Commonwealth Games: Rhino charges towards gold medal

Simon van Velthooven says there's a positive buzz about the New Zealand team. Photo / Greg Bowker

Van Velthooven in top shape and the rider to beat after bronze performances at the world championships and London Olympics

By the time Simon van Velthooven mounts his bike for the first of his two Commonwealth Games events, the expectation is he'll be New Zealand's clean-up guy.

The muscular sprinter rides the 1000m time trial tomorrow and is back up for the hurly-burly of the keirin in Sunday's final session at the Chris Hoy velodrome a day later.

By that time, BikeNZ officials are confident their squad will have bagged a decent medal haul. Van Velthooven is the hope - no, expectation - who will put the cherry on top.

The man known as the Rhino is well capable of delivering.

He won bronze in a sensational finish to the keirin at the London Olympics, the first time four medals were handed out in a Games track final.

Blink of an eye didn't do justice to the charge for the line, with the legendary Hoy ended his glittering career with gold, and van Velthooven and Dutch rider Teun Mulder unable to be separated. Bronze apiece.

Sure, the Palmerston North man would have preferred to be a millimetre in front; still, bronze was a damn sight better than fourth.

Van Velthooven won the bronze in the time trial at the world championships in Cali, Colombia this year. French and German riders stood above him on the podium. All this means he will start the event in Glasgow as the rider to beat.

His preparation for the two disciplines differs.

"For the kilo it's all about time, so you know how you are going in training and just worry about yourself," he said.

"In the keirin, you look at previous races and riders, how they ride. You study on the day how they're riding. Being a power athlete your form can change so much in a week."

So let's look at it this way: if 25-year-old van Velthooven was offered just one event which would it be?

A pause, then: "The keirin is a lot more exciting to race, but I get a lot more satisfaction from the kilo because you only get what you put in.

"But as a spectator sport the keirin is a whole lot more exciting, and more exciting to do."

Van Velthooven is determined to put his hand up for a spot in the sprint team at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins, world champions in Colombia, have a lock on the spots right now.

Van Velthooven has talked of packing in the lucrative Japanese keirin circuit, which he's ridden since 2010, to enhance his Rio prospects. He and Matt Archibald round out the five-strong sprint group.

It's a good time to be part of an emerging, exciting track programme.

"It's been a long time coming. The whole New Zealand team has got a positive buzz about it."

Van Velthooven reckons his body is the best prepared it could be. But there's more to it than that. "You do your best to taper for the best condition on the day. Then it comes to a state of mind, how much you want it."

Van Velthooven is eyeing two gold medals. He believes dues need to be paid. "We've got a great programme and the Government's invested a lot of money. That's the main thing I think about, to pay back everyone with gold medals."

The new Avantidrome in Cambridge has given New Zealand's elite riders a leg up. "It's now a mainstream sport. Kids are lining up to start riding and to be part of the trailblazing sprint team that laid that pathway is exciting."

Those kids will be watching the Rhino go like the wind.

Inspiring to impressionable minds? You bet.