Cycling: Atkins wins Tour of Southland

Tour of Southland champion Josh Atkins of Christchurch celebrates after stage 8. Photo / Getty Images

Christchurch teenager Josh Atkins has etched his name in the history books as the youngest rider to win the Tour of Southland.

Atkins and his PowerNet team of Tom Scully, Shane Archbold, Myron Simpson, Alex Frame and Cam Karwowski did a sublime job of controlling the tour's final stage from Winton to Invercargill today, shutting down numerous attempts by nearest rival Pure Black Racing to wrestle the yellow jersey.

"I'm very stoked to pull it off for the team. They rode incredibly," Atkins said. "Pure Black's a professional team overseas and they threw what they had at us. We rode this tour together and that's all we've done together. But we outrode everyone. The guys were on the front the whole day just smashing it.

"I've won the tour but I wouldn't have done it without Shane, Myron, Cam, Alex and Tom Scully. It was all their work that brought me to the line in yellow."

Atkins, who rides for Lance Armstrong's Trek-Livestrong outfit internationally, also added the under-23 jersey and a stage win on the Crown Range to his tally. He attributed his powerful form to being relaxed.

"I've had a blast this week the whole time," he said. "After this year, I didn't enjoy riding my bike too often and since I got home from overseas I just took a way more relaxed approach.

"Throughout the tour, I was just having a good time and each day working towards a small goal and wanting to rip some guys' legs off on the hill, really."

With hail stones pelting his face as he completed media interviews on the finish line, Atkins not surprisingly didn't commit to defending his title.

"Last year I said I'd never do it again and I'm saying it again this year but, once it's over, you're hooked on it and you want to come back," Atkins said.

Today's stage eight honours went to Ascot Park Hotel's Patrick Bevan, of Rotorua, who held off a fast-finishing Jason Allen, of Christchurch, and managed to shave Atkins' overall winning margin to 57 seconds in both the overall and under-23 competitions.

"It's just awesome," Bevan said. "I've had a great week and the Ascot Park boys have been awesome. Clinton's [Avery] looked after me. He's the biggest, nicest wind break you could ever have and he's looked after me all tour. I've barely put a pedal in the wind until it really counted and I've made sure each time I've have I've done the best I could.

He paid tribute to the impressive exploits of PowerNet's team of under-23 riders.

"I'm sure they earned a lot of respect from some of the more mature rides who got a lesson in how to ride for a leader."

Traditionally blamed for any unseasonable weather which strikes in November, this year's tour was no exception when a wintry blast forced the cancellation of this morning's time trial at Winton. With snow blanketing the roads, teams retreated to the sanctuary of their accommodation to await a decision on the final stage.

It added an agonising three hours to Atkins' downtime and heightened his nervousness ahead of the final stage but the cancellation of the time trial helped his chances of claiming the title.

Following extensive checks of the course and consultation with local and national weather forecasters, organisers determined it was safe to run the final stage from Winton to Invercargill.

The only change to the original 87km route was the removal of the final three laps of Queens Park, which amounted to 12km.

Auckland's Gordon McCauley finished his 19th Tour of Southland with the sprint ace title and Joe Chapman was a clear winner of the king of the mountains. Pure Black Racing won the teams' classification.

Four-time winner Hayden Roulston, who was wearing the yellow jersey at the time, was forced to withdraw from the tour on Thursday with illness.