Cycling: Novice Bond has hard row to hoe

Breaking his bike near the start of the 134km sixth stage of the Tour of Southland wasn't enough torture for novice tour cyclist Hamish Bond yesterday.

The double world champion rower also had to endure light-hearted ribbing from his Zookeepers-Cycle Surgery teammates at the end, who claimed they'd sent Bond the long way, via Twizel.

Bond (23) finished in 89th place, 25min 20sec behind stage six winner Jeremy Yates and about 23min behind his team leader, Heath Blackgrove.

"It wasn't too bad today, but I snapped my bike seat post. I am too fat and the bike is not made to take my weight," Bond told the Otago Daily Times afterwards.

Bond was disappointed he could not work in the main bunch yesterday for Blackgrove, who finished ninth yesterday and is fourth in the general classification.

However, he had been able to catch a back bunch and the ride had still been a good experience, he said.

"It was only three or four minutes to change the bike, but the main bunch had well gone. I was miles behind. I was never here to wear the yellow jersey. I am just here to help out Heath and Glen [Chadwick] as much as I am able."

Another thing Bond wanted to do yesterday was test his hill climbing against his team mates on the gruelling Crown Range zig-zag hill at the end of the stage.

He backed himself on the climb, was pleased to find he had the strength for it and felt he did it well.

Bond is using the Tour of Southland to build his knowledge and skill in cycling, a sport he does as cross-training for his world championship and Olympic rowing bids.

He's certainly not fat, he wasn't miserable and his team is still leading the team classification.

It's just that Bond weighs about 90kg and as a rower, has a more developed upper body compared to elite cyclists.

His type of build doesn't particularly lend itself to hill climbing.

Bond had hoped to display his strength on the flatter and more undulating parts of the course, where bigger, powerful cyclists can build up a good head of steam.

The switch between rowing and cycling was not too hard, Bond said.

"Rowing is 10% arms, 20% back and and 70% legs. Cycling is 95% legs and 5% stupidity."

Blackgrove said the team valued Bond's contributions and was not about to beat up on him.

"And have you seen the size of his arms? We couldn't get near him anyway."

Bringing in an athlete from a different discipline added a new element to the team campaign and the cyclists were learning as much from Bond as he was learning from them, Blackgrove said.

"He's awesome. But he should shave his legs."