Roulston abandons Tour of Southland with knee injury

Hayden Roulston (Cervélo TestTeam)

Hayden Roulston (Cervélo TestTeam) (Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)

Hayden Roulston's dream of winning his home race, Tour of Southland, ended today with a crash near Invercargill, New Zealand. He abandoned the race, likely his last before switching to Columbia-HTC for the next two seasons.

"I'm gutted really," Roulston (Cervélo) told Roadcycling.co.nz. "I have trained really well for this event."

More than 40 riders crashed midway into the second stage of the nine-stage race. Crosswinds and a narrow bridge passing helped cause the crash about 30 kilometres from the start town of Invercargill.

Race organisers stopped the stage for 25 minutes and allowed the teams to get their riders back in the race. Roulston avoided the big crash, but fell down with another rider while he rode next to the race commissar's car to discuss the neutralisation.

Roulston re-started, but knew something was wrong immediately.

"My knee is really sore and it left me with no alternative," he continued.

Heath Blackgrove (Zookeepers) took over the general classification lead. He finished 13th in the morning's team time trial stage and second in the stage from Invercargill to Bluff Hill.

Roulston won the last three editions of the stage race. He has competed this season for Switzerland-based Cervélo TestTeam, but started the Tour of Southland with team Colourplus. Colourplus won the morning team time trial and Roulston sat second in the overall classification prior to the afternoon stage.

The USA-based team of Bob Stapleton signed Roulston, 28, in September for two years.

Follow Cyclingnews on Twitter for the very latest coverage of events taking place in the cycling world - twitter.com/cyclingnewsfeed

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1