First honours to young Aussie
AUSTRALIAN teenager Jensen Plowright took stage honours in a sprint down the main street of Lumsden after the first main stage of the Tour of Southland yesterday.
Plowright benefited from a day in which all six of the Kia MotorsAscot Park Hotel team made it into the major break after the peloton was ravaged by crosswinds after travelling through the coal towns of Ohai and Nightcaps.
‘‘At the start of the stage our team were just following the moves, making sure the bunch stayed together,’’ Plowright said.
‘‘We were looking to [team] Placemakers to do a lot of chasing because they were in yellow, and then probably 100km in the crosswinds hit, which we weren’t really expecting. I’m 80kg, so I don’t move very easily and they were blowing me around.’’
The wind resulted in a long trail of riders making their way across the finish line.
Several crashes kept medical staff busy.
Plowright is back for a second Southland tour. He made his tour debut as an 18yearold last year.
There were 15 riders who shared the same time in the dash to the line yesterday.
Plowright has the tour lead, a couple of seconds ahead of Campbell Stewart with Michael Vink back in third.
PetrotecBlackmax’s Ioan Fuller, from Nelson, and Support Clean Sport’s Brendan Housler, from the United States, formed an early twoman breakaway.
The combination shared the spoils on the road, with Fuller taking over the king of the mountains jersey and Housler claiming the sprint ace classification and the Most Combative jersey.
Today’s stage starts from Riverton at 10am and is expected to finish on the Te Anau lakefront just before 2pm.
The tour concludes on Saturday.
❛ I’m 80kg, so I don’t move very easily and
they [strong crosswinds] were blowing me around