Rowing champ Hamish Bond continues to excel on bike with Oceania Championships time-trial third – Stuff.co.nz

MARC HINTON

Last updated19:29, March 10 2017

BRUCE JENKINS PHOTOGRAPHY

Olympic rowing champ Hamish Bond has produced his most significant result as a cyclist at the Oceania championships.

Clearly double Olympic rowing champion Hamish Bond wasn't listening when it was broadly accepted his dalliance with cycling would be a road paved with difficulty.

This, after all, was a career rower who had achieved special things sitting down and going backwards on the water. Nobody anticipated something similar swapping the boat for the bike on dry land.

But Bond continues to blaze an extraordinary trail in his remarkable transition to road cycling, a third place finish in the time-trial at the Oceania championships in Canberra his latest significant achievement on two wheels.

The 31-year-old two-time Games champion in the pair alongside partner Eric Murray has taken a year away from rowing to give competitive road cycling a crack. But even the Cambridge super athlete can't have envisaged the success he would have this early in such a different sport.

READ MORE: * Murray to rehab knee while Bond cycles * Another step into unknown for Bond *Bond to tackle Tour of Southland *Hamish Bond and Eric Murray win Olympic gold

Bond's latest achievement, finishing top Kiwi and on the podium in a classy Oceania field, tops even his earlier achievements in the New Zealand summer.

Previously Bond had beaten top touring pro George Bennett to win the Abel Tasman Cycling Challenge and then finished third in the time-trial at the national championships, followed by a creditable 14th in the road race. He was also eighth on general classification in the Tour of Southland.

But in just his second time-trial start on an exacting Canberra course, Bond has beaten home fellow Kiwis Jason Christie (fourth) and Joseph Cooper (fifth) to power to third overall.

The time-trial was won by defending champion Sean Lake, of the IsoWhey Sports SwissWellness team, who powered home in 54min 32sec.

Fellow Aussie Ben Dyball was 53s back in second place, with Bond coming home 1:00 behind the winner and 1:38 ahead of Christie who was second behind Jack Bauer in the national time-trial in early January.

Bond was rapt with his effort as he continues to fast-track his education in the tough time-trial discipline.

"It's important I keep improving and keep justifying the input of a lot of people who have been quite generous with their time and effort in terms of helping me progress quickly," Bond told Stuff from Canberra. "It's always good to put in a good performance that justifies that and enables you to keep going.

"Though a lot of the top pros were overseas racing it was still a good calibre race, and some top New Zealand riders were there. To tip both [national road race champion] Joe Cooper and Jason Christie over was pleasing.

"I felt I went OK. It was a challenging course, and very little of it was flat. It was basically up and down the whole 40km which was a good challenge and I quite enjoyed it. It was a really good experience doing a tough time-trial like that."

Bond rated the Oceania bronze his best achievement of his cycling stint thus far.

"I felt it was a step on from the nationals," he added. "It's only the second time-trial I've done, and the idea was to try ride with a little more control. I was perhaps a little out of control at the nationals in terms of going over the red line a little early and just hanging on for the bulk of it.

"I tried to get my pace more even throughout the race here which was a challenge given the hilly nature. I tried to keep my efforts more measured and feel as though I did that to a degree. When you've only done two [of these races] you learn so much each time you go out."

Bond is bypassing the road race in Canberra, but will head to Europe later this year to continue to measure himself in his year-long stint in his new sport.

-Stuff

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Rowing champ Hamish Bond continues to excel on bike with Oceania Championships time-trial third - Stuff.co.nz