Northland cyclist Nick Lovegrove showed off sharp form at the New Zealand Cycle Classic Road Tour in Manawatu, racing with his Subway Pro Cycling team.
On Friday, the Auckland-based lawyer grabbed second spot in stage three of the tour in a thrilling battle with NZ track representative Sam Bewley, before claiming the lead in Saturday's sprinters classification.
Lovegrove escaped early in Friday's 155km stage along with Bike NZ National's Bewley, and Expert Team's Brodie Talbot.
The three riders quickly established a comfortable lead in cold and wet conditions, until Bewley and Lovegrove dropped Talbot with 75km remaining.
Lovegrove said he and Bewley had to dig deep to hold off the peloton over the closing stages. At one stage the gap back to the chasing riders was over six minutes but that closed to eight seconds by the finish line.
Bewley did the bulk of the work on the run in to the finish as Lovegrove was "pretty cooked". He simply could not match the finishing power of the Olympic bronze medallist in the sprint for line honours, he said.
On Saturday the riders headed into the penultimate fourth stage - the 111km circuit stage from Palmerston North through Bunnythorpe, Awahou and Ashurst.
Lovegrove attacked the field just over 2km before the first sprint of the day to win valuable sprint points and take the lead in the sprinters competition. He said it was a rewarding day that saw a team plan work out perfectly to put him in a position to take the jersey.
Australian Jay McCarthy (Jayco AIS) was second over the line on Saturday which moved him up into the race leader's yellow jersey. Fellow Australian Thomas Palmer (Drapac) won the bunch sprint and New Zealander Patrick Bevin (Hudson Gavin Martin) was third.
Yesterday's final fifth stage was a 111km circuit stage that started in Palmerston North and looped through rural areas north of the city, including Ashhurst, before finishing back in Palmerston North.
Lovegrove was unable to retain the sprinters jersey, however, with Bevin claiming three points and taking back his lead.
"Overall I've had a pretty strong tour, although it would have been nice to come away with a jersey," Lovegrove said.
Lovegrove and the Subway Pro Racing team have a full racing calendar until the end of April, when they head to Asia to race in the Tour of Korea.
Meanwhile, the final day of racing saw Auckland's Aaron Gate sprint his way to the stage victory, while McCarthy finished safely in the peloton to claim the overall tour victory. The Australian was strong enough in the final sprint to beat off rival Darren Lapthorne (Drapac) for the tour win, while Campbell Flakemore (Genesys Wealth Advisors) was third.