Gordon McCauley produced a powerful ride to win yesterday's Tour of Southland stage from Lumsden to the Crown Range, but Hayden Roulston was the big mover, grabbing the yellow jersey back after a strong ride for third.
McCauley, the 2005 champion riding for Trek/Zookeepers, and Englishman Kristian House,
of the leading Calder Stewart team, broke away from the leading bunch after crossing the Shotover Bridge - before McCauley left House behind approaching the finish line near Queenstown.
McCauley finished 38s in front of House in a time of 2h 23m 51s for the 133.9km journey.
McCauley's teammate and previous race leader, Aaron Strong, finished 13th among the chasing bunch, but Roulston had done enough to assume the lead on general classification after the sixth of nine stages.
His closest challenge comes from Reon Park, who is 28s in arrears. Strong slipped to third overall, 43s behind the leader.
McCauley beat Roulston to the line by 1m 19s yesterday but lies eighth overall, 1m 46s behind the international rider.
McCauley said he was pleased with the stage win but also a bit disappointed because he could not see himself overhauling Roulston in the final two days of the tour.
"I came down here to win the tour. The stage is a nice consolation, but Hayden Roulston is a phenomenal rider, a class above all the New Zealand riders," McCauley said.
The Zookeepers team had planned to get him away in an early break without many of the top riders yesterday, and it had worked to begin with.
However, they were hauled in comfortably enough by a chasing pack, including Roulston.
Winning a stage on top of a mountain was a bit different for him, and he was happy about that.
Yesterday's stage started in Lumsden in snow, and many of the riders were wrapped up in legwarmers and layers.
By Kingston, the leading group of 11, including McCauley and sprint points leader Karl Murray, was 4m 4s ahead. Six more riders, including House, later joined the group.
Murray maintained his stranglehold on the sprint-ace jersey, while Creation Signs team member Joe Chapman, who was in the leading group for much of the race, took over the king of the mountain jersey from teammate Ashley Whitehead.
- NZPA
