Van Uden retains yellow jersey
Auckland’s Roman van Uden may have missed out on winning the Invercargill to Lumsden stage of the Tour of Southland, but he has retained the yellow jersey.
Taranaki’s Michael Torckler won a bunch sprint finish to claim the first stage of cycling’s SBS Tour of Southland yesterday.
Torckler from Blindz Direct edged yellow jersey holder Roman van Uden (PowerNet) and James Piccoli (Kia Motors- Ascot Park Hotel) finished third.
The peloton caught the early breakaway pair of United States rider Eric Marcotte from Kia Motors - Ascot Park Hotel and Gisborne’s Callum Gordon from Business South in the final 25km of the long 170km stage, to make for an exciting finish.
Torckler and Kia Motors - Ascot Park Hotel’s Taylor Gunman made a mini-break on the leading bunch in the final stages, before being swallowed up by a bunch of 30 riders at the finish.
Van Uden, who picked up the yellow jersey on his 29th birthday after the prologue around Invercargill’s Queens Park was relieved to retain the yellow jersey, despite finishing half a wheel behind Torckler.
‘‘Second on the stage to Michael Torckler is pretty good,’’ van Uden said.
‘‘We managed to skip away in the last 5km and the bunch of twenty we were in didn’t quite mow him down. I managed to pop out from the group with about 300m to go and finished half a wheel behind him.’’
The powerful PowerNet combination, which includes 2015 winner Brad Evans in its lineup, were keen to stay tucked away and fresh in the warm conditions.
‘‘We tried to limit the time we had to spend on the front so the breakaway didn’t go for 60km, we were trying to put a guy in the move so we wouldn’t have to do all of the chasing,’’ he said.
‘‘The two guys up the road was pretty ideal because it wasn’t that strong. We were mowing them down towards the end pretty easily and they had some tired legs at the end.’’
Tuesday’s stage two of the takes the riders 150km from Riverton, over the Blackmount hillclimb to a picturesque finish on the Te Anau lakefront, with more warm temperatures forecast.
‘‘It was pretty hot out there so the boys are looking pretty salty in their kit, probably pretty tired tonight but they should recover alright,’’ van Uden said.
‘‘It’s good to be in yellow. We don’t want to give it away for free.’’
Earlier in the stage, Marcotte and Gordon made an early break just before the Orawia Hill approximately 60km into the 170km first stage from Invercargill to Lumsden and held off the chasing pack for half the race, stretching their lead to nearly four minutes at one stage before they were caught.
Gordon leads the King of the Mountain standings, while James Williamson (Creation Signs L&M Mining Group Ricoh) will wear the sprint ace green jersey.
Callum Pearce (Mike Greer Homes) is the leading under 23 rider, in seventh place, while PowerNet’s Paul Odlin is the leading over 35 rider.
Torckler and 2015 champion Evans are second and third overall heading into stage two, while Southland riders Nick Kergozou and Matt Zenovich finished fifth and eighth on Monday, to sit in the top dozen riders in the general classification.