Roulston wins Olympic warm-up cycling race

Hayden Roulston has led New Zealand’s Olympic track team to success on the road in Europe as they prepare for Beijing.

Roulston has won the Belgium interclub race in Falmagne, Belgium today in another solid workout for the endurance track team, preparing for the pursuit races at Beijing.

The Ashburton rider led the New Zealand team to second on team classification with team-mates Marc Ryan (Timaru) eighth, Chris Macic (Auckland) 13th and Westley Gough (Waipukurau) 19th.

National programme manager Andy Reid said the performance was encouraging on an extremely hilly course and believes the team is coming into excellent form as they begin the final push to Beijing.

New Zealand’s leading contender for Olympic road race honours, Julian Dean will have the best possible build-up for Beijing when he competes in the 95th Tour de France which begins this weekend.

Dean is the only kiwi in the field, riding for his Garmin Chipotle team, one of 20 teams invited to compete in the 21 stage classic that covers 3500kms.

It begins without the traditional prologue for the first time in more than 40 years, starting with a 197.5km stage from Brest and it may not be until the third day with the 208km stage into Nantes that Dean will get his first big chance to stretch his sprinting legs.

The Tour finishes in Paris on 27 July before Dean heads to Beijing with the Olympic road race on 9 August.