Hi there!

No i havent disappeared! Im still alive and kicking, just with a sore knee! but ill survive.

As most of you probably know i stopped on the second to last stage of the Tour of Suisse. my knee was really sore in the last hour of the previous stage and at the start of stage 8 i had it again. actually both knees were sore. its actually more my tear drop muscle that attaches to the left knee.. Ive had this problem once before in one of the tours i did with the national team before the olympics so im not overly stressed about it… even with the big tour on the horizion. i know that with a few days rest and some warmer weather all will be ok..

the condition is great. i felt strong in suisse and i really was getting into my own. i had some tough jobs to do in suisse and one in particular took every part of me to recover for the next day. the day im talking about was the queen stage where i had to ride the front. i burnt over 7000kjs this day just riding.. HUGE..

initially i was on a real downer re my knee, but i had to remind myself about how quickly i was back riding the last time.. when your alone in your apartment though, sometimes its bloody tough to be positive. but with great friends that i have, great family and ange all smiling it does make things easier. moses smirk, smile, cry is the ultimate though. haha, oh i miss that wee fella and theres not an hour that goes by that i dont think of him.

ill know more today as ill head out the door soon for a pedal.. i reckon it was caused by the typical ‘non pro warm up’ then km 0 at the bottom of a climb. i think ive learnt my lesson here, well ill atleast put something warm on the legs to get the muscles going before you have to push full gas. but every pro does it… we all just sit around and with bad weather noone wants to roll the legs for 5mins before.. LESSON LEARNT!

re the tour. i was pretty much sure of going. now i dont know.. i feel ill be fine, but of course the team is naturally a bit worried.. im just putting it out there that ill be in rotterdam for the start.. there is nothing more that i can do. everyday ill be taking care of the knee, the mind and just praying i know more soon..

hey and we have an italian director who was laughing about playing us in the world cup.. i guess he is a tad depressed today though while john key is probably a step away from declaring a national holiday. lol go the all whites. how great is that for the country. something other than rugby going well and getting publicity! dont get me wrong i love the all blacks and thats would be my next dream job! lol

ok well ill be in touch soon. with good news too! fingers crossed! thanks heaps for all the messages and support. you guys rock.

roly

Hi again

Rain was the main topic of conversation in the peleton today. can you believe it! the weather in this years tour of suisse has been horride to say the least and today it rained for 4 of the 5hrs that we were on the bike.

It was a super fast start today….In the first hour we averaged 52km/hr, and lets just say the legs never come with me to the start.

the peletons totally over the weather and ready for the last road stage to be in sun. so fingers crossed..

i really wasnt feeling great when i woke up this morning.. the legs felt the effects of the day before and the nice relaxed start i was planning on was anything but! with 52km done in the first hour the legs had no choice but to follow the many sets of legs in front of them.. yes thats right, i was at the back! lol…..

suprisingly i started to feel good after about 3hrs of racing and was flying up the cat 2 and 3 climbs to the finish. its a good sign considering the day i had yesterday. the break was way up the road though and wasnt going to be caught, so i just looked after myself from this point on, saving the legs i had so i can have a crack tomorrow..

tomorrow we have the last road stage of the tour of suisse. its shorter with only 175kms to be done. it will be another fast start with many trying to get into a break.. me included.. ill give it a nudge if my legs are good thats for sure.

will give you an update tomorrow, and in the next few days i should know more regarding the tour de france.

thanks for reading

Hey guys..

Ill keep this report on stage 5 super brief… ive just finished stage 6 and im sooooooo tired.

stage 5 was probably one of the most dismal stages ever… it rained non stop for the whole stage which just put everyone on red alert. along with that we had a few climbs and rabobank decided to keep the pressure on the front of the peleton all day.. to cut a long story short i wasnt in to stage 5 at all…. basically cause i knew stage 6 was going to be important and i wanted to do a good ride there.. so i just kept out of trouble and when riders starting dropping wheels heading towards the finish i opted (opted…more like was put into!) for their group and just rode to the line.. dismal day but it was the same for all and yet another day down!

now for stage 6.. it was 213kms which doesnt sound overly long but when you start at the bottom of a 28km climb, followed directly by a 20k one, and finishing with a 20km climb back up to 2300m, it was a mammoth day..

my clock stopped at 6hrs 44mins.. plus the neutral zone so 7hrs in the saddle… i had a tough job today.. for the entire 28km first climb i had to ride.. so it was about 1hr 20mins on the front keeping the break at a good gap… i felt good, strong but man it was not easy.

on to climb 2. i was on the front again but had some help this time so all was good.. but by this stage my average watts were up over 350 so it was taking its toll! i just carried on as you do.. knowing that its great riding to get under the belt for what lies ahead in july.. of course the main reason i had this job today was because of our man tony martin being in yellow.. you have to honor the yellow jersey no matter what and i think we did that today.

we were joined by saxo bank at the front and the chase really ramped up.. its actually ok doing this job cause you know that come the last climb your job is done and you get to ride to the finish as best you can.. normally in a group called ‘grupetto’. believe me its a nice feeling when someone like boonen yells this out at the bottom of the climb, its like christmas has come and there is no more need to fight. lol you normally come across some familiar faces in here, all the guys that have either a bad day or they are the sprinter guys who nudge up towards the 80+kg mark.. i had most of my ex teammates in there today so we had a good old laugh..

tony lost the jersey today.. he did a great job though just struggling to have the accelerations needed to go with the front group.. he fought on though and is still in this race..

tomorrow we have another 200km day. its up and down.. ill just be hibinating from the world tomorrow trying to regain some strength so i can fight again the next day.. anyone got any ideas on how to recover whilst riding at 40km/hr over 200k?

hope your enjoying the blogs.. thanks for the comments and emails.. they are great to read..

ciao ciao

hey there

sorry no update yeserday.. we had no internet where we were. normally i would be hurting on not having the net, but when youve got season 4 of prison break on the hard drive i was not complaining at all! it was bliss, no disturbances, no updates, nothing! but, now i only got 2 episodes to go and its all over so im regretting knocking over 4 episodes in a row!

ok, back to cycling. yesterdays stage was a good day.. i didnt feel great but i did get better as the stage went on. we had a 20km climb to get up and i felt pretty good over that. there was a break up the road so the bunch just rolled along for a bit which is always good.. then come the finishing circuits… they were hard, super hard. suprise suprise it finished up a 3km climb which was ridden at what felt like 50km/hr. i did the best i could here but got popped with just over a kilometre to ride… i could have fought on but there really was not point as i was in no state to try win it… good news of the day though was hearing that teammate tony martin took the yellow jersey…. which meant riding the front today! all good though!

today was a boring day in the saddle.. it started with a hiss and a roar till one very brave soul rode off with dreams of a solo win… notice i said ‘dreams’. poor buggar is what the rest of us were all thinking.. due to there being only one guy up the road he was able to take time, basically as much as he wanted.. i think he went out to about 12mins which meant it was time for myself and albasini to ride the front…

alba rode the first hour by himself. then we just changed every 25mins after that.. thats right, a 25min pull!!! lol nothing crazy though, just riding steady so that we would slowly bring the leader back..

the finishing circuit wasnt as hard as yesterday but because of the relaxed day the peleton had it was ridden super super fast.. the 3km climb was ridden full gas and the last 10km went by so quick it was unreal…

now what happens at the finish when a bunch of cyclists have full legs? its carnage.. with a capital C. you get mountain climbers that think they are sprinters trying to knock it up cause they feel ‘good’.. all this does is just cause massive amounts of stress and makes the sprint super dangerous.

there was a nasty crash at the finish today between my ex team mate, heinrich haussler and my current team mate, mark cavendish.. go to youtube and check it out… its never nice to see and whats even worse is hearing the accusations flying after the crash.. i mean at the end of the day noone wanted to crash.. i blame the organisers. idiots is all i got to say.. i think ive said it in an earlier post that they should also lay down some oil just to spice things right up.. they had the option of having a nice sprint, fast, leadouts and the best man would win.. instead they take us left, right, right, roundabout, right and to make things worse they decide to narrow the road.. nice!

anyway. we still have the jersey which is great.. tony is a super nice guy and is riding really strongly.. i felt better today so i hope i keep improving.. i just seen the all whites won, you beauty.. bet that shocked a few.

ill be in touch.. thanks for reading guys.
ciao

Hey there.

A very wet day here in the tour of suisse made life rather unpleasant for the peleton.. that along with soaking wet roads and 100km/hr descents meant it was scarey to say the least! i heard some of the boys got to 110km/hr. lets just say i wasnt looking down! that is ridiculously fast with only lycra as protection eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

i was super today.. i was at ease on the 20km climb.. it went up to 2000m and i really felt comfy.. ive dropped some weight and today i really noticed just what that can do for your power to weight ratio… a break went up the road and seeing its one of the only days that may end in a sprint the team was riding for one rider, cavendish… the last climb was at 20kms to go and with 50km to race the gap to the group in front was over 5mins so myself, mick rogers and also albasini had to pull full gas to try and get the break back.. we were flying and really cut the breaks time in half fast… we got to the bottom of the climb and to be honest i had felt better! cav unfortunately never got over it… turns out the 3-4% grade was infact 6-7%. all us boys finished in the same group and we missed the stage win but hey, if you dont commit youll never know!

ive taken positives out of todays ride already.. i was really flying up the first climb and know that if i wasnt working before the last i would have been in front too… im really happy with my shape and all is going well heading into crunch time re the tour.. we wont know till after this race but i have a saying in my life that whatever is meant to be… will be.. time will tell.

tomorrow we have 190kms, with a long climb mid way through… we then have a hard climb to finish so a sprint is out of the question.. ill see how i feel. i do wanna show something here so ill just see..

thanks for reading again, ill be in touch tomorrow.
ciao ciao!

hey there!

wooooow. not a good day in bosnia for me! the sensations were actually ok but i was really unlucky and got caught in either the rain, or wet roads. i had rain going up the climb and coming down the roads were soaked… oh well.. still, i lost 50s which is a large chunk of time but what should have been an 80km/hr descent, in the rain turned into cruise control for me…. i even had to brake going up in the hairpins! im just not confident in the rain on the corners and i think today this played a big factor..

i am disappointed cause i know my body and i know that im actually going very well right now but what can you do? i reckon just leaving todays effort right here right now is the best option as there is still a long way to go..

tomorrows stage looks like it wont be too bad. there is a very long climb mid way through the race but it could be a sprint…. just depends on what the peleton is doing, and of course what HTC columbia decides to do..

ill update daily throughout the tour… heres hoping the old saying of ‘first days the worst day’ is true!!!

thanks for reading. talk soon.

Hayden Roulston is back in action for his team HTC-Columbia at the Tour de Suisse which starts this Saturday in Lugano, Switzerland.

After a training camp in the French Alps where stages seven, eight and nine were checked out for the Tour de France, the team has turned its focus to its final tune up events before selecting its final line up for the Tour de France.

HTC-Columbia is targeting stage victories in the nine-day Swiss race. Last year the team won six stages of the Tour de Suisse with five different riders.

After a very strong showing in the gruelling one day classic race Paris-Roubaix in April where he finished 10th, Roulston was sidelined with an illness, but bounced back to good form in the recent German stage race Bayern Rundfarht.

This week Roulston has trained with fellow kiwi’s Marc Ryan, Jessie Sergent, Sam Bewely and Greg Henderson as part of his build up for this weekend.

Roulston is resting up and recovering before the Tour starts with a prologue on Saturday. The Tour de Suisse is Roulston’s last opportunity to prove he has the form for the Tour de France ahead of the final team selection.

HTC-Columbia for Tour de Suisse: Michael Albasini (Swi); Mark Cavendish (GB); Bernhard Eisel (Aut); Tony Martin (Ger); Maxime Monfort (Bel); Mark Renshaw (Aus); Michael Rogers (Aus); Hayden Roulston (NZ).

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For more information

please contact:
John McKenzie
enthuse ltd
021 384 730
03 384 7338
Hayden Roulston’s media, sponsorship and commercial relationship management
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