Solid day for SUBWAY® Pro Cycling at Tour of Southland

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Paul Odlin retained a position inside the top 10 and Nick Lovegrove experienced time as Tour leader on the road for the second time, at today’s Powernet Tour of Southland.

In a repeat of stage two Lovegrove was again in the day’s key break that managed to stay ahead of the field until the final three kilometre climb up to the Crowne Terrace after escaping at the 30 kilometre mark.

“The plan was to get in a move and I was just patrolling the front of the bunch being vigilant when the break went and I made sure I was in it,” Lovegrove said.

He was joined by his teammate, former New Zealand representative rower Ian Smallman, who unfortunately crashed at the 80 kilometre mark and had to retire with a broken collar bone.

After two hours of racing the leaders had a lead of over four minutes which meant Lovegrove was the Tour’s virtual leader for the second time during racing at this year’s Tour.

“I felt good all day and was happy with how I was riding. We had a plan and with me up the road it meant the guys a little less pressure to do too much work and it was good to be represented at the front of the race for another day.”

As the riders headed around the edge of Lake Wakatipu the break was slowly being reeled in and as the leaders approached Frankton they split with Lovegrove, Brendan Sharrat (Creation Signs-L & M Racing), Brett Tivers (Share the Road), Clinton Avery (Ascot Park) and Scott Lyttle (Pure Black) continuing to drive towards the finish on the Crowne Terrace.

As the leaders approached the final kilometres Josh Atkins (Powernet) managed to bridge across from the chasing bunch and then climbed up the final three kilometres that saw him claim the tough 179 kilometre stage and the yellow jersey.

Odlin, who was lying fifth overall at the start of racing today, only 25 seconds behind Tour leader Hayden Roulston, was the first SUBWAY® Pro Cycling to finish, coming in nineteenth, one minute and 55 seconds behind Aktins. Westley Gough was the next SUBWAY® Pro Cycling rider home, just four seconds behind Odlin.

SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s remaining riders Lovegrove, Pete Latham and Sam Horgan all finished comfortably inside the top thirty, after what was a very challenging day of rain, tough climbs and cross winds.

“It was another solid day for the team,” Odlin said. “We feel for Ian as he was riding well but we’ll now look ahead to see what we can achieve over the final two days of racing.”

Atkins, who rides internationally for Lance Armstrong’s powerful Trek-LIVESTRONG team, claimed the PowerNet team’s inaugural stage win.

“It’s good to finally get a stage win for PowerNet,” he said. “That’s all we wanted so we got that and I got the yellow. I didn’t really come into the Tour with too many goals. It was a last minute decision and for a while I was regretting coming down.”

Atkins now boasts a one minute nine second lead over Ascot Park Hotel’s Patrick Bevan, of Rotorua, with Kia Motors’ George Bennett, of Nelson, a further 16 seconds back. The trio also hold the top three placings in the battle for the Co-Operative Bank Under-23 jersey.

Auckland’s Gordon McCauley extended his dominance of the Harcourts Sprint Ace jersey to 63 points over Share the Road’s Chris Macic, while Dunedin’s Joe Chapman retains the Hydralink-Jesco King of the Mountain jersey for a fourth consecutive day with a 32 point advantage over Brendon Sharratt, of Wanganui.

Share the Road earned a slim 21 second buffer over Pure Black Racing to take over the teams’ classification, with SUBWAY® Pro Cycling sitting fifth, four minutes and 18 seconds behind the leaders.

Results from Stage 5 of the PowerNet Tour of Southland.
Te Anau - Five Rivers - Kingston - Frankton - Crown Range
1. Josh Atkins (PNT) 4h22m06s; 2. Patrick Bevin (APH) at 29s; 3. Jeremy Yates (STR) at 29s; 4. George Bennett (KMT) at 35s; 5. Andi Bajc (STH) at 39s; 6. Taylor Gunman (OWA) at 51s; 7. Mike Olheiser (JPW) at 55s; 8. Brendan Sharratt (CSL) at 01m01s; 9. Scott Lyttle (PBR) at 01m06s; 10. Brett Tivers (STR) at 01m10s; 11. Tim Gudsell (PBR) at 01m16s; 12. Chris Macic (STR) at 01m20s; 13. Aaron Strong (APH) at 01m22s; 14. Eric Drower (PTL) at 01m33s; 15. Alexander Ray (OWA) at 01m41s; 16. Dion Smith (OWA) at 01m41s; 17. Joseph Cooper (MCP) at 01m46s; 18. Shem Rodger (PBR) at 01m55s; 19. Paul Odlin (SUB) at 01m55s; 20. Westley Gough (SUB) at 01m59s; 21. Danny Pulbrook (RDS) at 02m07s; 22. Marc Ryan (CST) at 02m30s; 23. Clinton Avery (APH) at 02m30s; 24. Simon Binney (SIT) at 02m35s; 25. Tom Scully (PNT) at 02m38s;
 

Overall Standings
1. Josh Atkins (PNT) 15h35m17s; 2. Patrick Bevin (APH) at 01m09s; 3. George Bennett (KMT) at 01m25s; 4. Chris Macic (STR) at 01m26s; 5. Jeremy Yates (STR) at 01m28s; 6. Scott Lyttle (PBR) at 01m30s; 7. Andi Bajc (STH) at 01m38s; 8. Mike Olheiser (JPW) at 02m19s; 9. Tim Gudsell (PBR) at 02m21s; 10. Paul Odlin (SUB) at 02m22s; 11. Taylor Gunman (OWA) at 02m32s; 12. Shem Rodger (PBR) at 02m35s; 13. Brett Tivers (STR) at 03m00s; 14. Dion Smith (OWA) at 03m15s; 15. Joseph Cooper (MCP) at 03m27s; 16. Westley Gough (SUB) at 03m44s; 17. Marc Ryan (CST) at 03m45s; 18. Nick Lovegrove (SUB) at 04m00s; 19. Clinton Avery (APH) at 04m09s; 20. Danny Pulbrook (RDS) at 04m15s; 21. Tom Scully (PNT) at 04m40s; 22. Peter Latham (SUB) at 05m06s; 23. Simon Binney (SIT) at 05m45s; 24. Ryan Obst (RDS) at 07m39s; 25. Greg Taylor (UHM) at 08m19s;
 

Team Overall
1. Share The Road 46h51m46s; 2. Pure Black Racing at 21s; 3. Ascot Park Hotel at 02m08s; 4. H&J's Outdoor World-Avanti Plus at 02m47s; 5. Subway Pro Cycling at 04m18s; 6. PowerNet at 12m11s; 7. Kia Motors at 15m47s; 8. Calder Stewart at 19m01s; 9. Ultimo-HGM at 31m41s; 10. Creation Signs - L&M Group Racing at 33m18s;
 

Sprints
1. Gordon McCauley (BSB) 102; 2. Chris Macic (STR) 39; 3. Oliver Harding-Sheath (PTL) 28; 4. Clinton Avery (APH) 18; 5. Tom Scully (PNT) 12; 6. Brad Evans (OCL) 12; 7. Cameron Karwowski (PNT) 12; 8. Brett Tivers (STR) 11; 9. Alex Meenhorst (KMT) 11; 10. James McCoy (HCL) 11;
 

King of Mountains
1. Joe Chapman (CSL) 48; 2. Brendan Sharratt (CSL) 16; 3. Patrick Bevin (APH) 14; 4. Tom Hubbard (HCL) 12; 5. Josh Atkins (PNT) 10; 6. Aaron Strong (APH) 10; 7. Brett Tivers (STR) 8; 8. Michael Vink (MCP) 8; 9. Cameron Karwowski (PNT) 6; 10. Aaron Gate (CSL) 6;

• Tomorrow’s 167 km Stage 6 starts at 10am at the ILT Velodrome, Surrey Park Road, Invercargill, and finishes approx 2.30 pm, Hokonui Drive, Gore
• For more information about the Powernet Tour of Southland see www.tourofsouthland.com