Gordon McCauley retained the leader's yellow jersey in the Tour of Southland cycling race for another day but saw his lead reduced to 17 seconds by defending champion Hayden Roulston after yesterday's sixth stage.
Cycle Surgery's McCauley put in a stout performance to limit the damage Roulston causedon the final climb to the Crown Range lookout near Queenstown at the end of a stage that played itself out in comparatively benign conditions over 134km in Lumsden.
Conditions were superb, bringing relief to the riders who were battered by wind, sleet, rain and snow on Wednesday.
Predicted heavy snow did not eventuate north of Winton, about 20 minutes from Invercargill.
The day began with McCauley holding an overall lead of 44s over Roulston. While they kept a close watch on one another, Subway Avanti's Jeremy Yates, who briefly held the yellow jersey by winning stage two, got away to take out a second stage victory.
Yates clocked 3h 19m 38s and was followed home by Southland Times Trek's Michael Torckler at 1m 20s with Creation Signs' Blair Martin another 17s behind in third.
Yates, whose hopes of a first tour title went south yesterday when he fell 8m 49s behind McCauley, engineered his win in an alliance with Raboplus' Robin Reid and Fulton Hogan's Tim Hargrave and Jack Bauer.
The four riders finally made a break stick after about 50km when the peloton was content to let them stay between 3min to 4min up the road.
Yates then farewelled his travelling companions with 20km to go, riding solo to the finish.
With the second longest stage, 163.6km from Winton to Te Anau today, , Roulston was content to stay inside the peloton and his team did very little work, leaving McCauley and his team to control the chase.
It was clear that Roulston, the better climber, was waiting for the steep and twisting last 3km of the stage to try to secure the yellow jersey.
But the wary McCauley said he decided not to go with Roulston.
"He did that (pushed away) at the climb and I had to let him go at the bottom and ride my own pace."
McCauley's time after six stages is 13h 39s with Roulston at 17s. Yates' teammate Joseph Cooper is third at 3m 06s, with Southland Times Trek's Paul Odlin at 3m 05s and Colourplus' Heath Blackgrove at 3m 12s, completing the top five.
