Sergent claims pro tour cycling event in Belgium

New Zealand cyclist Jesse Sergent has claimed the first win of his rookie pro tour career at the Driedaagse van Westvlaanderen in Belgium today.

Sergent (Feilding, the overall leder going into the final stage, rode himself into a group of 21 riders who broke away after just 25kms of the 194km stage to Ichtegem, finishing in the bunch.

The Commonwealth Games medallist set up the overall victory with his win in the opening prologue for his Radioshack team and managed to force his way into the peloton in both stages to follow.

The early break today held strong for 170kms with 40 year old Nico Eeckhout of An Post – Sean Kelly taking the final stage win while took out the overall victory in 8:33.02 ahead of Radioshack team-mates Sebastien Rosseler and Michal Kwiatkowski with fellow kiwi teammate Sam Bewley finished 20th overall.

“It’s always better to be in the front than to chase the whole day, but that was not really my intention,” Sergent said.  “I was just in the front to stay safe as we knew from Dirk Demol that, with all that wind, the peloton would split up in many parts. I didn’t want to be surprised.

“I never thought that we would stay in the front for 175km but we did because Oliveira, Rosseler and Kwiatkowski worked so hard for me today. It’s unreal what they did. It’s unreal what I have done now too.”

The 22 year old Sergent won the silver medal in the individual pursuit at last year’s world championship and last season won the time trial stage in the Tour of Gila over specialists Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie. He is a Beijing Olympic medallist in the team pursuit.

Sergent and Bewley fly home tomorrow where they will join with the BikeNZ track squad in Invercargill to prepare for this month’s track world championships in The Netherlands.

BikeNZ High Performance Director Mark Elliott said it was a superb result for the young New Zealander.

“Of course we have always known about Jesse’s pursuiting prowess. He has unlimited potential,” Elliott said. “From our point of view we are delighted that he is in such great shape as he now returns to prepare with the squad for the world championships.

“I am sure this result will give all the track squad a boost with the hard work coming up before heading to Europe.”