Gibson wins Classic photo finish
He needed a photo finish, but Matthew Gibson surged home to win stage three of the New Zealand Cycle Classic in the Wairarapa yesterday.
Gibson (JLT Condor), from Great Britain, crossed the line in 2hr 53min 25sec, while Australian Cycling Academy’s (ACA) Tobias Orchard was second.
Kiwi Nick Reddish, who is racing for an Australian team, finished 24th but retained the yellow jersey.
So close was the sprint that Gibson had to wait a few minutes before the judges could announce him as the stage winner, following a photo finish that concluded the126km stretch from Masterton to the wine village of Martinborough, including nine laps around a flat, fast 8.1km circuit.
‘‘I obviously tried to keep relaxed and stay not too close during the first few laps and the boys in the team did a great job getting me to the front and keeping me in a good spot to sprint in the last few hundred metres and take the win – I was pretty happy with that,’’ Gibson said.
Yesterday’s stage saw little movement until the 40km mark, when Michael Potter, Angus Lyons, Swiss rider Cyrille Theiry and Team Frezzor Racing’s Kees Duyvesteyn made a breakaway.
The lead was maintained until the group came into Martinborough, but when Lyons endured a double puncture he was eventually swallowed up by the peloton, which at that point were 2min 36sec behind.
The remaining trio stayed together as they raced around the circuit, with Potter winning the sprint stages and then attacking the breakaway.
With under 10km to go, he eventually got dragged in by the peloton, resulting in a mass sprint for the finish line and an appreciative crowd which lined the town square.
During the prizegiving, which was given by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, Reddish praised his team-mates for protecting him and said they had performed ‘‘out of their skins’’.
He said he was still full of confidence heading into today’s ‘‘Queen Stage’’, which is a 150km hilly route, featuring around five hill climbs, including a 9km slog up Admiral Hill in Gladstone.
Race director Jorge Sandoval is predicting the race will be blown open tomorrow.
‘‘I think tomorrow’s general classification is going to be turned upside down with some of the riders we haven’t seen for the last few days featuring in the top four or five in the finish at Admiral Hill,’’ Sandoval said.