Gough wins national time trial title in record time

Gough wins national time trial title in record time
Media release 7 January 2011

Wesley Gough from the Subway Pro Cycling team won his first senior national road cycling title, winning the RaboDirect New Zealand Road Cycling time trial in record time today in Christchurch.

Gough completed to 40 kilometre race against the clock in 48 minutes and 50 seconds to finish 28 seconds ahead of Radioshack’s Jesse Sergent and one minute 7 seconds ahead of Greg Henderson (Team Sky).

“I was very motivated to step up after last year,” Gough, who was third fastest in the event in 2010, said.

“It’s a great early result for the year and it’s very pleased for me and my new team Subway.”

Gough said the course was not as windy as was expected with cross winds not having a huge impact on riders, but the faster times reflected better conditions than last year.

He said he had a clear plan of how he wanted to ride the race, and keeping a close eye on his power metre played an important role, and although pleased with the result a key focus remains the track at next year’s Olympic Games.

“I knew what power I wanted to hold and I only checked on speed occasionally. I haven’t though too much about time trials going forward, my first priority will still be the team pursuit on the track for the London Olympics. But I would like to continue with some good TT results during the year.”

The Subway team had a strong showing in the event with Pete Latham finishing fifth, one minute and 24 seconds behind Gough, and Paul Odlin came in sixth 24 seconds behind his teammate Latham.

Subway’s remaining riders in the time trial event were Sam Horgan who recorded 52 minutes 13 seconds and Nick Lovegrove who came home in 52 minutes and 33 seconds.

The team’s attention now turns to Sunday’s elite men’s 187km road race.

Ends

Notes
• Sunday’s road race circuit covers 15.6km and incorporates the climb (in the opposite direction) of the Cashmere Hills as used at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games. The first lap misses out the climb and covers a shortened lap of 12.7km.
• The best viewing points for the race are on various points of the climb, on Dyers Pass Road.
• For event info see www.elitenationals.co.nz
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