NZ Champion rides out front in Beijing

Oct 7th, 11. NZ Road Champion Hayden Roulston helped his HTC Highroad teammate Tony Martin retain the red leader's jersey in the Tour of Beijing today.

Today's Stage 2 finished in a bunch sprint, but only after Roulston did a lot of work to reel in the day's four rider breakaway which stayed free for almost 110km.

The last time Roulston was in Beijing was in 2008 when he won silver and bronze medals at the Olympic Games in the individual and team pursuit events. This event will be memorable for another reason, it is Roulston's final race with the HTC Highroad team which is not continuing next year.

Roulston has confirmed his plans for 2012 but is not yet able to announce them.

After today's bunch finish, Martin retained his overall lead of 17sec, saying, "It was not too hard. I could hide behind my team that was riding really strong."

A crash with 1km to go, and a few earlier incidents, left many riders sporting ripped jerseys and sore bodies, but fortunately Roulston was not involved.

In the sprint finale it was Garmin Cervelo's Heinrich Haussler who took victory in a photo finish with Denis Galimzyanov (Kathusha). Theo Bos of Rabobank was a further couple of millimetres back.

"It was basically flat today but it was ridden at a fast speed and was really hectic at the finish," a delighted Haussler said. "The end was so stressful. There were lots of teams trying to get their sprinters there but fortunately for me, we had Cam (Meyer) and Jack (Bobridge) up the front today to bring us up and then I managed to time it perfectly."

The victory followed a year of injury in 2010, which eventually required surgery on the 27 year old's knee.

"This season has been pretty much up and down. It started okay when I won a couple of stages in the Tour of Qatar but since then just a few podium places. Nothing special until today," Haussler said.

"The Vuelta didn't go so well for me but I got through it and then the worlds, which has put a bit of racing into me. There are lots of good sprinters here so it's important and means a lot to win today."

Tomorrow's hillier stage is expected to be critical for the overall tour victory. The 162km stage takes the riders through three intermediate sprints and over a Cat 2, and three more testing Cat 1 climbs, before a flattish 5km finish.

146 riders remain in the race, after Garmin's Andrew Talansky abandoned during today's stage - the second rider his team has lost after Matt Wilson broke his hand in training before stage one.

With today's bunch finish involving every rider, there was no change to the General Classification. 

Tour of Beijing results...

Stage 2 overview

(No commentary until the interview / podium)