News
Cycling loves a redemption story and Dan Morton provided a brilliant one on stage five of the rescheduled 2025 SBS Bank Tour of Southland today.
The young Aucklander, a former junior world track cycling representative, was determined to do well on the 166km stage from Invercargill to Lumsden after a crash and a puncture on the same stage last year saw him finish towards the back of the field.
Part of a five-strong breakaway which launched about 25km into the stage, Morton was only caught with 8km left in the day and then somehow found the strength to kick again on Lumsden’s main street and leave the other stage contenders grasping. Tour of Southland Jan 2026 Stage Five, Results.PDF
“It’s every cyclist from New Zealand’s dream to win a stage here,” Morton said.
“I remember 2024 I had a lot of unfortunate mishaps on this stage. I wrote down on my goals that I wanted to do something special on this one and the Gore stage, and with a dropped chain on the Gore stage I had to get something done. I put everything into taking a win, so it’s so satisfying.”
Morton’s bold move to bridge across to the initial four-strong attack by Keegan Hornblow (Creation Signs-MitoQ-NZ Cycling Project), William Cooper (Open Country-TES), James Krzanich (Latitude Cycling Team) and Jack Clark (Macaulay Ford-Good Tech Team) paid dividends.
Behind them, the peloton played cat and mouse, never letting the break get beyond a lead of about two minutes, but the big mover turned out to be Hornblow, who launched his way into the Sprint Ace jersey.
Christchurch rider Krzanich was also rewarded with Most Combative honours.
PowerNet were able to control the pace of the race for their leader Josh Burnett, who finished the day comfortably retaining the orange jersey.
He holds a 15-second lead over Matthew Wilson (Advanced Personnel Cycling Team), with Australian Ben Dyball (Macaulay Ford-Good Tech Team) at 39 seconds in third place overall and the leading over-35 rider.
“My team mates did a fantastic job. It’s the first time a lot of them have had to ride the front like that and I was super proud of them. To be honest I didn’t have to do too much today and they did everything so a big thanks to them,” Burnett said.
“Kiaan (Watts) got close at the end but credit to Dan, that’s pretty impressive to have another go off the front after a big day in the break like that.”
Noah Hollamby (Onya Bike) leads the under-23 classification by only two seconds in fifth place overall, with William Heffernan leading the King of the Mountain classification and Macaulay Ford-Good Tech Team defending their lead in the teams classification.
Burnett, who is chasing his third Southland title, was looking forward to stage six from Invercargill to Bluff, a 154km circuit which takes in eastern and southern Southland and passes his family home twice before arguably the most iconic climb in New Zealand cycling.
“The race is wide open. So much can happen tomorrow before we even get to Bluff and everyone knows that so we’ll have to have our wits about us. It’s my favourite climb so I’m excited about that.”