Vink closes in on tour title
James Piccoli may have won another battle, but Michael Vink looks set to claim the Tour of Southland war.
Canadian Piccoli claimed his second-straight stage win when taking out yesterday’s 151km fifth stage from Invercargill to Gore.
But Cantabrian Vink marked just about his every move, finishing safely in the main pack, 11 seconds behind Piccoli to maintain a threeminute, three-second gap to him in the overall standings. Hamish Bond sits second overall, one minute and 32 seconds behind Vink after finishing with the same time.
Vink has been the nearly-man of the tour, but looks set to add a title to his impressive run of finishes, including runner-up the last two years.
‘‘I’ve been runner up twice, third, fourth, seventh and ninth – I’ve been so, so close so many times and I feel like I’ve made every mistake in the book in this race so I feel like I’m due a win,’’ Vink said.
It was a relatively quiet stage after the weather battering the race has received this week, but there was a huge amount of pressure being applied on Vink and his WPC Southjoyride Apparel team, especially by the Kia Motors-ascot Park Hotel team including defending champion Piccoli and Bond.
With Vink, Bond and Sam Gaze catching the early break midway through the stage and Vink latching onto second-placed Bond’s wheel throughout, Piccoli was able to slip away on the Broughton St hillclimb to take his second stage win in as many days and make up for some of the disappointment of his crash at the base of Coronet Peak on Wednesday.
‘‘Today the plan was just to disrupt the race as much as we could to try and gain some time back on GC for Hamish,’’ Piccoli said.
‘‘Unfortunately Mike Vink did a great job of defending today. We threw everything we had at him and we got close to making him vulnerable so we will keep fighting.’’
The final two stages are today. The first is a 13km time trial around Winton. Vink is a noted time trial rider and won’t expect to lose significant time over the short course.
That will leave him with a final 77km stage from Invercargill to Winton to defend the yellow jersey.
At a glance
Stage 5: 1. James Piccoli (KAP) 3h23m53s; 2. Dylan Kennett (PMK) at 11s; 3. Nick White (AVE) at 11s; 4. Jensen Plowright (AVE) at 11s; 5. Darcy Pirotta (VSR) at 11s; 6. Carne Groube (TPS) at 11s; 7. Joel Walsh (OPC) at 11s; 8. Michael Vink (WJA) at 11s; 9. Ryan Christensen (KAP) at 11s; 10. Ben Oliver (OPC) at 11s. Overall standings: 1. Michael Vink (WJA) 18h11m52s; 2. Hamish Bond (KAP) at 01m32s; 3. James Piccoli (KAP) at 03m03s; 4. Sam Gaze (PNL) at 03m17s; 5. Ryan Christensen (KAP) at 05m02s; 6. Matt Zenovich (PMK) at 06m29s; 7. Ethan Batt (WJA) at 06m51s; 8. Paul Odlin (PNL) at 07m06s; 9. Corbin Strong (TSF) at 09m13s; 10. Jesse Featonby (AVE) at 09m13s.