Patrick Bevin claimed his fourth stage victory in his last three appearances at the Tour of Southland, winning stage one into Lumsden today to take the yellow jersey.
Bevin finished as the overall runner-up last year but he went one better today, emerging triumphant from a sprint finish to wrest the yellow jersey away from Heath Blackgrove, who held it after yesterday's team time trial prologue.
The 21-year-old Bevin, riding for Bissell Pro Cycling, said the team had their eye on the 160km stage right from the start.
"Without the wind, we knew the stage wasn't going to be so decisive and we wanted to win it," he said.
"As soon as you get close riding you don't want to waste your energy, so we were pretty serious by the time it came to the crunch."
Seven riders made an initial break just after Wallacetown and led the peloton by up to six minutes at one point. By the time the leaders reached Mossburn their advantage was reduced to two minutes and, by Lumsden, it ended in a sprint finish.
Bevin had been seven seconds down going into the day's racing, but a 10-second bonus for winning the stage thrust him into yellow.
"It's good to pick up the yellow jersey. I've won stages before but I haven't actually led the race, so that's another one to tick of the 'to do' list in New Zealand bike racing.
"The next step is to take it all the way, but we will be taking it day by day. We've got guys that can race and tomorrow's very decisive for GC."
Share the Road rider Sam Witmitz took out the sprint ace jersey after being in the break, while Creation Signs-L&M Group Racing's Joe Chapman will wear the king of the mountain jersey he won during last year's Tour after some strong climbs. Bevin also leads the under-23 classification, while PowerNet leads the team category.
A minute silence was observed at the end of today's stage for Stu Kenning, who tragically lost his life while undertaking work at Mossburn on Saturday. Kennings's family, friends and work colleagues were present as he was remembered by the community he served so well.
Tomorrow's 137 km stage starts in Invercargill and ends with a gruelling climb up Bluff Hill that will test the best.
Results from stage one of the Tour of Southland
Patrick Bevin (Bissell Pro Cycling) 3:52:55, 1; Daniel Barry (Node 4-Subaru) same time, 2; Pieter Bulling (Ascot Park Hotel-Kia Motors-NZ Bike Magazine) ST, 3.
General classification results
Patrick Bevin (Bissell Pro Cycling) 3:57:56, 1; Heath Blackgrove PowerNet +3s, 2; Cameron Karwowski (PowerNet) +3s.
