Hot seat top ride for Jesse Sergent

Sergent on his way to the hot seat ©Graham Watson

Aug 9th, 11. Jesse Sergent spent over an hour in the leader's hot seat in the Eneco Tour prologue today, but it was not a great day for another Kiwi rider.

As the 16th rider to leave the starter's ramp for the 5.7km race in the Netherlands, Sam Bewley (RadioShack) faced the full wrath of Mother Nature.

The power course looked to suit the Kiwi track star, but pouring rain and wind made it impossible for him to deliver a top performance.

After a great warm-up event in Poland, Bewley was feeling good going into the race, but finished the day disappointed.

"Frustrating and disappointing, but c'est la vie," he twittered post race.

The bad weather had passed and the roads had dried off when his teammate Sergent began racing just over two hours later.

The Kiwi first year pro was able to use his track skills to throw the bike around the roundabouts and power up the straights to post the top time of the day - 7m09s - and take his position in the hot seat.

Greg Henderson (Team Sky), the 3rd Kiwi in the event, followed Sergent around the course just three riders behind. He also posted a good time, but it was not enough to dislodge Sergent from the leader's hot seat.

In fact it took seventy more riders before Sergent's time was beaten!

After all the riders had finished, it was Sergent and Bewley's ex Trek Livestrong teammate Taylor Phinney (BMC) who took the top time as the only rider to finish the course in under 7min, 6m57s. Sergent finished 7th +12s, Henderson 13th +19s and Bewley 81st +38sec

It was Phinney's first victory for the BMC Racing Team. 

"I'm super, super happy," Phinney said. "I was surprised at how good I felt in my warm-up. I knew it was going to be a good day. This is a good race for me. Racing in Belgium and Holland is kind of my thing. It's what I love to do.

"There's another time trial in a couple days, so if I can try to hold onto the leader's jersey until then, I definitely will. We have great riders and great staff here, so I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Related

• Big photos of the Kiwis in action
• Full Eneco Tour results....

Taylor Phinney leads the Eneco Tour ©Graham Watson