The Deep South Tour – Day 1
It’s great to be on tour again, beautiful morning in Dunedin and the riders were a bit spoilt with a sleep in as we rolled out at 9.30 with a short neutral stage through to Brighton. Stunning views along the coast as we headed south to Tairei for the first KOM of the tour. It’s fair to say the riders are still talking about how brutal this hill was, I just got asked if that was the worst hill of the tour….. I’m saying nothing. Richard Ussher took out the KOM on today’s stage.
After a quick stop to refill drink bottles and talk some tactics it was another neutral stage through Milton and out the other side till we were off the main highway, kudos to the courteous truckies in the south!
Time for the sprinters to show their stuff…. Just for fun we set all the riders off together, it’s fair to say the pace was on from the get go as the triathletes ganged up on the multi-sporter while they went hunting for sprint points. Dylan and Chris are both riding TT bikes so definitely have an advantage on the flat stages. Richard managed to sneak the first sprint though with Dylan taking the points for the second sprint. (Sorry about there being no 500m cone for the second sprint, I’m new on cone duty, will be better tomorrow!) The lads in B grade had a good battle for sprint points as well with Vaughn Woods taking the first sprint and Martin Fletcher the second. Bill Manning had it all his own way in C grade taking both sprints, Jo Donaldson did the same in the womens race.
Beautiful ride into Balclutha riding alongside the Clutha river! Worth the trip.
Tomorrow is a big day, Balclutha to Invercargill via a wee hill called Bluff Hill.
Results for Day 1
Will update GC for you as soon as I can, it’s fair to say each grade is pretty close for now!
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