Roulston back on track in bid for Rio
New Zealand cyclist Hayden Roulston has won a gold medal in the individual pursuit at the Oceania Track Cycling Championships in Invercargill, in his first competitive track cycling event since winning two Olympic Games medals in 2008.
The individual pursuit rider qualified fastest for the 4000m final with a time of 4:25.185 and continued his good form to win a gold medal by just 0.3 seconds against Australia’s Rohan Wight, with a time of 4:27.552.
Roulston came back from an early deficit of over a second, to win.
This makes two gold medals for Roulston after winning the team pursuit gold medal on day one of the championships.
Roulston admits to still struggling with getting back into track cycling. ‘‘It is not easy, I mean last night you saw that I still have a lot of work to do and I won tonight based on experience, I was not good tonight, I am still really struggling, it is going to take a long time to come back,’’ he said.
The Ashburton cyclist who hasn’t competed on the track since he won a silver medal in the individual pursuit and a bronze in the team pursuit at the Beijing Olympics, overcame a patchy performance in the gold medal winning team pursuit final on dayone of the championships which he failed to finish.
‘‘It actually did not feel too bad out there, obviously it wasn’t the result I wanted and it wasn’t the way I wanted it to end, but I have to be realistic, I haven’t been out on the track and I haven’t done that sort of event. The last one I did was at the Olympics in 2008,’’ he said. ‘‘So it is a big shock to the system and I haven’t done the work to be ready, but in saying that, I wasn’t bad out there, but I wasn’t ready.’’
The 34-year-old is using the championships to get his body used to the demands of international track cycling before before next year’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games. ‘‘I want to come out of this championship feeling better on the bike, if I can have that feeling back, just that I amin control of the bike, not the bike being in control of me, then I will be happy. It is going to take time, but if I didn’t believe it will happen then I wouldn’t be here.’’