Sergent happy to take back seat to Schleck
With one week down and two to go, New Zealand’s Jesse Sergent has grown accustomed to life in his first grand tour.
Sergent, like fellow Kiwi Jack Bauer, is competing in the gruelling three-week Giro d’italia. It has been an impressive first week for the 23-year-old from Feilding.
He finished ninth on the short time trial on the tour’s opening day and is playing a key role in helping team leader Frank Schleck in his ambition to win the race’s general classification.
For Sergent, being at the Giro isn’t about going for glory himself but filling the role of a domestique for his RadioShack Nissan Trek team.
Speaking before this morning’s eighth stage from Sulmona to Lago Laceno, Sergent said he had differing experiences over the previous two stages.
‘‘[Yesterday’s] stage was definitely better than Saturday’s,’’ Sergent said.
‘‘I felt better and had better positioning in the bunch.
‘‘My role for today was to help Frank, to get bottles and make sure he was in a good position going into the last climb, which was about 20km from the finish. ‘‘So with about 30km to go I was helping him with positioning and try to keep him safe and out of the wind.
‘‘For the team it worked out good and he’s getting better and better. Finishing third on the stage is a good sign for the coming couple of weeks.
‘‘But Saturday was tough and really hot,’’ he added. ‘‘Pretty much the whole stage was fast because a big breakaway of 12 riders went and you can’t let the time gap get out too far.
‘‘So the pace was high and there was a lot of suffering going on. There were a lot of groups going off the back.
‘‘The group I was in got dropped with 80km to go and that’s a long way to go, but there was another group behind us that had Mark Cavendish in it that got dropped with about 130km to go, so they had a really long day.’’
Sergent had never competed in a race that went more than 10 days before, so he’s reaching the point when a race would normally be at its climax. But there is plenty more left in this year’s Giro and the really big mountain stages don’t begin until this weekend.
‘‘I’m still fresh mentally and motivated,’’ he said. ‘‘With a leader like Frank it’s impossible not to have motivation to help the team.
‘‘Physically, it’s been up and down. Saturday wasn’t a great day but today I felt 100 times better and the stages were both ranked about the same.
‘‘I think it will be like that for a while and there will be some bad days that I’ll really have to fight through.
‘‘Normally when you’re riding a shorter race you can keep on top of it the whole way through but three weeks is a long time.’’
Of that time trial on the opening day, Sergent said he was satisfied, but not blown away to finish higher up than most of the Giro’s top riders.
‘‘I wasn’t completely over the moon,’’ he said.
‘‘It would have been nice to have been a bit further up, but I said to myself to be in the top 10 is something I’d be happy with, so it was a good way to start the tour.’’
There is just one more time trial in this year’s Giro, around Milan on the final day. Until then, his role will be to support Schleck in his battle to win the race and says looking to get into breakaways isn’t something that’s on his agenda.
‘‘For our team it’s definitely not something we’re looking for, unless it’s a day where there’s a really high chance of the breakaway staying away. Then it’s good to have someone there,’’ he said.
‘‘But some days it’s a suicide mission to be in the break and you know it’s going to come back.
‘‘The No 1 goal for our team is with Frank and things are on track with that at that moment and I’m not too sure I’ll be looking for any breakaways.’’