Henderson mines gold in Sydney

Greg Henderson of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis won a gold medal as part of the New Zealand team pursuit squad at the final World Cup track event in Sydney, Australia. It was his eighth career world cup gold medal.

Henderson’s team, which included former Health Net Presented by Maxxis rider Hayden Godfrey, won with a time of 4:09.049, more than a second faster than the team from Great Britain.

Henderson’s New Zealand squad won the qualifying round by a scant .062 seconds over Great Britain, with a time of 4:11.666. Henderson told Cyclingnews after the race that the team had changed its tactics after the qualifying round because they "had been up and down." They decided that Henderson and Marc Ryan would take bigger turns, and the changes obviously paid off.

A day earlier, Henderson also earned a bronze medal in the Scratch Race, the event in which he is the reigning world champion.

Henderson is currently scheduled to race in the NRC season-opening McLane Pacific races, March 5-6, as well as the Central Valley Classic races in Fresno a week later. He goes from there to Los Angeles to defend his rainbow stripes at the UCI track world championships, March 24-27, at the new ADT Event Center in Carson.