2017 SBS Bank Tour of Southland stage one

30/10/2017 - A furious finish up the main street of Lumsden in the opening stage has set up what should be a fascinating week of racing on the 2017 SBS Bank Tour of Southland.

While Michael Torckler (Blindz Direct) claimed the 170km stage win from Invercargill to Lumsden, the longest of this year’s race, by half a wheel, second place proved to be enough for Roman van Uden (PowerNet) to retain the yellow jersey.

Canadian James Piccoli’s third placing provided some reward for the Kia Motors-Ascot Park Hotel team who had been supporting United States rider Eric Marcotte in a two man breakaway with Callum Gordon, for nearly half the stage.

Van Uden holds a 5sec lead over Torckler, with team mate Brad Evans in third place, 7sec back.
Early on it proved difficult for riders to get away in light, fine conditions. With temperatures topping 25degC, the heat was on as the peloton raced its way through Otautau, Ohai and NIghtcaps.

When Marcotte and Gordon (Business South) were caught with 20km to go, a bunch of 20 riders set about riding for the stage win.

“Second on the stage to Michael Torckler is pretty good,” van Uden said.

“We managed to skip away in the last 20km and the bunch of 20 we were in didn’t quite mow him down. I managed to pop out with 300m to go and finished half a wheel behind him.”

PowerNet, which includes 2015 winner Evans in its lineup, began the day eager not to be forced to the front of the peloton too much.

“We tried to limit the time we had to spend on the front. The two guys up the road was pretty ideal because it wasn’t that strong. We were mowing them down towards the end pretty easily and they had some tired legs at the end.”

Stage two of the Tour of Southland takes the riders 150km from Riverton, over the Blackmount hillclimb to a picturesque finish on the Te Anau lakefront, with more warm temperatures in the forecast.
“It was pretty hot out there so the boys are looking pretty salty in their kit, probably pretty tired tonight but they should recover alright,” van Uden said.

“It’s good to be in yellow. We don’t want to give it away for free.”

Gordon leads the King of the Mountain standings, while James Williamson (Creation Signs L&M Mining Group Ricoh) heads the sprint ace classification.

Callum Pearce (Mike Greer Homes) is the leading under 23 rider, in seventh place, while PowerNet’s Paul Odlin is the leading over 35 rider.

New Caledonian rider Florian Barket (Team Skoda Racing) was judged the Most Combative rider from stage one.