Hayden Roulston has signed to race with the Calder Stewart Industries team at this year’s Powernet Tour of Southland.

Roulston, a double Olympic medallist and three time winner of the event, is now eligible to ride in New Zealand's most prestigious cycling race as it has lost its international UCI (International Cycling Union) status, and Calder Stewart moved quickly to secure his services.

“The status change is not a bad thing as it now allows New Zealand’s pro cyclists to race in the event and I really wanted to head back down there again,” Roulston said.

“We looked at our options and things came together well quite quickly with Calder Stewart. Southland gets right behind the event, it’s a good race and really well run and I’m looking forward to racing with the boys Calder Stewart are pulling together for a team.”

The UCI is the sport's world governing body, and is not registering the six-day race as a 2.2-category event because of issues such as the lack of foreign teams, the use of composite sponsor teams and the charging of an entry fee.

Cycling Southland Chief Executive Nick Jeffrey said the week long tour will continue as it has before. He said it had renewed support from its main sponsor, believes riders will not notice any difference due to the change status and is very happy Roulston will ride at the tour.

“The good thing to come out of the UCI decision was we now can open our doors to our top professional riders like Hayden, which is great for the sport and great for us in Southland,” he said.

Sales and Marketing Manager for Calder Stewart Mike Tou said they were “ecstatic” at signing one of New Zealand’s leading road cyclists.

“Calder Stewart has supported the Tour or Southland for over a decade now and believes Hayden will fit well into the Calder Stewart Team environment. We believe any team in the Tour would be pleased to have a rider the calibre of Hayden and we are really looking forward to the Tour of Southland this year.”
Roulston was allowed to race last year as his professional team at the time, Cervelo Test Team, wasn't pro-tour registered. His current team HTC-Columbia is, which meant if the event had stayed as a UCI registered event he would not have been able to race.

Roulston pulled out after stage one of last year’s tour after being involved in a crash. The Tour of Southland was first raced in 1956 and gained UCI status in 2002.

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Photo credit (c)Tim De Waele
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