It's a race where the weather can play as much of a part as the terrain but the Tour of Southland is something that seems to agree with Hayden Roulston.
The professional road rider and two-time Olympic medallist, who this week signed a deal with the newly merged RadioShack Nissan Pro cycling team, has won four of the last five Tour of Southland titles and missed out on the 2009 crown after he crashed heavily and was forced to withdraw.
Only Brian Fowler (eight) has won more Tour titles and Roulston will once again start as favourite when the prologue begins on Sunday. The 30-year-old will have a strong team (Calder Stewart) around him in fellow Olympians Marc Ryan and Sam Bewley as well as Jeremy Vennell, Jason Allen and Jason Christie.
Roulston comes off a busy season with his HTC Highroad Pro team and already has 2012 mapped out, which will include plenty of time on the road with his new team in the Classic races as well as a focus on the track ahead of the London Olympics.
"I always love racing on home soil as it gives me a chance to stay in touch with my fans,'' Roulston said. "I feel like I'm in top shape and in the right frame of mind to go back and win a fifth. I have clearly got a super strong, really well-rounded team beside me, too.''
A handful of Roulston's BikeNZ teammates will provide the biggest competition in the 55th running of the Tour of Southland, with Pure Black Racing looming as the main challengers with Tim Gudsell, Glen Chadwick and Shem Rodger.
Subway Avanti will have Olympians Peter Latham and Wes Gough, while Jeremy Yates (Share the Road), Aaron Gate (Creation Signs), George Bennett (Kia Motors), Tom Scully, Shane Archbold, Myron Simpson and Cameron Karwowski (all Powernet) and Gordon McCauley (Barry Stewart Builders) are also bound to feature.
There are a number of changes to the route this year, with the introduction of the Te Anau to Crown Range stage over 179km bound to be a defining stage to the event's overall outcome, and a 13km individual time trial has also been introduced to replicate races from around the world. Most days feature a longer single stage (140km-179km long) rather than two shorter stages in past events.
Several of the traditional sections of the Tour have been retained, including the notorious Bluff Hill, the demanding Blackmount section through to Te Anau and the Eastern Southland stage finish into Gore, but there have been various changes to the routes taken on these sections to keep things interesting.
The event sees 18 teams compete, down from 22 last year, and covers 898.2km over the seven days. It begins on Sunday with the 4.2km prologue team's time trial around Invercargill's Queen's Park.
