Story courtesy of Nathan Burbon - Southland Times
Gordon McCauley's gutsy ride in the Commonwealth Games road race has earned him offers from two professional teams, but he won't be taking up either of them.
The 38-year-old has been slow to recover from the Delhi Games, where his hard-charging style helped New Zealand team-mate Hayden Roulston to a silver medal, with illness limiting his training.
However, his Games form has peaked the interest of two overseas teams, one a low-paid offer and the other a tempting one that would have allowed him to remain in New Zealand and commute to race in events.
McCauley wouldn't reveal any specifics of the offers citing confidentiality, but said his time competing fulltime overseas was over.
"Essentially now I'm retired as an international rider. It was actually meant to be last year but then I won the time trial nationals and I got told I was going to the Games and worlds and I thought if I'm going to do that I'm not going to do it half-hearted, I'll do the buildup races and do it properly."
McCauley said he also owed a debt to the customers in his coaching business, most of whom had stuck by him despite the time he had spent overseas.
"I was really lucky. Ninety per cent of the athletes I've got respected what I was trying to do for the year. I need to pay those people some attention. Once Tour of Southland is out of the way it's 100 per cent looking after the people that I coach."Gordon McCauley, one of New Zealand cycling's most colourful characters, will be writing a daily column for The Southland Times during this year's Tour of Southland.
A two-time winner of the event, McCauley will be riding his 18th Southland tour.
» For The Southland Times' comprehensive coverage of this year's Tour of Southland and past Southland tours, go to its dedicated cycling section.