Tour’s first Mexican rider wins stage three
THE Tour of Southland’s first Mexican rider has made an emphatic statement at the midway point of this year’s race.
Eder Frayre holds a 28sec lead over Southland’s Corbin Strong, with defending champion Michael Vink trailing by 33sec after yesterday’s Queen stage — the 138km beat from Mossburn to the top of Coronet Peak, near Queenstown.
Frayre launched a withering attack on the arduous 9km climb to the Coronet skifield, the rest of the peloton powerless to stop him as Christchurch’s Jake Marryatt crossed the line second and Strong headed home Vink for third place.
Frayre arrived in Southland on the recommendation of 2009 Tour of Southland winner Heath Blackgrove, who has been his team director for the past couple of years.
‘‘It was beautiful today, but every stage has been beautiful. I love this country, New Zealand,’’ Frayre said.
The Coronet Peak stage was one Frayre had been looking forward to, and had discussed extensively with Blackgrove.
‘‘When they invited me here to race I looked at the stage profiles and when I arrived last week my team brought me here to see what it was like. I knew it could be a good day for me. I knew I had to attack early, because I like to do that on the climbs.’’
Benign conditions made it difficult for any breaks of note to develop through the first half of yesterday’s stage as the race travelled through northern Southland and towards Lake Wakatipu.
A group led by national road champion James Fouche, who would win the Most Combative jersey for the stage, eventually managed to find some freedom around the Devil’s Staircase and into the shadow of the Remarkables, edging out past five minutes at one point.
Some illtimed crashes made it harder for teams to organise their reply and it was Christchurch’s Max Jones, who gapped the field and started the climb alone.
However, Frayre would come through and make no race of the climb, shaking up the general classification standings in the process.
The winner will now likely come from the top three of Frayre, Strong and Vink, who has been on the podium for the past three years.