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Robyn Edie / Stuff
Aaron Gate celebrates winning the 2020 SBS Tour of Southland, with second place Michael Vink, left, and James Oram third.
Two stage victories on the final day have propelled Aaron Gate to his second victory on the SBS Bank Tour of Southland.
Gate (PowerNet) produced a commanding display in a 13km individual time trial at Winton in the morning before claiming line honors on the 77km final stage from Winton to Invercargill to back up their maiden victory in 2016.
Gate, who started the day 33 seconds behind Southland’s Corbin Strong, was the only driver to have less than 16 minutes in the time trial, but still started the final stage behind defending champion Michael Vink (Transport Engineering-Talley’s) for 1 second.
After claiming a bonus time in the penultimate sprint of the six-day race, Gate and Vink were tied at the same time, with the final result decided by a furious final sprint to the finish.
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Robyn Edie / Stuff
Aaron Gate won the final stage and overall title of the 2020 Tour of Southland at Gala St in Invercargill on Saturday.
“I was going to go all the way with Michael and me being in such a tight time frame and really having to run for that intermediate time bonus,” Gate said.
“I was going to go back to the time trial on the countdown and I had forgotten to check the divisions before, so I didn’t want to leave it to chance, so I wanted to finish at least third on the stage and getting the victory was an advantage.”
In all, Gate won three stages, culminating in a great race.
“I had been training well and with no other races happening, I had this as a goal and a motivating thing to keep going out the door,” he said.
“I was definitely looking forward to a shot at some stage wins, but I thought the Remarkables were going to be too difficult for me. The silver lining was that the stage was getting shorter, but even then the way it raced was relentless and when I saw that the forecast was that there was not much wind, I thought my chances of winning the race were gone. I had to take every opportunity I got. “
Robyn Edie / Stuff
The peloton near Springhills on the final stage of the 2020 SBS Tour of Southland on Saturday.
Strong took some comfort in winning the Under 23 qualifier, while his PowerNet teammate Paul Odlin was the best Over 35 driver.
Gate’s Black Spoke Pro Cycling Academy team won the team rankings and Creation Signs-MITOQ ended a successful week with James Fouche removing the Sprint Ace jersey and Paul Wright crowned King of the Mountains.
Gate recognized the work done by his colleagues during the week.
“The guys rode super all week and everyone was really motivated to do some damage today. We came here to win it and it is very special to achieve it. Coming back and winning again is pretty impressive and what hasn’t changed is that I had a great team behind me that was willing to sacrifice their own opportunities to help me succeed. “
Gate also had a word for Strong, who failed to defend the yellow jersey on the final day and secure a first Southland victory since 1994.
“Corbin is a great friend and I was excited to see him in the yellow jersey and I definitely wouldn’t have complained if he had won. Bike races are bike races and you have to put your friendships aside a bit. I was never good at time trials when I was his age and he has a great future ahead of him. “
