The Invercargill rider Corbin Strong says its a dream come true to have won a stage oF the Tour of Southland.
Strong, riding in his third tour, edged out the rest of the peleton in a bunch sprint finish on the 148km stage to Te Anau and sits fourth overall.
Previous tour winner Aaron Gate retains the tour leaders yellow jersey.
"I've followed this tour for as long as I can remember, being a young Souhlander growing up and sitting outside of school watching the tour go by Otatara primary school and then sitting in the vans before I was old enough to do it," Strong said.
Corbin Strong wins the second stage of the Tour of Southland. Photo: Supplied: Tour of Southland
"It's been a long time coming. I've had a lot of near misses in this tour already in the last two years, so to pull it off was a great feeling and one I'll remember for a long time."
"We went in with a good plan for today, all the PowerNet boys were committed and I owe them a lot, it was an awesome team effort and we are riding awesome as a team together and hopefully there's a few more wins to come this week," Strong said.
"There wasn't much wind but it was still a hard day. There were a lot of attacks going in and it was quite aggressive racing, which was nice. It hasn't been as hard a start to the tour this year, but that just means that when it does get hard it's going to be that much more exciting."
Gate crossed the finish line in the main bunch to retain the lead for a second day, surviving a scary moment when he was edged towards the barriers and dropped his chain over a speed bump near the line.
He leads team mate former Southland winner James Oram by 6 seconds, with Tom Sexton third.
Defending champion Michael Vink is in ninth place, 19 seconds in arrears.
The tour heads into uncharted territory tomorrow with a 6km climb up the Remarkables access road on the end of a 111km stage starting in Mossburn.
The climb is shorter and steeper than the Coronet Peak stage that it has replaced and will provide some stunning views across the Wakatipu basin for those with enough oxygen in their lungs to enjoy it.
