Hayden Roulston wins the Tour the Vineyards 2010

Photo: courtesy
Wim Dingemanse

Photo: courtesy
Wim Dingemanse

Double Olympic medallist Hayden Roulston & Olympian Cath Cheatley have won the 2010 Tour de Vineyards in Nelson today.  For Roulston riding in his Pro team colours of Columbia HTC, the win was looking slim as young hard charging Taupo cyclist Patrick Bevin stamped his dominance early on.
 

Bevin's (Team Bici Vida), fresh from his win at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge has had a great start to 2010.  Bevin's, just eighteen, won the first two stages of the tour, stage 1 Hope town circuit and stage 2 111km Richmond to Motueka, both in sprint finishes from the likes of pro tour cyclist Hayden Roulston.

It wasn't until the third day of racing over 130km which finished with the grueling Takaka Hill climb that Bevin's yellow jersey reign was broken.  George Bennett (Tasman Glass), who recently returned from Europe racing, out rode everyone on the 15km climb up Takaka with an impressive 21 seconds win from Roulston.  More importantly on GC Roulston was just under a minute up on tour leader Bevin's to take the yellow with a slim 1 second lead going into the final day.

Today saw the final days racing around the Hill Street circuit Richmond over 60kms, with Roulston winning the 2010 Tour de Vineyards by just one second as the large peloton rolled across the finish line to mark the end of the tour.

Hayden Roulston completed the four stages in 8h37m07s with George Bennett second +01s, Tom Findlay third +10s and Patrick Bevin forth +45s. Defending champion Jeremy Yates was 6th one minute twenty second off the lead.

In the women's race Cath Cheatley's strangle hold on the 2010 tour was broken by Karen Fulton's two wins. However for Fulton it wasn't enough for the local rider to pull back the five minutes lead Cheatley, who placed 10th in the 2009 UCI World Road Championships, had overall to claim the Tour de Vineyards title today.  


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