Kiwi cyclist comes second
NA¯ NIALL ANDERSON — NZ Herald
Te Awamutu professional cyclist Patrick Bevin has fallen just short of becoming the first New Zealand cyclist to win an individual time trial at a Grand Tour.
Bevin finished second on stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana last week, 25 seconds shy of claiming the biggest win of his career.
Race favourite Primoz Roglic was the man who denied Bevin Grand Tour glory, crossing the line in 47m 5s to complete the set of Grand Tour stage wins, having won stages of the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and now the Vuelta.
Wearing the New Zealand national champion’s jersey, Bevin did notch the best result by a Kiwi in the history of Grand Tour individual time trials with his second place. It was also his best finish in a Grand Tour stage, but he was left ruing the presence of Roglic, who also took the leader’s red jersey with his victory, taking a massive lead of 1m 52s over the secondplaced Alejandro Valverde, with 11 stages to go.
“I’m pretty disappointed, but Primoz Roglic has been the benchmark rider for time trials this season,” Bevin said.
“Finishing second, I’ve been there before. I’ve sat in a few hot seats and had someone come over on top — it’s bike racing. It’s been a rough season for me and I’ve turned it around. But obviously you always want a little bit more — I’ll keep working and keep pushing. I’ve been building form in the first half and now we look forward to the rest of the race to try and attack.”
Roglic was the heavy favourite to win the stage in a race missing many of the world’s top time triallists, but he was made to work hard by Bevin, who started over an hour earlier and set a challenging time for his fellow contenders to beat.
One by one, each rider who passed the finishing line did so in a worse time than Bevin, who was especially excellent on the final sector of the 36.2km course.
After two tough climbs early on the stage, Bevin specifically aimed to hold some power back to gain time on the flatter section, and proved to be extremely competitive on a course he said favoured the climbers.
Fellow Kiwi George Bennett finished 28th on the stage, 3m 6s behind Roglic, moving up two spots into 13th overall.
Bevin had sat mid-field for most of the race — moving to 60th after the stage 10 result, but he failed to finish stage 15 and his event is over. Heading into yesterday’s stage 16 Bennett was in 21st position, fellow Kiwis Dion Smith 108th, Sam Bewley 117th and Shane Archbold 156th.