KEY POINTS:
Beijing-bound Hayden Roulston dominated the final day to win the four-day Tour des Deux-Sevres in France today.
The Ashburton rider was in confident mood as he headed to Bordeaux with his fellow BikeNZ pursuit riders to join the rest of the Beijing track team where they will complete final preparations for the Olympics.
Roulston extended his 32-second overnight lead when he won the morning 15.8km time trial, finishing 20 seconds clear in 20:09 and opening a 1min 09sec buffer over the second-placed rider on general classification.
There were plenty of attacks in the 98km final stage, including a 10-lap circuit, with Roulston's teammates Sam Bewley (Rotorua) and Marc Ryan (Timaru) joining two other teams in successfully chasing down every break.
The tour finished with a bunch sprint won by Frenchman Simon Matthieu (UV Aube), with Roulston safely in the peloton to claim the overall victory.
National roach coach Jacques Landry said it was an excellent performance.
"It's definitely motivating for the team and Rolly (Hayden Roulston) is in very good spirits," Landry said.
"He was dominant in the time trial and then both Marc and Sam worked very hard to ensure he did not lose it from there."
Landry said the endurance track squad have an excellent base behind them.
"We didn't use the same preparation leading up to Athens and I think this six-week block working hard and racing in Belgium and northern France will be a real benefit to them.
"Now they can really focus with the track coaches on specific track work now in the lead-up to Beijing. And it's certainly nice for them to head into the track work phase with a win behind them."
- NZPA
