Jesse Sergent has HUGE win in Gila

May 1st, 10. Kiwi Jesse Sergent pulled off the biggest win of his career when he won the time trial stage of the Tour of Gila today against the world's best.

Sergent - time trial champion today ©RoadCycling.co.nz

Updated: Interview - Jesse Sergent shares his incredible day

Sergent beat a world class field including Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie (who shared the lesser steps on the podium), Tom Danielson and one of the biggest names in cycling, Lance Armstrong, in the 26.6km time trial.

The Trek LiveStrong Kiwi not only beat these pro-tour riders - he smoked them.  

His time of 34m9s was 14sec faster than Leipheimer, the tour leader, and another 12sec faster than current and five time US time trial champion Dave Zabriskie.  

Danielson was 4th and Armstrong 12th, 1m50s slower than Sergent.

Armstrong was one of many riders to congratulate Sergent.  He wrote on his twitter account, seen by 2,484, 557 followers, "Congrats to @jessesergent for absolutely smoking that time trial. Impressive!!"

Sergent also updated his twitter account after today's win. His 1,243 followers heard, "Stoked with my win today...really happy to get a result for Trek-Livestrong, thanks to everyone for their help today!"

21 year old Sergent has been hoping to have a great year as he looks to follow Sam Bewley into Team RadioShack next year.  

Yesterday Sergent coped with incredibly high winds, which saw everyone and everything (including porta-loos!) blown over, to finish an impressive 6th.  Today he topped that result by a factor of a thousand!

What better event to pull out a huge win than here at Gila where Team RadioShack Team Director Johan Bruyneel is watching.

Back in January, Bruyneel told RoadCycling.co.nz he has his eye on Sergent.

"Jesse, hopefully he is the next guy who can make the change to the professional team at the end of this year or beginning of next year.  We will be following him this year, and hopefully he gets a chance."

Tomorrow is the Tour of Gila criterium which another Kiwi, Roman Van Uden, won last year.

In the women's Tour of Gila, Kiwi Cath Cheatley (Colavita Baci) backed up her Stage 1, 2nd place with another top performance yesterday. She finished in 3rd place after Stage 2's incredibly tough conditions.  The full results of the time trial haven't been released at time of writing, but it looks like Cheatley let other riders have a turn on the podium today.

Top 15 results 

1. Sergent Jesse Trek Livestrong - 34m09s
2. Leipheimer Levi Team Mellow Johnny's +14s
3. Zabriskie David DZ Nuts +26s
4. Danielson Tom DZ Nuts +52s
5. Zajicek Phillip Fly V Australia +1m01s
6. Sutherland Rory UnitedHealthcare +1m08s
7. Dowsett Alex Trek Livestrong 1m34s
8. Jacques-Maynes Ben BISSELL Pro Cycling 1m36s
9. Kyer Julian Trek Livestrong 1m36s
10. Amaran Luis Jamis Sutter Home 1m41s
11. Collier Corey OUCH-Bahati Foundation 1m47s
12. Talansky Andrew California Giant/Specialized 1m47s
13. Armstrong Lance Team Mellow Johnny's 1m50s
14. Phinney Taylor Trek Livestrong 1m50s
15. Landis Floyd OUCH-Bahati Foundation 1m51s

....

66th - Patrick Bevin, Rubicon Orbea +4m32s

77th - Peter Latham, Bissell Pro Cycling +4m55s

83rd - Jeremy Vennell, Bissell Pro Cylcing +5m17s

85th - Mike Northey, Rubicon Orbea +5m25s

123rd - Roman Van Uden, Rubicon Orbea +7m28s

13th - Cath Cheatley, Colavita Baci +3m22s