial where she finished fourth in Melbourne in the 2006 Games.

* The 2008 world IP champion, Alison Shanks is expected to medal on the track with world points race silver medallist Lauren Ellis, former world junior medallist Gemma Dudley and ex-national rower Jaime Nielsen providing support. There are some quality riders bolstering
the track ranks such as Rushlee Buchanan, Joanne Kiesanowski and
Kaytee Boyd who could also lend support on the road.

THE TEAM: MEN
* Track: Shane Archbold, Sam Bewley, Eddie Dawkins, Westley Gough, Peter Latham, Ethan Mitchell, Marc Ryan, Jesse Sergent, Myron Simpson, Adam Stewart, Simon Van Velthooven, Sam Webster.

* Road: Jack Bauer, Greg Henderson, Gordon McCauley, Hayden Roulston,
Clinton Avery. Road race expected to
contain the maximum six riders.

* Likely time triallists: McCauley, Bauer, Sergent.

THE TEAM: WOMEN
* Track: Kaytee Boyd, Rushlee Buchanan, Gemma Dudley, Lauren Ellis, Joanne Kiesanowski, Jaime Nielsen, Alison Shanks.

* Road: Catherine Cheatley, Melissa Holt, Linda Villumsen.

* Likely time triallists: Villumsen, Holt, Shanks.