SUBWAY® Pro Cycling's Hubbard wins stage three of Northland tour to move closer to yellow
Saturday 19 March 2011, 6:30PM
By enthuse
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SUBWAY® Pro Cycling’s Tom Hubbard won stage three of the BDO Tour of Northland after riding off the front of the race in its early stages with team mate Nick Lovegrove this afternoon.
Hubbard and Lovegrove attacked after 10 kilometres of the 83 kilometre stage from Opomoni to Paihia and worked well together staying away from the chasing bunch until the final stages of racing.
The two hour eight second win moved Hubbard closer to taking the tour leader’s yellow jersey. The Christchurch based rider is now only five seconds behind James Oram (Pure Black Racing) on general classification, with his SUBWAY® Pro Cycling team mate Matt Gorter lying third overall, 49 seconds adrift of Oram.
Gorter won the bunch sprint to come second on today’s stage, 28 seconds behind Hubbard, and after working with Hubbard to get him to the line first Lovegrove sat up over the last 100 metres and came home in the main bunch.
“It was another good display by the boys,” Lovegrove said. “We’re stoked to get another stage win and move Tom close to the yellow jersey; it will be all on tomorrow – we want yellow.”
Tomorrow’s final defining 89 kilometre stage sees riders take the ferry to Russell before setting off down Northland’s Eastern beaches, then riders head onto State Highway One at Whakapara where it’s 20 kilometres to the finish line in Whangarei.