Hamish Bidwell
The seeds of potential world championship glory will be sown by Westley Gough in the next few months.
The Central Hawke's Bay College Year 12 pupil has just been named in the New Zealand team for the 2005 junior track world championships in Vienna where he will race against the
best under-19 riders in the world.
And while he will give a good performance, it won't be until next year when his coach Brendon Vesty says Gough may emulate the feat of Hastings' Jeremy Yates and bring home a junior world championship medal.
The team heads to the US and Europe in July to begin preparation for the August world championships, which Vesty says will be the making of his young charge.
"At this stage, he really needs the experience, but next year I think we'll see him competing for the medals," Vesty said.
"I really think he's got the talent to do it."
With this only being Gough's first year as a junior rider, Vesty has been careful to hold him back as much as possible, but after a strong showing at the national track championships in Mosgiel the selectors have decided the time is right to expose him to elite competition.
"Earlier this year I talked to the national selectors after he was invited to ride in Australia and said that he needed to stay home and have a rest, but that we didn't want it to affect his chances of going to the worlds.
"They came back and said that he'd have to have a really good nationals and he did that."
While his results were not spectacular, Vesty said Gough had been suffering from the flu.
"He was second in the 1000m time trial, sixth in the 8000m scratch race, sixth in the 3000m pursuit - which was a disappointing result because I knew he was capable of better - and fifth in the points race."
Another factor in Gough's moderate performance was the regular travelling he has to do to Feilding where he has been working with former New Zealand track coach Max Vertongen.
But with no velodrome in this part of the world, Vesty said having to travel was simply a reality.
Though Vesty sees Gough's future ultimately being on the road, with BikeNZ funding geared around supporting the national track squads, it is the best option for any young rider.
