His third-place finish on general classification had him behind tour winner Andy Hagan of Wellington and Fraser Gough of Hawke’s Bay.
Gordon has traditionally struggled in the prologue stages against the clock but showed his increased strength and speed by slipping into 13th position, 35 seconds behind world champion team pursuit member Regan Gough and 15 seconds behind Hagan.
In the remaining three road stages, Gordon pegged back time — specifically on the hilly stages 1 and 3.
He won the 99-kilometre first stage from a breakaway of seven riders.
In doing so, he started his collection of points in the classifications for King of the Mountains (KOM) and sprints.
Stage 2 favoured the more powerful riders. The eventual winner and second placegetter escaped for an 80-second lead at the line, Gordon having to settle for third place. This proved to be the costliest stage of the tour for Gordon.
The 104km Queen stage was where Gordon threw caution to the winds and attacked the field from long range.
Doing four laps of the hilly Apley Road circuit and sitting one minute 35 seconds in arrears, Gordon attacked at the top of the KOM on Lap 3 with Morgan Smith and together they pushed out to a 2:04 lead.
Chase on for the yellow jerseyHowever, realising the yellow jersey was slipping away, Hagan and Gough chased in earnest in a strong bunch of nine riders.
They did so to such effect that by the line, Gordon had managed to pull back only 75 seconds of his deficit. He was an agonising 19 seconds adrift in third place overall.
But in the process of earning that Stage 3 victory, Gordon secured the KOM and sprint jerseys.
It was a similar result but very different story for Sheldrake and Hoskin in their M1 and M2 races respectively.
Sheldrake, a strong time trialist and renowned “aggressive” rider, was only 12 seconds adrift after the initial prologue, behind leader Heath Lett of Tauranga and Gary Hall of Hawke’s Bay.
Sheldrake dominated the KOM and sprint classifications, sealing the jerseys with one lap to go in Stage 3.
However, despite his repeated attacks on the hills he could not shake a shadowing Lett and the results from the Day 1 prologue held to the end.
He did, however, walk away with a stage victory from Stage 1 and the KOM and sprint jerseys.
Hoskin went about business the hard way. As with Gordon, the prologue is his least favoured event and he started the three road races in eighth position, 50 seconds behind leader Andrew Townsend.
For the Masters 2 field, however, it was Hoskin’s Stage 1 aggression that led to four riders going clear from the first set of hills and finishing 4:15 ahead. That was the first of Hoskin’s two stage wins.
Like Sheldrake, he collected a clean sweep of points in the sprint and KOM jerseys.
It was enough to take him into second place on general classification.
Hoskin’s lowest finish was fourth in Stage 2, where he consolidated his KOM and sprint points.
The expected splitting of the field in Stage 3 did not occur until the last lap, when Hoskin and five others went clear after the last KOM.
In the run for the line, Hoskin secured his second stage win and locked in second place on general classification.
Not to be outdone by Sheldrake and Gordon, he too collected both jerseys.
Gordon’s attention now shifts to the five-day UCI 2.2 New Zealand Cycle Classic, in which he will represent his SKODA Racing team in the under-23 field.
