Joe Cooper wins, stable top-five at Tour of Southland
Joe Cooper and his team Subway Avanti managed to recover from a major crash on the first day of the Tour of Southland and win the third stage of New Zealand’s nine-stage, six-day road cycling race.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling after yesterday with all the lows and now we’re on a high,” said Cooper. “We’re back in the game now.”
The event began Monday morning with a short team time-trial which landed Subway Avanti in second place, 11 seconds behind BikeNZ. The 81km stage two that afternoon was host to a major crash which forced three of Cooper’s teammates to drop out of the race.
Young Michael Vink kept the hope alive, however, turning down an ambulance ride in exchange for a painful ride to the finish line just barely within the time limit.
“To see how they responded after four of them hit the deck was amazing. There was disappointment but it’s about moving on from that and making a statement because they were in great form coming into this race,” said team spokesman John McKenzie. “It says
a lot about their professional attitude and about riding for each other.”
Cooper won Tuesday’s third stage two seconds ahead of Bevan Mason after the pair broke away over the Otama hill climb, which also earned the king-of-the-mountain jersey for the stage winner. Clinton Avery beat Greg Henderson for the final podium spot in
the 91-rider bunch sprint 14 seconds behind Cooper.
The top five in the general classification remain unchanged, with Jeremy Yates leading the race after his team Share the Road’s one-two victory in stage two. In fact, the top-five directly mirrors the top-five in stage two, with Jack Bauer behind Yates followed
by Hayden Roulston, Floyd Landis and Michael Olheiser in that order. All five finished in the bunch in stage three and so their times remain unchanged.
“We kept it under control and even put Hayden Roulston’s team on the back foot midway through the stage,” said Yates. “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. There are a lot of
cards to play and we showed we’re not just a one-horse team.”
Roulston’s team BikeNZ, which won the stage one TTT, has fallen back to sixth in the teams classification while Share the Road has moved up from third to first. Subway Avanti stands in 10th of 19 total teams.
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