Cycling: Scots take the high road and points

Scottish road cyclist Evan Oliphant ensured his journey to New Zealand was not a wasted trip when he won the longest stage on the Wellington-Wairarapa classic yesterday.

Oliphant, who will ride for his country at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, prevailed in an eight-man sprint to decide the outcome of the 158km fourth stage from Masterton to Pahiatua and back.

He recorded a time of 3h 50m 1s for the distance, the same time credited to those who filled the minor placings - Wesley Sulzberger, of the SouthAustralia.com-AIS team, and Mercedes Benz-Wellington Star's Dean Winsor.

The yellow jersey remained with Tim Gudsell, of the Samsung NZ team, whose general classification time of 8h 47m 56s gave him an overall lead of 23s over Oliphant, with Team Subway's Hayden Roulston 33s behind the leader.

While Oliphant collected the stage spoils after joining the lead group with 50km remaining, the real star yesterday was fellow Scot Duncan Urquhart.

A colonel in the British Army and also named to compete at the Games, Urquhart broke clear of the bunch with Australian Sean Finning just 2km from the start.

The two riders established a lead of 5min at the halfway mark. Urquhart grabbed the first of the stage's two king of the mountains points.

By the second climb, Finning had been left behind as Urquhart surged ahead to claim more mountain points, putting the competition virtually out of reach as he ended the stage with 18 points, 14 ahead of his nearest rival.

His breakaway eventually ended after 120km, when he was caught and dropped by the eight-man breakaway, which contained Oliphant, Sulzberger, Winsor, Greg Henderson (Subway), Rob McLachlan (Trust House), Stuart Shaw (Trust House), Logan Hutchins (Samsung NZ) and Darren Lapthorne (Trust House).

Although containing some of the tour's best riders, the group did not work well together and tempers became frayed.

McLachlan repeatedly shouted and gestured to Henderson and Hutchins, who were drafting other riders and not doing their share of work in a strongish headwind.

Despite the frustrations, the group charged into Masterton 1min ahead of a chasing pack led by Gudsell's Samsung NZ team.

Oliphant said his team's main objective was to help Urquhart's quest to secure the king of the mountains jersey.

Today's fifth stage is likely to thin out the field as the riders negotiate the 125km from Masterton to the top of Admiral Hill.

- NZPA