End of the road for top cyclist
‘‘The life of a pro cyclist is really tough. A lot of people who don’t understand the sport don’t understand how hard it is.’’ Mike Mcredmond, coach of Jesse Sergent
Top Kiwi road cyclist Jesse Sergent has retired from the sport after a difficult year.
Sergent has been riding professionally since 2011, but in the past year he has struggled to get back to his best after he was involved in a crash with a neutral service vehicle during the Tour of Flanders in Belgium in April last year.
The Feilding rider broke his collarbone and required three operations to fix it.
Spain-based Sergent announced his retirement on Thursday, and his coach Mike Mcredmond confirmed the news.
‘‘It’s been a tough 12 months for Jesse, with that crash he had last year, with the car hitting him,’’ Mcredmond said.
‘‘That was a big setback. They thought it would take six to eight weeks, but it took him three months because they ballsed up the operation.
‘‘That put a dampener on his year and then he changed teams and going into a French-speaking team is a very hard transition.’’
A time trial specialist, Sergent rode for Trek for five years, before signing for AG2R-LA Mondiale at the end of last year.
It is a relatively young retirement for the 28-year-old Sergent.
‘‘The life of a pro cyclist is really tough,’’ Mcredmond said. ‘‘You have to train every day, you’ve got a big race programme and a lot of people who don’t understand the sport don’t understand how hard it is. ‘‘It just wears you down.’’ Mcredmond said Sergent has had a good professional career.
‘‘He got on the podium in a tour of Italy stage, and that’s an individual podium. He’s ridden the greatest bike races in the world and there are people out there that just dream about that.’’
There had been talk Sergent was in line to ride the Tour de France last year but the crash wrecked those hopes.
He has ridden two of the three Grand Tours in the Giro d’italia and the Tour of Spain, as well as numerous European tours.
But Sergent’s exploits haven’t just been on the road.
He won two Olympic bronze medals in the team pursuit at the 2008 Games in Beijing and 2012 in London, and won multiple medals at the junior world championships when he was a teenager.
After his heroics on the track early in his career, Sergent rode for two years for the Treklivestrong junior team in 2009 and 2010, before graduating to the professional team.
Sergent is expected to return home to the Manawatu.