Cyclists could ‘double up’ at Commonwealth Games
Versatile riders capable of competing across multiple disciplines could feature in Cycling New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games squad as selectors attempt to fill the void left by some high-profile World Tour absentees.
New Zealand’s leading road cyclist George Bennett has already made himself unavailable for selection, as have fellow professionals Jack Bauer and Sam Bewley.
That leaves a maximum pool of just three World Tour riders to select from, with Patrick Bevin, Alex Frame and Tom Scully’s availability still to be determined by their professional teams.
Further high-profile absences will only reduce New Zealand’s chance of winning a medal, and that could result in a smaller road squad travelling to the Gold Coast as Cycling New Zealand can only select 27 riders across the four disciplines; road, track, mountainbiking and BMX.
However, Cycling New Zealand’s high performance director Martin Barras said one solution could be to enter riders in multiple disciplines to ensure they still have the numbers on the road.
‘‘We’re potentially looking at riders who can double up from one event to another,’’ Barras said
‘‘We’re not getting into names until we’ve named the selections but we have an array of riders who can double up with either track events, road events or mountainbike, or vice-versa.
‘‘That’s certainly part of the juggling act we take into consideration.’’
Although the Commonwealth Games is a pinnacle event for some sports, including track cycling where the bulk of the squad will come from, it is much lower priority for roadies.
The fact that the competition is being staged in Australia in April presents two extra barriers as most of the riders are based in Europe competing in Classics races at that time of the year, while Bennett will be busy with his Giro d’Italia preparations.
‘‘You’re talking about a race that is right in the middle of the Classics and those teams that are actually paying their riders have an expectation that they will be available for the biggest races of the year, so you’re basically relying on the individual programme of the riders and see if they could make it work,’’ Barras said.
‘‘Yes, it would be much simpler if it was in August and yes, it would be much simpler if it was in Europe. But it is what it is.’’
Although a line can been put through Bennett, Bauer and Bewley, Barras said all six World Tour riders ‘‘expressed interest’’ initially and he is still holding out hope that some of them will be on the startline, confirming ‘‘more than one’’ of them were on the nomination list which was sent to New Zealand Olympic Committee on Wednesday.
But regardless of whether there are World Tour riders are there or not, Barras said he was confident New Zealand would have a squad capable of competing for a medal, as there is still strong depth in the Pro Continental ranks and below.
‘‘We’re very confident we will have a competitive team, particularly in the men’s where we were capable of pulling off a medal in 2014 on the back of a very good team race.’’
The full cycling squad will be named on February 17.