James Piccoli for consecutive wins in the Mataura Licensing Trust stage of the SBS Bank Tour of Southland into Gore. He’s somehow broken off the front and taken the win! What a great result for the Ascot Park Hotel – Kia Motors Southland Cycling Team!

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Cantabrian Michael Vink is on the cusp on a hard-earned Tour of Southland victory with two stages remaining in New Zealand’s most prestigious stage race.

After surviving everything the peloton could throw at him on today’s 151km stage from Invercargill to Gore, Vink will be hoping it’s third time lucky tomorrow after finishing runner-up in the SBS Bank-sponsored race in 2016 and 2017. echo adrotate_group(4, array("fallback" => 0, "weight" => 0, "site" => "no"));

“I’ve been runner up twice, third, fourth, seventh and ninth – I’ve been so, so close so many times and I feel like I’ve made every mistake in the book in this race so I feel like I’m due a win,” the affable Vink said.

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“You just don’t know. Things can turn on their head so quickly on this tour – a bad night, a puncture, I’ll prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

It was a relatively quiet stage today after the weather battering the race has received this week, but there was a huge amount of pressure being applied on Vink and his WPC South-Joyride Apparel team, especially by the Kia Motors-Ascot Park Hotel team including defending champion James Piccoli and Hamish Bond.

With Vink, Bond and Sam Gaze catching the early break midway through the stage and Vink latching onto second-placed Bond’s wheel throughout, Piccoli was able to slip away on the Broughton St hill climb to take his second stage win in as many days and make up for some of the disappointment of his crash at the base of Coronet Peak on Wednesday.

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“Today the plan was just to disrupt the race as much as we could to try and gain some time back on GC for Hamish,” Piccoli said.

“Unfortunately Mike Vink did a great job of defending today. We threw everything we had at him and we got close to making him vulnerable so we will keep fighting tomorrow. That’s why we are here, to fight and race our bikes. We won’t give up until the race is over.”

Vink, who leads Bond by 1min 32sec, Piccoli by 3min 03sec and Gaze by 3min 17sec, is a noted time trial rider and won’t expect to lose significant time over the short 13km course based around Winton.

That will leave him with a final 77km stage from Invercargill to Winton to defend the yellow jersey tomorrow afternoon.

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“I think I’ve won that (time trial) three of four times, but I’ve never had to go up against Hamish Bond before, and a Hamish Bond who is in the GC battle. I’m going to ride as fast as I can, that’s the plan,” Vink said.

Today’s stage got underway with a nice moment when Southland’s junior world team pursuit champion Corbin Strong was honoured with a haka by his Southland Boys’ High school mates as the peloton passed the school.

Strong is placed second behind Ethan Batt in the under 23 classification, and ninth overall, with Batt having also virtually locked up the King of the Mountain jersey.

Southland’s Matt Zenovich has a big lead in the Sprint Ace classification, while Paul Odlin is the race’s leading over 35 rider.

Results from the 6th stage of the SBS Tour of Southland.

Invercargill – Drummond – Hedgehope – Waimumu – Gore

James Piccoli (KAP) 3h23m53s;
Dylan Kennett (PMK) at 11s;
Nick White (AVE) at 11s;
Jensen Plowright (AVE) at 11s;
Darcy Pirotta (VSR) at 11s;
Carne Groube (TPS) at 11s;
Joel Walsh (OPC) at 11s;
Michael Vink (WJA) at 11s;
Ryan Christensen (KAP) at 11s;
Ben Oliver (OPC) at 11s;
Corbin Strong (TSF) at 11s;
Connor Brown (PNL) at 11s;
Sam Gaze (PNL) at 11s;
Hamish Bond (KAP) at 11s;
Jordan Schmidt (VSR) at 11s;
Thomas Hubbard (PMK) at 11s;
Paul Odlin (PNL) at 11s;
Steve Nicholls (FNN) at 11s;
John Wansink (ITM) at 11s;
Jesse Featonby (AVE) at 11s;
Alex Heaney (PNL) at 11s;
Josh Kuysten (PNL) at 11s;
Brad Evans (WJA) at 16s;
Matt Zenovich (PMK) at 21s;
Tom Sexton (BSS) at 26s;

Overall Standings

Michael Vink (WJA) 18h11m52s;
Hamish Bond (KAP) at 01m32s;
James Piccoli (KAP) at 03m03s;
Sam Gaze (PNL) at 03m17s;
Ryan Christensen (KAP) at 05m02s;
Matt Zenovich (PMK) at 06m29s;
Ethan Batt (WJA) at 06m51s;
Paul Odlin (PNL) at 07m06s;
Corbin Strong (TSF) at 09m13s;
Jesse Featonby (AVE) at 09m13s;
Connor Brown (PNL) at 09m19s;
Ben Oliver (OPC) at 09m59s;
Nick White (AVE) at 10m34s;
Glenn Haden (VFF) at 12m18s;
Jordan Schmidt (VSR) at 14m35s;
Alex Heaney (PNL) at 15m06s;
Campbell Pithie (ITM) at 15m55s;
Julian Thomson (OPC) at 16m00s;
Tom Sexton (BSS) at 16m35s;
Blake Sunde (ACA) at 16m44s;
Kane Richards (ITM) at 16m50s;
Joel Walsh (OPC) at 17m13s;
Sascha Bondarenko-Edwards (TSF) at 17m41s;
Ben Andrews (AVE) at 17m42s;
Brad Evans (WJA) at 19m32s;

Team Overall

Kia Motors-Ascot Park Hotel 54h44m56s;
WPC South-Joyride Apparel at 08m16s;
Powernet at 10m36s;
Aardvark Excavators Ltd at 26m42s;
Placemakers at 28m55s;
Team Skoda Fruzio at 29m32s;
Olphert Contracting at 31m53s;
ITM at 37m49s;
Velofit-Santic Racing at 55m10s;
Adair Craik Accountants at 1h17m43s;

Sprints

Matt Zenovich (PMK) 67;
James Fouche (CSR) 37;
Ollie Jones (PNL) 29;
Alex Vogel (VFF) 28;
Kevin Girkins (KAP) 19;
Jordan Gilmore (CBW) 17;
Paul Odlin (PNL) 15;
Dylan Kennett (PMK) 13;
Morgan Smith (AVE) 11;
Jensen Plowright (AVE) 11;

King of Mountains

Ethan Batt (WJA) 48;
James Piccoli (KAP) 21;
Matt Zenovich (PMK) 21;
Michael Vink (WJA) 15;
Thomas Hubbard (PMK) 15;
Hamish Bond (KAP) 15;
Nick White (AVE) 10;
Ioan Fuller (TPS) 8;
Sam Gaze (PNL) 8;
Ryan Christensen (KAP) 8;

Tour Of Southland Stage Five Wrap Up & Results

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