Cycling: Mexican victory ends tour

Wanganui's Hayley Giddens winning her second Grand Prix Carreras Ciclistas in Mexico this month. Photo/Supplied

Wanganui professional cyclist Hayley Giddens signed off on her seven-month Central and South American sojourn with a second victory in the Grand Prix Carreras Ciclistas in the Mexican resort town of Playa del Carmen.

The 24-year-old also won the women's race of the Carreras Ciclistas series in January, the event being near her training ground on Cozumel Island in the Caribbean Sea, which has an ironman bike course.

Giddens rode solo again in the 40km circuit race, attacking after 10km and maintaining her lead for the duration.

"It's always great to win and validate your training," she said.

Having toured Colombia, Costa Rica and Guatemala since October, Giddens spent the past three months training on the Caribbean coast in eastern Mexico and admitted it had been a difficult experience at times.

"I'm super lucky, I get to do what I love for a living. But it is hard being away from home for so long.

"I spent two months in New Zealand last year, and I'm not coming home until after the United States race season, which is six months."

She had to thank parents Phil and Mary-Ellen Giddens for sending all the positive thoughts from a great distance.

"I miss my parents heaps and cannot wait to see them again. Skype, email, and phone calls help.

"But the hard thing is the eighteen hour time difference, there are a lot of missed phone calls," Giddens said.

Giddens returned to the states to rejoin her ISCorp Intelligentsia team last week and came third at the Tour of St. Louis at the weekend.

She will spend two weeks in Missouri in the American mid-west, before heading north to her team's base in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The team will undertake at training camp in Colorado in April.