Cycling: Roulston in top form ahead of Tour de France selection

Double Olympic medallist Hayden Roulston says he has never felt better as he steps up for a final trial this week ahead of next month's Tour De France.

Roulston has been named in the Cervelo TestTeam's preliminary squad of 12 for the Tour de France, with the final team of nine expected to be named next week.

Roulston will race in the five-day Ster Elektrotoer event in the Netherlands beginning tomorrow morning (NZT) and is confident of being named for the Tour de France if he comes through unscathed.

With noted sprinters such as Tom Boonen, Alan Davis (both Quick Step), Andre Greipel (Columbia), Danilo Napolitano (Katusha), Robert Hunter (Barloworld) and Robert Forster (Milram) in the Netherlands field, Roulston will be able to measure himself against some of the world's best.

Former international and Beijing Olympics cycling team manager Craig Adair said today Roulston was confident of a start in the Tour de France.

"I spoke to him last night and he said he is feeling the best he's ever felt," Adair said.

Roulston had focused on strength riding in preparation for the Tour de France and been "finding it very easy, in his own words", Adair added.

Roulston finished 15th in the three-day Tour of Zeeland which finished at the weekend where he finished 15th.

" He was going really well in last stage but crashed twice while going for the stage win.

"Roulston made a break with his teammates and then crashed. He picked himself up and caught the leaders but with 2km to go, he crashed again."

An in-form Roulston would be an asset to the team, Adair said.

A team such as Cervelo had two strings to their bow for the Tour - they would compete for the sprint stages through Norwegian Thor Hushovd while last year's Tour winner, Carlos Sastre, of Spain, would attack for overall honours.

Roulston was one rider who could straddle both team objectives as a powerful leadout rider for Hushovd in the sprints and then nurse his team leader, Sastre, on the mountain stages.

Adair said Roulston was in an ideal position to be selected for the Tour because he could perform both roles as well as time trial - the Tour has two individual time trials and one team time trial.

Fellow-New Zealander Greg Henderson has unluckily missed out on a Tour start with his Columbia team.

"Henderson is a great one-day rider and would be a good leadout rider for Columbia's top sprinter Mark Cavendish but he is not as capable in the mountain stages and his team have a number of good sprinters besides," Adair said.

If Roulston makes the cut, it will be the first time New Zealand has had have two riders starting a Tour de France as Rotorua's Julian Dean is also expected to be named by his Garmin Slipstream team next week for his fifth Tour start.

Dean notched five top 10 stage finishes in last year's Tour.

The 96th edition of the Tour starts on July 4 at Monaco and will cover 3500km before ending in Paris 22 days later.

- NZPA