More than just a cyclist

For more than two decades I have defined myself as a cyclist. When I felt amazing physically, I felt great as a person – both mentally and emotionally. Although I achieved great success during my career on the bike and I can now look back with pride, I also know that during these years, I faced many challenges and experienced some extremely low points in my life. More often than not, when I didn’t feel amazing physically, I felt terrible mentally and emotionally. Cycling was one big rollercoaster for me. I felt the bike defined me. My body defined me. Moreover, my perception of my body defined me.

Despite all this, I am grateful for the lows I had, for my struggles and my challenges. They have inspired me to learn and grow. They have fueled my thirst for knowledge. They have inspired me to reach higher than ever before. My lows have taught me to never give up, not being consumed by failure, and not be afraid of putting it all out there for public scrutiny too.

While some of you may not identify with all of my battles or my life as a professional cyclist – I think many of you will relate. And more importantly, I feel my experiences – the highs, the lows and the learning’s that come with both – give me a unique ability to relate to others and a unique set of empowering tools to transform lives.

Although I have learned everything in the context of my life as cyclist, I have learned some amazing things that have transformed me for the better as a person. Now I want to share it all – I want to fast track others to a road less travelled.

I have new goals ahead of me and I am working hard to achieve these. These are totally different goals to what I have typically worked towards as a cyclist, but equally as inspiring. I get so much out of helping others change their lives for the better. I have a deep passion for coaching, mentoring and helping others, and finally, I have the time needed to do it on the scale I have always dreamed of.

As you will have gathered, I have some grand plans and those plans are constantly evolving. My vision may not transpire at once, but this is what I am striving towards and I believe it is all very possible!

Roulston Protocol

Combining my years of experience as a professional cyclist with my thirst for knowledge and self-improvement (from listening to hundreds of podcasts and reading countless books and journals) I have developed my own unique approach to nutrition, wellbeing and life coaching.

My approach combines nutrition advice with what I refer to as the four M’s: morning routines, movement, meditation and mindset – and it’s already changing people’s lives!

As an athlete I really battled with food for years and this advice comes from a huge amount of self-learning and self-experimentation. As you get to know me you’ll learn much more about my story and the real reason why I have been compelled to learn so much in this area. Nutrition and the four M’s is a huge passion of mine and I will help you understand everything needed to make the changes you once dreamed of.

Roulston Foundation

A major passion of mine is youth. I believe if you lay the right foundations at a young age it paves the way for continued success. By contrast, time and time again I see athletes get to the elite level lacking a basic understanding of what it takes to succeed at the highest level, and by this stage I feel it is very hard to change habits and mindsets.

The Roulston Foundation aims to develop young cycling talent from New Zealand in a number of ways:

• Providing them with the skills and knowledge to succeed.
• Supporting them with equipment, scholarships, travel and coaching.
• Providing pathways to the top levels of cycling both in New Zealand and around the world, including with Pro Tour teams.
• One of my great ambitions is to establish a sports academy for talented young athletes – breeding Olympic champions and the like, over and over again.

Roulston Coaching

At 19 years of age, I moved to France and rode for a division 2 amateur club called Bressuire. It was good wee team, small but they gave me everything I needed. After two strong 5 month stints where I won 2 races the first year, and 9 races the second year, I signed professional with the French team Cofidis in 2002. This was my first professional contract and something I once thought would only ever happen in my dreams. It wasn’t all nice and easy there though. I struggled a lot in that first year as an amateur. I remember ringing home homesick wanting to come home but Mum convinced me to stay. In 2000 and 2001 I had no phone, not even a laptop, so a bit different to today’s times!

After 2 years there, I headed to the star studded Discovery Channel team in 2005. I had basically made the big time. My season with Discovery Channel featured some impressive early season rides finishing 4th in Kuurne Brussel Kuurne, helping my teammate George Hincapie win the race. My season was interrupted by injury and eventually ended in October when I decided to quit my contract. I had a bad cyst on my sit bones, which kept me out of action from April 1st through till October. I couldn’t even sit on the saddle it was that bad. So I had an operation and stayed in Europe during the recovery phase, which looking back now probably wasn’t the smartest move. By this stage I was severely depressed and I rang my team manager, Johan Bryuneel and told him I wouldn’t be coming back. He was shocked, he didn’t want me to stop, but at the same time said whenever you want to come back call me.