CYCLING - Bad luck dogs Northland rider as teen wins tour

A great team effort by Auckland team Kiwi Velo saw 18-year-old Andy McNab crowned the 2009 Mizone Twin Coast Cycle Challenge champion yesterday.
The young North Shore rider finished the fourth stage in fourth place, but it was enough to win the tour overall with a combined time of 9h 30m 55s.
Auckland's Nick Lovegrove was 15 seconds down in second place, with Palmerston North's Tom Findlay third, 18 seconds behind McNab.
"It's pretty much my biggest win so far so I'm really happy. It was a great four days and I'll be back again next year," the young champion said.
His teammate Taylor Gunman and Lovegrove took him out on Saturday's 84-kilometre Opononi-to-Paihia stage and that helped him to grab the yellow jersey from Whangarei's Ben Evans, who led the tour at the halfway point.
"We broke away from the bunch about 5km into the stage and I wasn't really expecting to stay away because I was about 1m 30s down.
"But my teammates helped me out and kept the bunch slow and eventually we finished about 1m 50s up," he said.
After building up a good lead in the penultimate stage the team weren't going to throw it away.
"I was pretty tired today and I had to rely on my team to get me to the finish line and Mike won the stage today, which was an added bonus."
McNab's team captain Mike Northey led the small breakaway group of four riders, who crossed the line ahead of the main bunch at the Kamo Bypass finish line yesterday.
"The Kiwi Velo guys just rode the front for Andy McNabb so he could hold on to the yellow and it worked out pretty good.
"About three of us left the bunch with one guy attacking him, we just followed him and then I took the sprint out," Northey said.
For Northland fans, hoping for a local winner for the first time in the event's history, a double blow was in store.
Evans had bad luck on Saturday, puncturing during the stage and lost valuable time, allowing McNab to forge ahead.
"Things didn't go my way at all.
"After the puncture I got back on to the bunch but then I got blocked in at the sprint to the finish and lost more time to the guys behind me," he said.
"Today I kept attacking to try and get away but there were eight or nine in their team and they were just controlling the race and then I broke a spoke, so I was off the back again," he said after finishing the race yesterday.
Evans recovered to finish in the bunch in 14th place and was the first Northlander overall in fourth place, just over a minute down on the winner.
Former Whangarei rider Sam Weston, was well poised to become the first Northlander to win the race after starting the day in second place overall yesterday.
But a crash about 15km into the final stage saw him lose time after damaging his front wheel and he finished well back in 74th, leaving him 24th overall.
Auckland's Marina Duvnjak was the top women's finisher, completing the tour in 10h 10m 44s, more than 20 minutes clear of Kate Chilcott in second place.
Whangarei triathlete Katherine Anton just beat Chubby Hale for third place by 20 seconds after four days of cycling.
The number of entrants for this year's tour, including tandem cyclists and relay teams, hovered around the 474 mark, making the number of participants much the same as last year.