Hayden Roulston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

**Hayden Roulston**
Personal information
Full name	Hayden Roulston
Date of birth	January 10, 1981 (1981-01-10) (age 27)
Country	New Zealand
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
2002–2004 2005 2006	Cofidis Discovery Channel Health Net
Infobox last updated on:
February 3, 2008

Medal record
Competitor for New Zealand
Track Cycling
UCI Track World Championships
Silver	Stuttgart 2003	Elite Men's Madison

Hayden Roulston (born January 10, 1981 in Ashburton) is a New Zealand professional racing cyclist.

Roulston was a supremely talented junior rider on both road and track and competed for New Zealand on the track and initially on the road for a club team in France. He turned professional with the French team Cofidis in 2002 where he remained for two seasons before moving to Discovery Channel for 2005. His season with Discovery Channel featured some impressive rides but was interrupted by injury and eventually ended when he resigned after an incident in a Christchurch bar. He attempted to relaunch his professional road career in the US when he signed for Continental Pro team HealthNet and began strongly with two top ten stage finishes in the Tour of California beating many big name ProTour regulars. Unfortunately for Roulston his first year at HealthNet ended when a medical examination revealed irregular heart activity and he was advised to stop riding immediately.^{[citation needed]}

Back home in New Zealand he experimented with some alternative remedies and was soon back riding - and winning. Without a contract but still motivated to ride he won the National Road Race title in 2006 and back to back Tour of Southland and Tour of Wellington titles in 2006 & 2007. In addition to the road races he returned to the track and won several titles at the New Zealand and Oceania track championships.

Roulston was selected for the New Zealand team to compete at the 2008 World Track Championships in Manchester where he narrowly missed medals in the 4000m Individual Pursuit (4th) and Team Pursuit (4th) as well as finishing 9th in the Madison with Greg Henderson. Having performed so strongly in Manchester and guaranteed selection for the Beijing Olympics Roulston is now focused on improving his 4th placed pursuit rides and pushing for a medal. Former New Zealand track coach Ron Cheatley has suggested his best bet will be to drop the Madison and focus on the complimentary pursuit events in much the same fashion as Kiwi pursuit rider Sarah Ulmer.^{[citation needed]} Ulmer quit road racing and focused solely on her pursuit preparation before the 2004 Athens Olympics where she went on to smash the world record and take the gold medal in the women's 4000m Individual Pursuit.