Cycling: Blackgrove secures back to back victories

Heath Blackgrove never rated his chances of success in last year's Tour de Vineyards road cycle race -- but won it anyway.

Yesterday, he completed a matching set of tour wins -- his third place finish over the tour-ending 60km Glovers Vineyard Hill St circuit enough to complete a commanding three minutes 55 seconds win for the four-stage 340km race.

Blackgrove finished with an accumulated time of 8hrs 55min 50sec, with Wheelers rider Ben Brears second and Palmerston North's Luke McCarthy 4min 51sec back in third.

Blackgrove began the final stage with a comfortable 3min 47sec advantage over Brears.

And although eventual stage winner Paul Odlin of Christchurch and Masterton's Matt Harvey set the pace in a dual front-running effort for most of the race, Blackgrove was always comfortably placed in the trailing bunch.

Last year, Blackgrove admitted he didn't have the miles in his legs to consider himself a realistic contender. This time, though, he felt a slightly keener edge heading into his title-defence.

"I've only been back on the bike since the start of December after a few weeks off," said Blackgrove.

"I've had some good rides but with the weather, it's been pretty patchy -- not as good as I wanted -- but I think the (physical) condition's a bit better than this time last year. I seem a bit stronger and maybe a bit more powerful. I'm pretty happy with that."

Having already won his second consecutive national road title last year, the Athens Olympian had his sights a bit more firmly focused for this year's Tour de Vineyards event.

It was his fourth attempt after finishing second in 2002 and fourth in 2003 before winning last year's title.

Having built up such a comfortable edge over the first three stages, Blackgrove was prepared to bide his time yesterday -- keep an eye on his closest rivals and stay out of trouble.

"Having a bit of a gap, I perhaps put a bit of pressure on the other people to defend their placings. I could have a bit of fun and go for a placing on the stage, which worked out.

"It was pretty comfortable but it was still pretty hard out there -- it's a good tough circuit."

Odlin and Harvey took control right from lap two of the 12-lap circuit -- at one stage stretching their lead past one minute over the following bunch. But with a lap to go, Blackgrove led a six-rider pursuit, eventually cutting the pace-setting duo's lead to just eight seconds at the finish.

Odlin won the stage in 1hr 35min 49sec, with Harvey another second back in second place.

Former international triathlete Scott Molina led home race two (40km) in 1hr 7min 45sec from Wellington's Gary Milbanke and Christchurch's Mike Ferigo.

But despite finishing 23sec back in sixth equal place, former Olympian Brian Fowler held on to win the veteran's tour in 9hrs 59min 57sec -- 1min 39sec ahead of Otago's Richard Walsh with Wheelers Dennis Cooper 3min 10sec back in third.

Johanna Buick backed up from last week's Tour de Femme triumph with victory in the women's race -- ahead of Michelle Kiesanowski and Michelle Hyland -- Buick finishing 4min 51sec down on Fowler's accumulated time.

- NZPA