Rowing legend completes switch to bikes
Hamish Bond says his first foray into world championship cycling won’t be a lot different from his experience as a multiple gold- medal winner in rowing.
Bond, who has won eight rowing world titles and two Olympic crowns on the water, traded his boat for a bike after the Rio Olympics and has proven his remarkable athletic prowess by forcing his way into the New Zealand team for the UCI road championships in Norway next month.
He finished runner- up to veteran Jack Bauer in the national time trial championship, before training and racing in Britain with a time- trialspecific coaching group.
“We have been so impressed with the performances and the attitude from Hamish in his switch to cycling,” said Cycling New Zealand chief executive Andrew Matheson.
“It is very clear to us why he has achieved so much, because he has left no stone unturned in his preparation, including a lot of work on the course.”
Bond will ride alongside George Bennett in the time trial, which will be a relatively short 31km, but with a brutal final 3.4km climb with a gradient of around 9 per cent.
It’s steeper and shorter than normal time trial events at world championships, which is why Bennett is tackling it instead of the road race.
While Bond will be new to the upper echelon of cycling, being on the big stage is second nature.
“It’s unusual that my first UCI time trial is going to be the world champs but I am used to competing on big stages — the Olympics, obviously — and I can hopefully use that to my advantage, that previous experience,” Bond told Radio Sport.
While Bond doesn’t have the tiny frame associated with climbing specialists but he’s hopeful the unusual nature of the course will play into his hands.
“I have done some reconnaissance of the course — I wanted that selfconfidence in my ability to ride the course before I put my hand up for selection. I am very comfortable with it even though it’s challenging with that climb at the end. The climb might not suit me, as a bigger guy compared to George, but it won’t be a typical course for those guys who have a lot of experience in time trials, so it’s a bit of a leveller in some ways.”
Bond, who talked to Bennett before committing to cycling, loves the time trial.
“It suits me physically and mentally because it’s an honest event — it’s more controllable, like a rowing race — either you’re fast enough or you’re not. The main factors are how hard you can pedal and how slippery you can be through the air because aerodynamics are important.”
Bennett, who was inside the top 10 in last month’s Tour de France when he was forced to withdraw through exhaustion, will line up for the Vuelta a Espana ( Tour of Spain) starting this weekend. He will forgo the road race at the championships and is buoyed by the unique nature of the time trial course in Bergen.
The 13- strong New Zealand team also includes Patrick Bevin and Dion Smith, who both made their debuts in the Tour de France this year, while the women’s team i s headed by 2015 world time trial champion Linda Villumsen and fellow Rio track Olympian Jaime Nielsen, who recently set the fastest sea- level time in history for the women’s one- hour time trial.
Bevin, 26, the 2016 national time trial champion, has enjoyed an outstanding season for his CannondaleDrapac World Tour team, highlighted when he was pipped for the win by superstar Philippe Gilbert in stage two of the Tour de France.
Smith, 24, third at the national road championships, was left without a pro team in January, before receiving a late call to join pro continental team Wanty- Group Gobert, based in Belgium.
There he has prospered, including a debut at the Tour de France, where he finished inside the top 20 in the youth classification and figured in the bunch sprint with the same time as the winners in three stages.
They are joined in the road race by 2014 Commonwealth Games medalli st Jack Bauer, who produced a powerful performance for the crack Quick Step- Floors team in the Tour de France, a key figure in the train that set up sprinter Marcel Kittel for five stage wins. he International Cricket Council is coming to town, meeting in Auckland on October 4 as part of a move to enhance the profile around the globe.
They’ll doubtless discuss the revamped Future Tours Programme, planning for a test championship, and other sundry matters of significance.
One issue which might or might not raise its head is the burgeoning growth of domestic/ international franchise cricket around the world.
Put yourself in the shoes of any number of players who have decided, either because of age or they simply prefer money over representing their country, that international cricket is no longer for them.
They’re happy kicking around in the raft of domestic T20 leagues.
You’re Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, AB de Villiers, who is expected to shortly walk away from test cricket. How do you plan your calendar?
Simple, assuming you are good enough to command interest in the short form. The game now is such that you could pick up a gig in several T20 leagues to keep you occupied, and keep the bank account topped up, damn near all year round.
Start your year in November and it’s the Bangladesh Premier League. No, not the biggest, but assuming the cheque’s cleared, that gets the Christmas present money in.
The December- January period is soon to be crammed. There’s the Big Bash in Australia, the New Zealand Super Smash and, coming round the bend, South Africa’s T20 league to start up. This is not good news for New Zealand teams hoping to pick up a decent international player at an affordable cost. Put simply, there’s far more money on offer in Australia or South Africa.
From the Southern Hemisphere delights, you head to Dubai and the Pakistan league in February/ March. They played their final in Lahore this year, so you might be inclined to bail out just before the end, if you follow.
In April rolls around the biggie, the Indian Premier League. Nuff said.
July and August are taken by the English league, soon to have a citybased franchise competition coming in too.
After that it’s off to the beaches of Barbados and St Lucia for the Caribbean Premier League. That’s a vastly different type of engagement to, say, the English or Pakistan editions.
A couple of threads look likely to spin off from the T20 leagues.
There have been suggestions of the Indian bosses looking at an offshoot mini- IPL, for lack of a better description, to be slotted in around October. It would be played in Asia, and Malaysia is one country which gets mentioned in despatches as a potential location.
This is the same India who stand alone as the only country not to allow their players to ply their trade in any other country’s T20 competitions. They have an interesting philosophy towards the T20 player marketplace.
Owners of franchises are also starting to eye snapping up teams in other leagues. Do well for those owners and it would be natural for them to ring fence their players and farm them around their other operations.
This could become a nice little earner for franchises, and players.