Roulston pulls out of Spanish tour

Hayden Roulston pulled out of stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana last night.

The double Olympic medallist said his knee, injured badly in late August, had become sore and swollen, and so thought it best to pull out of the season’s last Grand Tour to focus on his fitness for the World Championships in Melbourne on October 3, and the Commonwealth Games road race a week later.

“The knee was sore and swollen. I’m a bit sad and it just needs proper rest and treatment now to be ready for Melbourne and the Games,” he said.

Roulston required 18 stitches to heal a 10cm gash in his knee after a fall racing in Italy in August but proved to his Columbia HTC team that he was capable of competing in the gruelling 21-day tour from Seville to Madrid and was part of the teams winning team time trial in the opening stage.

“I’m ok and not worried about it. I’ve had two weeks of hard racing and I’m flying and really looking forward to other races coming up.”

He plans to stay on in Spain for treatment and recovery before returning home to New Zealand towards the end of the month.

Roulston’s team mate Mark Cavendish had his second straight stage win in the Spanish Tour overnight.


Ends

Photo credit (c)Tim De Waele
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