Cycling: Latham faces tough task to hold on to yellow jersey

Rising New Zealand cycling star Peter Latham is predicting a tough fight today to retain the Wellington-Wairarapa cycle classic's yellow jersey.

Latham, better known as a time-triallist, won the 117km stage from Featherston to Masterton in the morning to take the yellow jersey from Hayden Godfrey and then took out the hour-long Masterton criterium with a powerful sprint to the line in the afternoon.

The 19-year-old from Te Awamutu, an Athens Olympian and a member of the national pursuit team who finished second to Germany in a World Cup meet in Los Angeles in December, has a total time of five hours two minutes six seconds -- just eight seconds ahead of Cervelo's Gordon McCauley and Team Subway's Fraser McMaster.

Christchurch's Godfrey began the day with the yellow jersey but finished it wearing the sprint ace's green jersey by winning four of the five sprints on offer during the criterium.

MG Xpower from Australia have four riders -- Stuart Shaw, Aaron Strong, Tony Mann and Shaun Higgerson in the top six on general classification -- while McMaster's teammates, Jeremy Vennel and Godfrey are among a group 12 seconds behind.

Then there is McCauley.

Latham will not be alone however -- Samsung NZ teammates Tim Gudsell and 2002 tour winner Robin Reid -- are also sixth equal on general classification and can be expected to help him to retain the tour lead as they did in yesterday's criterium.

Today's stage four, 158km from Masterton to Pahiatua and back takes in numerous hills and riders are expecting the unexpected.

"Anything can happen -- but we have got a pretty good team," Latham said.

"We got Tim Gudsell and Robin Reid up with the leading bunch so we have some good options.

"MG Xpower are pretty tactically astute. We didn't really know how strong they are but just from the last two stages, we pretty quickly realised they are major contenders.

"Then there are the Subway guys with Fraser McMaster, Jeremy Vennell and Godfrey.

"Gordie's (McCauley) always there just trying to sneak away and upset a few riders -- it just makes the race more a whole lot of fun or not so fun for us."

Latham was in a group of 17 riders who made a break about 20km from the start.

The leading bunch included Strong, Mann, the 2004 Australian road race champion, Glennan, Higgerson and two time winner Ric Reid, racing for Geniusbikes.com/Castelli, Gudsell, Godfrey, Vennell, McMaster and McCauley.

The main bunch appeared unable to match the pace set by the leaders and were steadily left behind until an unbridgeable gap of eight minutes had built up with just 17km to go.

As usual, it was McCauley who caught the eye when he punctured a rear wheel at 84km but was dramatically back in the group after chasing hard for 2km to keep his hopes of winning the tour for the first time alive.

"I had a puncture, I got a wheel change and I chased back on," said McCauley, probably the only one not impressed with his feat.

"You just got to chase, don't you -- you got to get back on, you got to get back on."

The 32-year-old Aucklander's efforts paid off in the afternoon when he finished second in the criterium and moved up from equal fourth at 10 seconds into equal second with McMaster.

Latham said the morning's win in 2hr 46min 3secs was something he wanted.

"Last couple of years, I finished 17th but I thought this year, I was going to put the heat on from before the roundabout about 500m from the finish and I got there, so I'm pretty happy."

His criterium win was due to the efforts of Gudsell, Reid, Marc Ryan and Jason Allen who he said gave him an armchair ride.

He was "just loving it at the end", as he pipped McCauley and Stuart Shaw at the line.

- NZPA