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2010 season roundup - Ruaraidh McLeod Sep 3rd, 10. Ruaraidh McLeod shares his season roundup after his first year as a Kiwi ... read more |
Hushovd the victor in Vuelta Sep 3rd, 10. Cervélo TestTeam’s Thor Hushovd delivered an impressive victory after climbing over a short ... read more |
Vuelta Espana 2010 Stage 6 resultsSep 3rd,10. Results from Stage 6 of the Vuelta Espana ... read more |
| Season roundup - Roman Van Uden |
 Sep 29th, 09. Roman Van Uden tells RoadCycling.co.nz why his season has been cut short. "Recent events have led to my 2009 season ending on a windy afternoon in September."
Victory at Tour of Gila. Photo courtesy Brian Hoder, Veloimages.com
The season started with great success when Van Uden gave his team their first professional victory by winning the criterium at the Tour of Gila ahead of a star studded peloton. Since then Van Uden has raced the Joe Martin Stage race, Philadelphia Classic, Cascade Cycling Classic, Tour of Elk Grove, Tour of Utah, Tour of New Caledonia as well as other tours and one day races along the way. When RoadCycling.co.nz contacted Van Uden asking for his international season round up, his reaction was, "but it's only the end of August, there is plenty of racing all the way through to the Tour of Southland in November!" Unfortunately, this isn't the case any more. Van Uden on his forced change of plans On Friday the 25th of September, while going for a little late afternoon cruise in Auckland (some would call this period 'Rush Hour') my ride came to an abrupt end when a driver turned across my lane to enter a driveway. This accident was unavoidable as I was hidden behind a queue of traffic and a gap was left by another motorist for the car to enter the driveway. Travelling quite quickly, I had very little time to react and could not miss the car. I was launched off my bike and landed on a kerb, slightly winded. I only suffered very minor grazing to my right elbow and knee but what at the time felt like a sprained wrist later turned out to be my second broken scaphoid of the year. I am consulting with doctors this week in the hope that the Tour of Southland is not completely off the cards. I may also have to look into a bike sponsor for the New Zealand season.
My best result this year obviously came at the Tour of the Gila, ahead of Lance Armstrong and many other big names in the American Pro scene.
Were you happy with your 2009 International season? In mid August I was satisfied and relieved just to have completed the Tour of Utah. It was a tough race with many thousands of feet of climbing under very warm temperatures and I finished off the tour with an 8th in the final stage criterium.
My most satisfying result was a 12th place finish up an 8km grueling gravel climb, a road used on every other day of the year by 25+tonne dump trucks. What are/were your NZ riding plans? I had high hopes for racing well at the National Criterium Champs this weekend just gone, and also Club National at the end of October, but my focus has moved to healing up, waiting and seeing what happens with the Tour of Southland.
Main goal for the NZ season .... besides healing?
Read the season round-ups of all the kiwi internationals..Greg Henderson, Peter Latham, Alex Meenhorst, Tim Gudsell, OEX Team Enterprise, Matt Sillars, Roman Van Uden, Alex McGregor, Heath Blackgrove, Wade Mangham, Glen Chadwick, Genevieve Whitson, George Bennett, Logan Hutchings, Michael Torckler, Josie Giddens, Jesse Sergent, Tom David, Jack Bauer, Sam Bewley, Rushlee Buchanan, Clinton Avery, Ryan Wills, Cath Cheatley plus recent interviews with Alison Shanks, Hayden Roulston and Jo Kiesanowski. More to come... |
