Brad Evans has safely negotiated the last stage of cycling's Tour of Southland to secure the title by more than a minute.
Evans (PowerNet) finished near the front of the peloton along with his closest rival, Australian Robbie Hucker (Barry Stewart Builders), to maintain his buffer of one minute 11 seconds.
Third overall was Mike Northey (Kia Motors-Ascot Park Hotel) at 3:27 down.
Evans, 23, becomes the third Otago winner of the race, after inaugural champion Kelvin Hastie (1956) and Gordon McCauley (1996).
His victory comes a month after he claimed the Tour of Tasmania, with Hucker as a teammate.
Evans held just a 14sec advantage over Hucker heading into Saturday's two stages, but opened that out with a big ride in the 13km individual time trial in the morning.
Joe Cooper won his third time trial in Winton, and his second stage in a row, with a 16:12 effort, while Evans placed fifth in 17:14 to increase his lead in general classification to 1:11.
In the afternoon's 82km stage from Winton to Invercargill, the peloton pegged back a series of breaks before Tom Davison and George Atkins got away near the end.
Davison won the sprint home, with the front pair both clocking 1:43:20, 10s ahead of the main bunch.
Share
