Te Awamutu cyclist wins tour in France

Te Awamutu teenager Hayden McCormick has won a prestigious road racing tour in France today.

McCormick, racing for a Belgium-based team, won the three-stage Le Trophee Centre Moribhan, becoming just the fifth non-French rider to claim this prestigious tour for junior riders in Europe.

Many of the previous winners have gone on to earn contracts for the Pro World Tour.

McCormick is racing in Europe to build-up for August?s World Junior Track Championships in Invercargill.

He won the opening 110km stage from Ploërmel ? Plumelin in a sprint finish before finishing second with the same time as the winner in the 7.2km individual time trial on stage two. The Waikato rider then finished safely in the peloton in the 99km final stage today to claim the overall honours by 11 seconds from Piotr Havik (NED).

The kiwi also took out the points title, was equal fourth in the sprint jersey classification and eight in the kin of the mountain honours.