New Zealand rowing great Hamish Bond won’t be getting off the bike anytime soon, after making his debut at the Road Cycling World Championships in Norway.
The double Olympic champion endured a difficult day on the streets of Bergen, after an early puncture derailed his hopes of an impressive showing.
Bond came home in 39th place in the individual time trial, just over two minutes off a podium spot.
"It's pretty disappointing, the puncture put me from 16th at the first time check to 44th and it’s pretty hard to recover," Bond told Newshub.
It's not only the time you lose in changing the wheel, it really interrupts your rhythm and makes it harder to get up to speed."
The 31-year old estimates he lost around a minute of time after he ran over a bit of debris in the road, and his front tyre deflated.
While it's not the showing he was hoping for, Bond's rise has been remarkable. He switched from the boat to two wheels last year after winning his second Olympic gold medal at Rio.
"I've come a long way in 12 months. It's been a great learning experience but I didn’t come here for a learning experience, I came here to put out a performance I could be proud of."
However, rather than be discouraged by his bad luck, Bond seems even hungrier to make an impact on the bike.
"It's not the end of the road and it's not going to be my last battle.
"I want to take what I've learnt in the last 12 months and really leverage off that, and put into play some of the things I've learnt."
Next year's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast are set to be his next challenge.
"That's a natural goal, I'd certainly love to get in amongst the top riders a few more times to really get an understanding of the limits of my capabilities.
"I got a taste of that today and I would be very keen to line up again and see what I can achieve."
While his unusual path to the World Champs has been noticed in Norway, he hasn't received any offers from professional cycling teams. And, after a brutal schedule, he’s finally set to put his feet up.
"I'll take a couple of weeks to reflect on what went right and what went wrong.
"I really didn’t take any break after the Olympics, and if you count last year, I’ve basically been going 24 months full bore. It’s probably time I sit back."
Naturally, rowing won’t be far away as well.
Bond's looking forward to sitting on the couch and watching the New Zealand team's fortunes at the World Championships in Florida, which start on Sunday.
Newshub.
