Hayden Roulston of Trek Factory Racing is heading to his national Road Race in New Zealand with his eyes set on a record equalling fifth title.

A win in the tough terrain of the Cashmere Hills on January 11 would give him 5 titles, pulling him level with Gordon McCauley.

But 33-year-old Roulston faces a tough field, with all of New Zealand’s top pros attending this year, except Garmin-Cannondale’s Jack Bauer, who Roulston beat in 2014.

“It is one of the deepest fields we’ve seen for many years,” said event promoter Simon Hollander. “We are only missing Jack Bauer of basically all potential elite riders in New Zealand."
 

“We have riders from the world’s best professional teams, our best track riders and some very strong trade teams who will be doubly strong as they work together over this course. It will be an absolutely humdinger of a race.”

Roulston’s teammate Jesse Sergent is riding, along with Orica-Greenedge’s Sam Bewley and LottoNL-Jumbo rider George Bennett, totaling four WorldTour riders.

From the Pro Continental division, Team Bora-Argon 18 rider Shane Archbold is racing, along with U23 talents Dion Smith and James Oram. 

The time trials for all divisions is on Friday 9 January at Lincoln, with the women’s race over 120kms of the Cashmere course based at Pioneer Stadium, is on Saturday 10 January and men’s elite race over 184kms is on Sunday 11.