Sport & Motorsport
Cambridge’s Matthew Wilson has made a major statement on the Queen Stage of the 2026 SBS Bank Tour of Southland.
The 25-year-old professional gravel bike and mountainbiker produced a commanding performance on the 108km stage from Mossburn to the Remarkables to win the stage by more than 1min and force his way into the general classification’s orange jersey.
Wilson, you could argue, is due.
The Advanced Personnel rider has twice finished runner-up to Josh Burnett in this tour, last year by less than a dozen seconds.
He shadowed Burnett to the end of the gruelling 6km climb up the Remarkables access road in January’s rescheduled event but made no race of this stage, with ageless former grand tour and leading over 35 rider Ben Dyball (Macaulay Ford-GoodTech) second and Finnegan Murphy (Latitude) third.
Having worked hard for scant reward for the past two Southland tours, Wilson was pleased to have orange on his shoulders for the first time.
“It feels great. The team has been coming down here for a number of years and the goal has always been to win the tour so we are right where we need to be,” he said.
“You can’t ever relax here in Southland - particularly with the weather. You never know what’s going to happen and there’s a strong field here this year too. It’s not going to be relaxing but I’ve definitely got a bit of confidence going into the back end of the week. I like my odds on Bluff and I’ve shown I can time trial, so we’re in a good spot.”
Australian Max Campbell (Macaulay Ford-GoodTech), winner of the street race on Monday, had a big day out surrounded by northern Southland and Lake Wakatipu’s scenic vistas.
He led separate breakaways with Hamish Keast (Open Country TES) and later New Zealand endurance track rider Dan Morton (Pista Corsa X-Lab) to earn himself the edge in the Sprint Ace standings and Most Combative honours.
By the time the race entered the access road car park the peloton had essentially absorbed the leaders back into a single organism, ready for one of the hardest climbs in New Zealand cycling.
Jeremy Presbury (Creation Signs-Whoosh-NZ Cycling Project), who had started the stage with a wafer-thin 1sec lead, has the lead in the King of the Mountain classification, but finished ninth on the stage to trail by 1min 31sec.
“We did what we planned to do. The boys delivered me to the bottom of the hill pretty much in first place and it felt like I’d hardly touched the pedals all day, so massive shout out to them,” Presbury said.
The Southlander is not giving up, with tomorrow’s 178.5km stage from Invercargill to Lumsden - the longest stage of the week - promising to provide more opportunities to attack.
“We are praying for high winds and chaos, because that’s where we thrive.”
Australian rider Levi Hone also produced an impressive climb to finish fourth on the stage and jump up to third overall and the leading under 23 rider.
It was yet another strong performance by Team Brennan, who have crossed the ditch and made a great impression with their positive riding. They now lead the Teams Classification.