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Hayden Roulston

Hayden Roulston
Hayden Roulston.jpg
Roulston at the 2009 E3 Prijs Vlaanderen.
Personal information
Full name Hayden Roulston
Born (1981-01-10) 10 January 1981 (age 36)
Ashburton, New Zealand
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 78 kg (172 lb)
Team information
Current team Retired
Discipline Road and track
Role Rider
Rider type Classics specialist
Professional team(s)
2002–2004 Cofidis
2005 Discovery Channel
2006 Health Net–Maxxis
2009 Cervélo TestTeam
2010–2011 Team HTC–Columbia
2012–2015 RadioShack–Nissan
Major wins
Vuelta a España, 1 Stage TTT
Tour de Pologne, 1 Stage
National Road Race Championships (2006, 2011, 2013, 2014)
Tour of Southland (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010)

Hayden Roulston, MNZM (born 10 January 1981 in Ashburton) is a former New Zealand professional racing cyclist. He won the silver medal in the men's 4000 m individual pursuit and a bronze medal in the men's 4000 m team pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Roulston was a 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 Health Net–Maxxis 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.

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 and 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 had invested a six-figure sum with a New Zealand company that failed in October 2007 during the global financial crisis. Roulston confided in Craig Adair, a track cycling gold medallist at the 1982 Commonwealth Games, that he was about to pull out of the preparations for the 2008 Summer Olympics, but Adair and four of his friends decided to provide finance for him during this difficult time, and Roulston continued with his preparations.


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