Yates distances rivals with stage victory

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Crashing with an official’s motorbike would have cost Jeremy Yates the PowerNet Tour of Southland yellow jersey today had it not been for the etiquette of his greatest rival. In an ironic incident given Yates rides for Share the Road, he hit the tarmac less than one kilometre from the stage finish on the side of the steep Crown Range, near Queenstown, and could have lost more than some skin of his legs.

“I was midway through the attack, I moved out to the right-hand side and the commissaries motorbike came past and tipped me off,” said Yates. “Fortunately Hayden Roulston, who was on the front at the time, waited for me which was one of the unwritten rules of bike racing – it was a classy decision by him.

“There’s no written rule to say you have to but I was really disappointed to see George Bennett (Team SVS) making the most of it and attacking before the finish,” he added.

But Yates had the last word, crossing the line two seconds ahead of Bennett. “Luckily I had a shitload of adrenalin and I was able to peg him back and take the win,” said Yates.

Bennett, who lies third in the King of the Mountain stakes, was unremorseful. “No regrets … bike racing’s bike racing,” he said. “I’m not in the hunt for the yellow jersey … I’m here to win stages – sure you wait for the yellow jersey if you’re a GC contender but if you’re 15 minutes down, it’s your own race.”

“George Bennett, he’s a super talent this guy and he just took off – but each to their own and what goes around comes around,” added Roulston.

Share the Road once again influenced proceedings from the front of the peloton during the 133km stage, with Orca Velo Merino also putting in some hard yards. An early break of seven riders was allowed to roam free for the majority of the trek into Central Otago and featured Subway Avanti’s Joe Cooper and Alex Meenhorst, of Team SVS, battling for King of the Mountain honours.

With the gap stretched to nearly three minutes before Kingston, Meenhorst, of Auckland, earned the honour of being the leader on the road – albeit briefly – while Wellington’s Cooper retained the KOM jersey he has held since Tuesday.

As the chasing pack swallowed the breakaway bunch near Arrowtown, Share the Road’s Jack Bauer, the current New Zealand road race champion, struck out on his own and notched up speeds close to 70kmh, prompting team-mate Gordon McCauley to quip “Jack’s pretending to be a motorbike”.

With Calder Stewart increasing the tempo, the ascent soon became a rematch of Monday’s slog up Bluff Hill as Yates, Bauer and Roulston engaged in combat for stage glory.

With three stages remaining, Yates predicted “much of the same” tactically over the next two days.

“Share the Road will be on the front and I’ll be sitting pretty,” he said. “To win the Tour of Southland has been a dream of mine for 10 years now … we can only take things one day at a time but every stage that we tick off is another day closer to Share the Road taking the tour.”

Yet to unleash their full power, Roulston and his Calder Stewart team were undoubtedly preparing to strike. “I’ve won this race twice on the second last stage of the tour so I don’t believe this race is won until you cross the finish line in Invercargill to be honest,” Roulston said.

He conceded Share the Road, and particularly Bauer, had proved solid, but the race was taking its toll. “The rest of his team are shot through – they’re basically on their deathbed and so they should be, they’re not robots,” he said.

“Some of their tactics haven’t exactly been professional – if it was me in their situation a couple of times I would have let a break go … maybe it’s too many chiefs in one team trying to call the shots.

“But they’ve ridden perfectly all week in terms of how strong they are and they’ll be a hard team to beat.”

Benchmark Homes young gun Josh Aitkins, of Christchurch, put in a gutsy display to finish the stage in fourth place, just 5sec adrift of Yates, and snatch the PSIS Under-23 jersey from team-mate Daniel Barry.

Pure Black Racing’s Roman van Uden, of Auckland, has established a commanding lead over Ascot Park Hotel’s Clinton Avery, of Rotorua, to keep a firm grip on the Sprint Ace jersey.

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