Cooper claims solo stage victory

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With their war wounds still raw, Subway Avanti came back from the brink to win stage three of the PowerNet Tour of Southland today. Despite being left battered and bruised from a crash which also claimed three of his team-mates yesterday, Subway Avanti’s Joe Cooper snatched stage honours in Gore by a bike length from Ascot Park Hotel rider Bevan Mason and also secured the King of the Mountain jersey.

“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 today’s effort.

“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,” he said.

“It says a lot about their professional attitude and about riding for each other.”

The team’s resolve was epitomised by NZ under-23 representative Michael Vink, 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 today’s stage from Invercargill to Gore.

Team-mate James Williamson, who rode the stage sporting acupuncture needles still in his neck and several stitches, was one of five riders, along 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.

In the general classification ranks Share the Road’s Jeremy Yates retained the yellow jersey by four seconds ahead of team-mate Jack Bauer with the team successfully dictating much of the race from the front of the peloton.

“It wasn’t an easy stage…it has the potential to turn real nasty as it has for me in the past. 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,” he said. “There are a lot of cards to play and we showed we’re not just a one-horse team.”
Yates admitted he was rather fond of the yellow strip. “I like it but as long as it stays within the team I’m happy,” he said.

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

“We’ll try and keep the moves under control, step it up for the end and try and reel back anyone that’s dangerous,” Yates said.

The heralded Calder Stewart/Bike NZ team, which features pro riders the calibre of Commonwealth Games silver medallist Roulston and Greg Henderson, went largely undetected today and remains in 6th spot in the overall team standings, over 5min adrift of Share the Road. However, Roulston is in striking distance, just 22 seconds shy of Yates in the general classification.

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