CYCLING

2015 SBS Bank Tour of Southland set to roll

By Cycling Southland



New Zealand’s premier cycling event, the Tour of Southland is set to roll out on the highways of Southland from Sunday, 1 November with the seven-day race stretching throughout the region.

The SBS Bank sponsored Tour has attracted a total of 14 teams this year and, while this is down on previous years, Tour Manager Bruce Ross believes there is a very good calibre of riders entered and another close and exciting race is in store.

Riders from the United States, Switzerland, Liechenstein, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Australia are embedded in the field and, while not a lot was known about some of the riders, it is great that they have heard about the Tour of Southland and have chosen to come here to compete, Ross said.

Several of the teams from last year are disappointed that they are not returning this year, citing injury, illness and financial restraints as the reason but are already giving assurances that they will return for next year’s 60th anniversary Tour.

Commencing back in 1956, the Tour of Southland has stood the test of time while many other similar events have come and gone and the iconic event with its 59 years of colourful history, stands proudly as a popular feature of the Australasian cycling calendar and an event that Southlanders are proud to host.

Last year’s Tour winner, Mitchell Lovelock-Fay (Avanti) returns to defend his title and has built a strong team around him including the well-performed Joseph Cooper from Wellington.

Likely to give strong competition to the Avanti claim is the Kia-Ascot Park team which features former Tour winner Mike Northey from Auckland who will be flanked by Pieter Bulling from Southland and Alex Frame from Christchurch, both of whom are world champions on the track. Also in the team are American riders, Travis McCabe and Eric Marcotte with the latter being the current American criterium champion.

Several Southlanders have entered with the well performed Luke Macpherson being a part of the strong Barry Stewart Builders team and Matt Zenovich who has just returned from racing in Belgium lining up for Champion System Team Dallas.

The Tour commences on Sunday afternoon with the Riverside Rentals team time trial event around Invercargill’s Queens Park and the six days of racing concluding back in Invercargill next Saturday after more than 800kms of racing.