Feb 3rd, 10.  Westley Gough is one of NZ's top track cyclists. He's also a good individual time trialler and over NZ's summer he's proved an invaluable team member in both NZ UCI road tours.

Gough in road mode at the Trust House tour ©RoadCycling.co.nz

RoadCycling.co.nz caught up with the multi-talented cyclist on Sunday at the finish of the Trust House Cycling Classic.

During the five day road tour Gough was in amongst the action in support of his Team Solway's GC rider Heath Blackgrove, just as he was in the PowerNet Tour of Southland.

The 21 year old from Waipukerau said the Wellington road tour fitted in well with his training goals for his next main focus, the NZ Track Nationals starting late next week in Invercargill.  The event is being used to select the NZ track team for this year's Commonwealth Games.

"This tour just happened to time quite well and fit in. You can do this, which is four or five days of hard racing, and then go home and have a good ten day block to freshen up and get a bit more intensity in," he said.

On the track, Gough's specialist event is the Team Pursuit.

He was a core part of the team which won bronze at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, bronze at the 2009 UCI World Track Championships and in the team which beat the NZ record during their gold medal winning ride at the Oceania Championships late last year.  

If all goes well at the Track Nationals, Gough hopes to be at the 2010 UCI World Track Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark in March.  The big goal is team pursuit gold at the 2012 Olympics in London.

With the recent announcement of the omnium being included as an Olympic event, Gough thinks there will be plenty of competition in Invercargill next week as riders set out to prove themselves as future Olympic contenders.  (The omnium, which is always raced at the World Championships, isn't a Commonwealth Games event.)

"This year the omnium is there [at nationals] and I think everyone is pretty much going to line up for that. It means doing the kilo on the first day, then flying 200m sprint, after that you do the individual pursuit, scratch race and points race like normal," he explained.

After the Track Nationals and World Championships, Gough is heading back to Europe.  He spent a large block of last year's international season at the BikeNZ track training camp in Belgium before moving to the US to prepare for the U23 time trial event at the UCI World Road Championships.

While Gough says his 2010 block of European racing is focussed on track goals, he also has a few multi day tours lined up in what he calls a great race programme.

"It is tailored to fit in well with the Commonwealth Games, but it does give you some [road] exposure as well," he said.

The NZ Track Nationals at the ILT Velodrome in Invercargill run from Thursday 11th to Saturday 14th of February.

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