End of the road for leading Kiwi rider
Top Kiwi road cyclist Jesse Sergent has retired from the sport after a difficult year.
Sergent, 28, 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 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 yesterday, 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. ‘‘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.
Sergent won two Olympic bronze medals in the team pursuit at the 2008 Games in Beijing and 2012 in London.