With less than a day to go until the finish of the Tour of Southland, New Zealand’s Jack Bauer holds a slender three second lead over compatriot Hayden Roulston (Calder Steward-Bikenz National). Jeremy Yates (Share the Road) is third, after losing the race lead on Friday when he crashed.
Floyd Landis (Orca Velo Merino) remains in fourth overall, one of the highest performances clocked up by the American after his comeback.
Landis had said that he hoped to fight for the final win but lost a further one minute 42 seconds on yesterday’s 163 kilometre stage from Winton to Te Anau. Still, his showing in the race appears to be his best ride since finishing his doping suspension.
Landis’ best results in 2009 were fifth on a stage of the Vuelta Mexico and ninth on a stage of that year’s Tour of Southland, a race he would finish 17th overall in.
His confession after years of denial and his implication of others means that there will be plenty of diverse viewpoints about his presence in the race. Whatever the opinion, tomorrow’s finale should see him hold onto that top-five overall placing and thus show he can still compete at a high level.
The battle for the final yellow jersey would appear to put the race between just two riders, Bauer and Roulston, while Yates’ one minute 24 second deficit will leave him rueing the crash that cost him his race lead and, most probably, his chance of winning it this year.
He does have the consolation of knowing that the final day of racing will have two split stages, thus providing him with the chance to mount a big attack.