Bond joins Bennett in NZ team
NewZealand team
Olympic rowing champion Hamish Bond will join World Tour star George Bennett in a powerful New Zealand team for next month’s road cycling world championships.
Cycling New Zealand yesterday named a 13-strong team for the event to be held in Bergen, Norway, on September 16-24.
A strong performer at last month’s Tour de France before having to withdraw through illness, Bennett was announced alongside double Olympic and eight-time world rowing champion Bond, who announced his move to cycling after the Rio Games.
The team also includes rising stars Patrick Bevin and Dion Smith, who both made their debuts in the Tour de France this year, while the women’s team is headed by 2015 world time trial champion Linda Villumsen and fellow Rio track Olympian Jaime Nielsen.
Bennett will ride the time trial with Bond, who moved his focus from rowing to cycling after Rio, finishing runner-up to Jack Bauer at the national championships before training and racing in the UK with a time trial specific coaching group.
Bevin and Smith are joined for the road race by by 2014 Commonwealth Games medallist 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.
‘‘It is a very powerful New Zealand team and there was a lot of competition especially for the men’s road race where we only had three quota spots,’’ Cycling New Zealand chief executive Andrew Matheson said.
‘‘There are several riders who are competing in the Vuelta a´ Espana but we had to select the team now, and just could not pre- dict how they would come out of three weeks of very tough racing. ‘‘But all three riders we have selected for the road race were out- standing in the Tour de France. It is probably the strongest competition we have ever had to select the men’s road race team.
‘‘George Bennett signalled to us that he was keen to compete in the time trial because of the unique nature of this course which should suit him.’’
On the women’s side, Villumsen will ride the road race and time trial after returning to the Women’s World Tour following a break after the Rio Olympics,.
She is joined in the road race by 2016 Rio Olympic Games track cyclist Georgia Williams, who has been a revelation for the OricaScott World Tour team this year, earning plaudits from her team bosses.