Defending champ in his element

Hayden Mccormick has every incentive to race.

Winner of the 2018 New Zealand Cycle Classic, the 24-yearold from Cambridge went on to finish second at the national road race championships, before a fifth-placed finish at the Commonwealth Games and strong performances at the Tour de Yorkshire and Tour of Britain.

However, he has since parted company with his One Pro Cycling team, shifting to the Australian UCI Continental squad Team Bridgelane.

They’re the first of 20 teams to be announced in next month’s NZ Cycle Classic field, being staged in Waikato for the first time.

‘‘It’s my home turf, I grew up [there] and know all these roads. You always have a bit of a target on your back as defending champ and it’s a hard task, especially with the challenging course,’’ Mccormick said.

The five-stage race starts on January 23 and will be based in Cambridge, having previously been staged in Wellington, Wairarapa and Manawatu.

‘‘Hayden has a lot to prove,’’ race director Jorge Sandoval said.

‘‘He was on a big team and now he’s come down a bit, so he needs to be seen, he needs to do well and hopefully next year he can go back into the bigger teams in Europe.

‘‘There’s a lot to be gained for him if he does well here.’’

Mccormick will be joined on Team Bridgelane next year by two-time New Zealand road race champion Joseph Cooper.

Winner of this race in 2017, Cooper is also a renowned time triallist and will ensure Team Bridgelane is very competitive this time around, Sandoval said.

The full field of 120 should be confirmed by the second week of January.

‘‘There’s no point having a big field of riders if the quality’s no good.

‘‘his year I think the quality of the riders is very good and we’re expecting up to 15 teams from overseas, which is the most we have had, plus five teams from New Zealand.’’

That will ‘‘hopefully’’ include a composite New Zealand national team, which is who Mccormick was riding for this year.