1st World Tour win for Jesse Sergent

Sergent on the podium for winning the Eneco Tour TT ©Graham Watson

Aug 13th, 11. Jesse Sergent earned his second stage win of the season, his first ever at a World Tour event, when the Kiwi won the time trial at the Eneco Tour today.

Sergent raced the 14.7km, up and down and curvy technical course early in the line-up, and stayed in the hot seat while every other rider, including experienced time trial specialists, tried to beat his time of 17m55s.

"I did not expect this at all," Sergent said.

"After my 7th place in the opening prologue, my confidence was up and I was hoping for a Top 5 today. But my back luck of yesterday became my good luck today. I only had 2km on wet roads."

"It's hard for me to say what kind of time trial I prefer," added Sergent. "I was excellent (2nd) in the Tour of Austria on a 30km flat course without corners. But today was very technical and I won, so I don't know."

While no stranger to the bike, this is Jesse's first year as a professional road cyclist. In the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Sergent won the bronze medal as part of the New Zealand team in team pursuit.

Later that year he signed with Trek-Livestrong for the 2009 and 2010 cycling seasons. In August of 2010 Sergent became a stagiere for Team RadioShack and signed his first professional contract for the 2011 season.

Earlier this year Sergent won the Prologue in Three Days of West Flanders as well as the overall classification.

Sergent on today's starter's ramp ©Graham Watson

"Jesse comes from the track," said Dirk Demol. "We take care to not burn him out. Even in 2010 with Trek-Livestrong he didn't do too many road races.

"This year after a strong spring season, along with a silver medal in the men's individual pursuit at the Track World Championships in March, he took a break after Paris-Roubaix. He then came back to racing in Luxemburg and Wallonie."

"Eneco was my first goal for part-two of my season. I feel good for the upcoming races. I'll race at Poitou-Charentes and Plouay," Sergent said, referring to one-day races in France and Belgium. "Then hopefully the World Championships in Copenhagen, too."

Sergent's Kiwi teammate Sam Bewley also had a good ride finishing 13th +38sec.

"Happy with my ride. Started fast and in the dry, but rain for last half of the course. At least I had some dry, not like others," Bewley tweeted.

The 3rd Kiwi in the race, Greg Henderson (Team Sky) was happy with his performance too. He was 23rd +46sec.

"Very happy with my TT. Rode in the wet which was a bit scary at times. I could have used more brakes I guess. But they only slow you down," was his tweet.

The Eneco Tour race lead is currently held by Edvald Boaddon Hagen of Team Sky who took the lead from Phillipe Gilbert (Omega Pharma Lotto). Racing continues for two more stages..

Sergent's win comes one day after fellow Kiwi Jack Bauer's stage win at the UCI2.1 Tour of Utah.

Henderson summed it up nicely in his tweet, "Watch out world. The Kiwis are taking over this cycling game".

Top Ten Results

1. Jesse Sergent  0:17:55
2. Alex Rasmussen 00:14
3. Jurgen Roelandts 00:20
4. Vladimir Isaichev 00:27
5. Lars Boom
6. Jens Mouris 00:30
7. Maarten Tjalingii
8. Taylor Phinney
9. Edvald Boasson Hagen 00:32
10. Bert Grabsch 00:34

Full Eneco Tour results...

World Tour winning pace ©Graham Watson