Hawke's Bay's Rio Olympic Games cyclist Regan Gough will wear the yellow jersey for the opening stage of the SBS Bank Tour of Southland today.
The 2015 world team pursuit champion and his Mike Greer Homes teammates Jason Allen, Sam Horgan, Tim Rush, Michael Vink and Ben Johnstone took out yesterday's 4km team trial prologue around Invercargill's Queens Park to make an early statement in the 60th anniversary of New Zealand's most prestigious stage race.
"It was good to come away with it, we probably weren't the best team on paper so to do that we were all stoked," Waipukurau's Gough said.
"We ummed and ahhed - it is quite hard being in the yellow jersey in the first stage and you have a lot of responsibility put on your shoulders for not much (reward)."
A transponder issue meant that the prologue was unofficially claimed by the Kia Motors-Ascot Park Hotel team, who eventually had to settle for second place on the same time, while the Barry Stewart Builders team, which includes another Ramblers Cycling Club and Central Hawke's Bay Cycle Club member Luke Mudgway, was third, seven seconds in arrears.