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Bond, who started roughly midway through the
field of racers leaving at one-minute intervals, clocked an
impressive 48 minutes, 45.45 seconds over the 38.5-kilometre
course.
Australia's Cameron Meyer, a team time trial world bronze
medalist, took gold in 48:13.04 with England's Harry Tanfield
claiming silver in 48:43.30.
"I'm really happy with the race," Bond told reporters. "It has
probably been my most complete race to date. I executed the race
perfectly. I couldn't have given any more."
The 32-year-old Bond was previously part of one of the most
dominant rowing combinations in history along with Eric Murray,
going unbeaten for eight years in the men's pair and winning
Olympic golds at London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
The duo, however, split after Rio with Murray choosing to retire
and Bond, already a keen cyclist, eyeing a possible entry at the
2020 Tokyo Olympics on a bike.
"Preparation wise, it's pretty similar," Bond added.
"I've only been doing road racing for 12 months and it has only
been 18 months since Rio and I'm still learning every day."
Bond won the individual time trial at New Zealand's national
championships in January to earn Commonwealth Games selection,
which he followed up with the Oceania title in Tasmania last
month.
His Commonwealth Games debut, however, almost came to a
premature end when he needed to take evasive action to avoid a
support vehicle on the course.
"I tried to overtake someone from an African nation and the car
didn't get out of the way in time," he said. "I had no time to
think about it. I was lucky that I'd done this before.
"Even though it was less than ideal, you just have to roll with
the punches."
(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by John O'Brien)
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