Cycling: Roulston wins Tour of Southland

New Zealand Olympian Hayden Roulston secured his fourth Tour of Southland cycling title in a photo-finish. Photo / Getty Images

Just one-thousandth of a second secured Hayden Roulston his fourth Tour of Southland cycling title in Invercargill today.

The photo-finish win in this morning's 79km penultimate stage from Te Anau to Lumsden -- and the time bonus it earned -- saw Calder Stewart-Bike NZ rider Roulston snatch the yellow jersey and, ultimately, overall victory by just two seconds from Share the Road's Jack Bauer, of Nelson.

"It came down to the wire and Jack was leading coming out of the last corner so it was just about won in the last millimetres," European-based professional Roulston said.

"This is probably the best to be honest because I had to stay quite focused. It's really coming down here with the weight of expectation on your shoulders ... everyone just expects you to win, they just don't know how hard it is to win.

"There are some very classy bike riders in New Zealand and I really take my hat off to them -- they gave me a good run."

Teammate Greg Henderson won the bunch sprint to the finish line in the final stage from Winton to Invercargill -- denying Bauer the time bonus he desperately needed.

Henderson said he hadn't planned to claim the stage but was forced into it by Bauer.

"If Bauer had of won the stage then he would have taken the jersey back off Roly," Henderson said.

"So it was a bit of a panic sprint in the finish but luckily enough I had the legs to get him on the line."

Notching up his 16th stage win, Henderson admitted he had his own aspirations to win the iconic Southland tour.

"I'd love to come here in great condition but really for me it doesn't pay the bills. I have to win in Europe and if I'm flying now in November then I can't be flying in January," he said.

"I'd love to come down and show the public exactly what I can do in good condition it's just a timing thing."

Although somewhat of a consolation prize, Share the Road's powerful display throughout the arduous six-day Tour earned them the team title.

"We did what we could," Bauer said.

"Roly has a lot of mates down here and, as you saw in this morning's stage, it's pretty hard to go up against that kind of manpower."

"Second's the same as getting 100th I guess but I laid it all out there, put 150 per cent in and just didn't come out on top.

"It's really disappointing to work the team so hard over the whole course of the week and then come second -- they deserve the yellow for the work they put in."

Bauer believed Share the Road's campaign suffered when teammate Jeremy Yates, wearing the yellow jersey, was tipped off his bike by a motorcycle on stage six near Queenstown.

"Our tour kind of fell apart under the most bizarre circumstances but that's cycling -- anything can happen and it did," Bauer said.

"You take away lessons and there's always a positive in it -- just not a yellow positive."

Despite at least seven bandages covering his wounds, Yates, of Hastings, was "battered and bruised" but vowing to return for an 11th shot at winning the tour.

"I've finished the tour in much worse condition this tour usually has a hard luck story and maybe this year I'm it," he said.

The potent climber was keen to see tour officials inject some course changes.

"Maybe over the top of the Crown Range and down the other side and back up again a few times, then Coronet Peak -- what else have you got down here?" he quipped.

"I'd like to see the tour mixed up in terms of race routes just to keep things interesting. Nobody likes to know how it's going to go down and how it's going to be won so I'd like to see them make some changes -- but in saying that, it's not my tour."

A formidable performance earned Subway Avanti's Joe Cooper the King of the Mountain title over Team SVS' George Bennett, of Nelson, and Alex Meenhorst, of Auckland.

"That was sort of plan B or C. The team came into the tour with high hopes for yellow but that crash on the first day forced us to change the plan," Cooper said.

"The team's worked really hard to put me in the right positions without them I can't do the grunt work."

Pure Black Racing's Roman van Uden secured the Sprint Ace classification with a commanding lead over Rotorua's Clinton Avery and fellow-Aucklander Karl Murray.

"I just smashed away at it -- I didn't want to come into the last day having to battle for it," van Uden said.

"I had to get up the road almost every single day to get the early points it's been a tough week."

Josh Aitkins of Christchurch proved too strong in the battle for the under-23 jersey.

- NZPA