Roulston in action in Christchurch Festival cycling classic

Pro Tour rider Hayden Roulston takes on a top field chasing honours in the Armstrong Festival of Cycling road race in Christchurch tomorrow.

The Columbia HTC rider was a previous race record holder for the testing 80km test around the bays before former Olympian Robin Reid broke that in winning two years ago.

The focus will be on the battle between Auckland’s Gordon McCauley and Hawkes Bay’s Jeremy Yates in the battle for the RaboDirect National Points Series.

McCauley currently leads on 325 points from Yates on 255 and Mathew Gorter (Subway Avanti) 225.

No doubt Yates will want to make amends for his ill-fortune in the recent Tour of Southland when he crashed after his jacket caught in his wheel, while leading the tour.

The 1000-strong field has a strong elite wave with Reid also back again along with the exciting young trio of George Bennett (Nelson), Michael Vink and Josh Atkins (both Christchurch), who will join the professional Trek Livestrong team in USA next year.

Cath Cheatley will attempt to make it three wins in a row in the women’s and lower her race record of 2:02.34 which she set in 2008.

She currently trails national series leader Serena Sheridan (Hawkes Bay) by 130 points with her fellow Colavita Baci professional teammate Rushlee Buchanan and Emma Crum included in a strong women’s field.

Full details: www.bikenz.org.nz