Crum tops Bradley in unlikely escape

With the leader's jersey battle being fought by the professional teams, two amateur racers, Emma Crum (Cyclosport NZ) and Amy Bradley (Wheelworks Racing) made a successful escape, with Crum coming out with the big stage victory.

22 seconds behind, Evelyn Stevens won the sprint from the second group to take over the race leadership from her USA teammate, Kristin Armstrong.

"I was quite confident because in the last 5km I had been doing most of the work and I felt a bit stronger than Amy, I thought I would have it on her in the sprint," Crum said. "I am so happy to have the win".

With the morning's leader Armstrong in a group 7:30 down along with her closest competitor Judith Arndt (GreenEdge), Stevens now leads the Tour by five seconds over fellow chase group companion Shara Gillow (GreenEdge).

"It's going to be a great battle tomorrow," said Stevens. Former race leader Kristin Armstrong explained today's tactics. "We had a couple of cards to play today," she explained to RoadCycling.co.nz. "If we were going to play my card we would have taken the risk of Judith and I coming to the line together again. We had 11 seconds with two days to go, and for the last two days Judith has been quicker than I have, so we knew if we put Evelyn up in the front group we felt good about her sprinting against Shara Gillow."

Tomorrow it will be Armstrong working for Stevens, a switch the World TT Champion is happy to make.

"I am seven and a half minutes back, now it is very clear that we will be doing everything we can to protect that jersey and I think we will just control it from the start."

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