Subway – Avanti Pro Cycling's Cooper wins back King of Mountain jersey

Subway-Avanti Pro Cycling’s Joe Cooper won back the King of the Mountain jersey on the 101 kilometre stage five of the Powernet Tour of Southland this afternoon.

Cooper dominated the only climb of the afternoon to win the jersey back after losing it briefly to Southland Vehicle Sales rider George Bennett, of Nelson, on the morning stage from Invercargill to Tuatapere.

“We went hard at the start of the stage and the plan was to set me up for the KOM climb and it worked well,” Cooper said.

“We have bounced back well from the challenging first day. I came here wanting to challenge for the yellow jersey but the crash on the first day has meant we have had to refocus, and that has meant focusing on the KOM jersey instead.”

After three days of sunshine and very little wind the forecast looks set to change for the worse tomorrow as the tour heads north from Lumsden, around Lake Wakatipu, through the Queenstown Lakes District before heading up to the Crown Range Terrace.

Subway – Avanti Team Manager Hayden Godfrey said tomorrows stage is important with a number of KOM opportunities.

“We are focused on taking all the KOM points we can tomorrow and cementing Joe’s lead in the climbing competition.”

Ends

Results
Stage 4 – 88.4km Invercargill to Tuatapere
1. Greg Henderson (Calder Stewart-BikeNZ National) 2h06m19s; 2. Mike Northey (Pure Black Racing) ST; 3. James Williamson (Subway Avanti Pro Cycling) ST;

Stage 5 – official results not available at this time; refer to www.tourofsouthland.com

Notes
• Stage six starts in Lumsden at 10am and approx finish is 1.20pm at the Lookout on the Crowne Range Terrace.
• The Subway – Avanti Pro Cycling Team is New Zealand’s only UCI Continental team receiving UCI status in early 2009.
• http://www.youtube.com/user/SubwayAvanti
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For more information please contact:

Hayden Godfrey
021 464482
www.subwaycycling.co.nz

John McKenzie
enthuse ltd
021 384 730
03 384 7338