Cycling: Bevin holds on to yellow

In a stray from the norm, the feed zones were open along the entire route and the 80 litres of water on Torran's Hill was gone relatively quick.

How much input Patrick Bevin had in all that to beat the stifling heat on the final stage of The Hub Three-Day Cycle Tour yesterday is anyone's guess but suffice it to say it was all worth it for the Taupo professional rider.

The Pro Bissell cycling teammate of Jeremy Vennell, of Hastings, didn't win yesterday's 95km plus three-lap Open men's Tinnell Stage 3 (Valley/Raukawa circuit) but he had done enough on Saturday morning to stay ahead in the general classification.

"On Saturday morning Bevin broke away from the peloton with a few others to put 1min 44sec between himself and [Regan] Gough to retain the yellow jersey today," Gough's coach, Ivar Hopman, said last night.

Aucklander Scott Ambrose was second overall yesterday in the general classification, Blair Heney, of Havelock North, was third and Waipukurau rider Gough fourth.

"Gough won the prologue on Friday night with the fastest time of 6min 20sec, six seconds faster than Hayden McCormick, of Waikato, and eight seconds faster than Bevin," Hopman said of 6km time trial at Bridge Pa.

Former Waipukurau rider Luke Mudgeway, of Palmerston North, clinched his father's sponsored open men Mudgeway Enterprises stage two raced over 50 minutes plus three laps at the Whakatu Coolstores Criterium on Saturday afternoon. Mudgeway clocked 52m 35s, scorching the three-lap time in 2m 35s, with Gough second.

"They finished at the same time with a fraction of a wheel separating them," Hopman said of the national under-19 cyclists. Bevin was fourth, a second behind.

Hopman-coached Hannah van Kampen won the women's open overall title by 19 seconds from Lauren Hobson, of Auckland.

Van Kempen was the king of the mountain champion, too.

"She won all four sprints of the mountain, bar one [the first one where she came second] but she was awesome finishing about 30 to 40 metres ahead," Hopman said, adding the Bay rider led in Saturday's Rock Solid Plastering stage one by almost 20 seconds before the peloton swallowed her up.