Cycling: Roulston eyes Tour de France

Leading New Zealand road cyclist Hayden Roulston will contest the Tour of Switzerland this month with the aim of confirming a berth in the Tour de France.

Roulston had planned on racing the Criterium Dauphine Libere starting on Sunday but Roulston pounced when given the opportunity to change schedule and contest the nine-day Swiss tour from June 12 alongside HTC Columbia teammates Mark Cavendish, Mark Renshaw, Berhnard Eisel and Michael Rogers.

"It's basically a Tour (de France) team that goes to the Tour de Suisse. I was asked if I'd like to go and be a part of that team, I think it is a good sign," Roulston told the roadcycling.co.nz website in an exclusive interview.

"There is nothing certain for anyone around the Tour team, anything can happen, but all going well I think I'll definitely be there."

Roulston was to attend a three-day training camp in the French Alps this week alongside his teamamtes. There they will ride stages seven, eight and nine of the Tour de France.

"It's really going to fit in well, three days with the team, then I come home and do a week of really specific training and then I think I can go to the Tour de Suisse with some pretty big goals actually."

Despite nearly two months of patchy training, mainly caused by illness, since his 10th placing in the Paris-Roubaix tour, Roulston was feeling sharp.

He finished 36th on general classification in the Bayern Rundfahrt tour which finished in Germany yesterday (NZT), helping his Belgian teammate Maxime Monfort win overall honours. He was third in the fourth-stage time trial over 28km on Sunday.

"I'm at a pretty good level actually. I'm very happy with how the race panned out and the team is really quite happy with how I rode," he said.

"The sickness I had just really knocked me. I walked away from the time trial and tour very confident and happy, and I think the team has also noticed that."

- NZPA