Jesse Sergent (Trek-Livestrong) got the yellow jersey as well as the white jersey. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Jesse Sergent recently received a promotion from his current Under 23 Trek-Livestrong team to its big brother ProTour RadioShack squad as a stagiere for the remainder of this year. The New Zealander will end his stateside season at the Cascade Cycling Classic this week before moving to Europe to test his legs at the world-class level.
“I’m heading away next Thursday to do some racing for RadioShack for the rest of the season,” Sergent told Cyclingnews. “I’m hoping that works out for me and we will see what happens for next year.
“It is a big opportunity for me and I’m really excited about it,” he added. “It’s been a goal of mine and I’ve been working really hard toward it. Last year was my first season over here in the US and I learned a lot being a part of the Trek-Livestrong team.”
Sergent earned himself the silver medal in the individual pursuit at the International Cycling Union Track Cycling World Championships, behind his Trek-Livestrong teammate and winner Taylor Phinney.
The youngster turned heads after an astounding performance at the SRAM Tour of the Gila's stage three time trial, winning the 26-kilometre event in a time of 34:09 minutes, beating RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer and Garmin-Transition’s US Time Trial Champion Dave Zabriskie.
He recently won the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic 3.2-kilometre prologue in a time of 3:35 minutes ahead of his teammate Under 23 UK and European Time Trial Champion Alex Dowsett and UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis Rory Sutherland in third.
Sergent will travel overseas to begin his stagiere work with RadioShack immediately after the Cascade Cycling Classic. The time triallist admitted that he does not know what events the team has him scheduled to participate in, however he is looking forward to any and all opportunities to compete amongst the best riders in the world.
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“I made huge steps forward and it’s paying off,” Sergent said. “Hopefully I can keep making improvements and take it over to Europe next year. I’m not 100 percent sure what races I’ll be doing yet. It’s only been the last few days that it started to fall in place. I’m looking forward to the experience.”
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
