Cycling: Third stage honours for bruised Cooper

The Tour of Southland. Photo / Getty Images

With their "wounds" still raw, the Subway Avanti cycling team got off their stretchers to win the Tour of Southland's 165km third stage from Invercargill to Gore yesterday.

Despite being left battered and bruised from a crash which also claimed three of his teammates on Monday, Subway Avanti's Joe Cooper, of Wellington, snatched stage honours by a bike length from Ascot Park Hotel rider Bevan Mason, of Australia, and also secured the King of the Mountain jersey.

In the general classification ranks, Share the Road's Jeremy Yates, of Hastings, retained the yellow jersey by 4sec ahead of teammate Jack Bauer, of Nelson.

"It's a pretty awesome feeling after yesterday with all the lows and now we're on a high we're back in the game now," Cooper said.

Team spokesman John McKenzie described the team camp as "like a war zone" last night and was justifiably impressed with yesterday's effort.

The team's resolve was epitomised by national under-23 representative Michael Vink, of Christchurch, who dragged his injured body out of the ambulance and back onto his badly damaged bike to tackle the gruelling Bluff Hill climb, completing the trek narrowly before the cut-off time so he could start yesterday's stage from Invercargill to Gore.

Teammate James Williamson, who rode the stage sporting acupuncture needles still in his neck and several stitches, was one of five riders, with Pure Black Racing's Mike Northey, to put in the hard yards with an early break in the 165km stretch - the longest of the six-day race.

With 60km to go the race effectively reset and, after a number of attacks, Cooper and Mason established a slight lead on the chasing bunch. After adding the Otama hill climb to the day's accomplishments, Cooper found the legs to hold off Mason in a sprint to the finish.

Yates said he had been nervous coming into a stage that had the potential to turn nasty.

'It wasn't an easy stage. I've lost the yellow jersey on this stage before so I was really nervous coming into it," Yates said. "But start to finish it went as planned and we never had to panic really.

"We kept it under control and even put Hayden Roulston's team [Calder Stewart Bike NZ] on the back foot midway through the stage - Jack Bauer was able to get in a little move that got away and those boys had to rally round and step up to the chase."

Two stages loom today with potentially challenging conditions on the 88km coastal trek from Invercargill to Tuatapere, followed by the 101km trip to Winton.

The heralded Calder Stewart/Bike NZ team, which features Roulston and Greg Henderson, went largely undetected yesterday and remained sixth in the overall team standings, over 5min adrift of Share the Road.

However, Roulston is in striking distance, just 22sec shy of Yates in the general classification.

- NZPA