Roulston leads NZ riders in Tour of California

Double Olympic medallist Hayden Roulston makes his return to the professional road cycling circuit this weekend in the high profile Tour of California.

Roulston, who won a silver medal in the individual pursuit and bronze in the team pursuit in Beijing, will compete for the first time for his new Cervelo Test Team in the eight-day tour over 1260kms in northern California.

The New Zealander, who formerly raced for professional teams Cofidis and Discovery before a heart condition forced him out of the sport, made a successful comeback two years ago culminating in his double Olympic medal performances on the track.

Roulston in track mode - Copyright BikeNZ

This brought him to the attention of the newly formed Cervelo Test Team which has its first outing in the Tour of California led by Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre (ESP) and two-time Tour points winning sprinter, Thor Hushovd (NOR).

Unfortunately Roulston's team leader Carlos Sastre is recovering from a bout of flu that has wreaked havoc with his preparation for the tour.  “It has been nearly a week since I've ridden as I was hit hard by the flu and I’m still getting over it now”, said the winner of the last Tour de France. “Until now, my preparation was going well, but this setback will prevent me from performing as I would have liked in this American race”, the Spanish cyclist lamented. In today's press conference, Sastre commented that he wasn't ready, but that his team was.

There are three New Zealanders lining up in the tour with Rouston, Hawkes Bay rider Jeremy Vennell and Te Awamutu’s Peter Latham, both lining up for Team Bissell and Glen Chadwick riding for Rock Racing.

Latham will make a speedy return following the Tour to rejoin the New Zealand track team in their final preparations for the world track championships at the end of March.

The Tour, which has attracted many high profile teams including Astana team led by Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer, begins with a prologue in the Californian capital of Sacramento on Sunday (NZ time).  Organisers commented today that they expect seventy five thousand spectators, this is only three quarters of the people who attended the first race of last month's Tour Down Under.

Thanks to BikeNZ for this information.

Headshot photo Copyright Cervelo/Regina de Paolis

Other articles on the kiwis in the Tour of California.

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• Chadwick in epic breakaway
• Kiwis in California Stage 4
• Roulston leads Hushovd to stage victory
• Kiwis race on in Tour of California
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• Kiwis show off their TT skills
• Roulston leads kiwi riders in Tour of California
• Vennell in NZ colours in prologue
• Glen Chadwick first rider in Tour of California