Desperate battle for cycle tour leadership

Press, 13 November 1981, Page 26

Desperate battle for cycle tour leadership

From

RAY CAIRNS,

in Greymouth

While the British champion, Mark Bell, was establishing himself as easily the finest road cycling sprinter at present in New Zealand, four riders were locked in a desperate battle for leadership of the Healing-3ZM Tour of the South yesterday.

Clyde Sefton, the Melbourne professional, won the yellow jersey from the Canterbury junior, Brian Fowler, in the DB Riccarton Hotel stage to Arthurs Pass, Sefton beating Alan Peiper (Melbourne), Steve Cox (Hamilton) and Fowler at the finish. Those four had forced their way clear of the field on the Porters Pass climb, and the rider closest to them, Blair Stockwell, was 3min 20s in arrears. Not that that perturbed Stockwell, for he was easily the best descender on Otira Gorge, and when Fowler joined him on the flat, it seemed that those two would make a serious bid for the second stage victory. But the bunch hauled them back — Bell went on to record a remarkable 13 town sprint victories of the 14 so far — then the 21-year-old Englishman struck out on his own for a victory in the Leitch Cycles stage to Greymouth. With Brian Boswell slipping the bunch for second, and Eric O’Brien, outsprinting the rest for third, none of the leading contenders featured seriously in the bonuses, so Sefton now leads

Cox and Peiper by two seconds, and Fowler is at 3s. For the rest, Stockwell is at 3min 355, Boswell at 7:31, Eric O’Brien at 7:34, Jackson Foster (Rotorua) at 7:38, and then there is a little group 7min 41s down: Greg Parke (Sydney). Wilbert Messman (Netherlands) and Roger Sumich (Auckland). The only other survivors are Roger Nevatt (Palmerston North), Bmin 21s down, Jack Swart (Morrinsville) at 20:38, John Black (Victoria) at 37:42, and Wayne Howes (Timaru), at 41:30. No-one can surely touch Bell in the contest for the Carpet Market sprint ace, but the 3ZM “King of the Alps” title is much more open. Cox, with 37 points, leads Peiper by four points, Sefton has 26, Stockwell 23 and Fowler 19. Maybe the daunting length of the first day —237 km — weighed heavily on the minds of the riders, for there was little real action in the morning. Bell’s annihilating

sprinting dominated the flattish first part, and the majesty of Porters Pass required little real effort from the leading riders — the hill steadily shot them out the back.

Not so in the afternoon, raced in continual rain. Stockwell attacked over the top of Otira, after Cox had won the climb, and only Fowler stayed in any sort of contact on the descent. But once they were caught, there were no breakaway attempts until Bell, who wins his sprints so easily they almost constitute a break, slipped clear at Paroa. When he won the Australasian Hotel sprint, Bell sat up, thinking he had won the stage as 1 well, but he had motor-cycle officials in close attendance, and they urged him on for the further kilometre, where he won by a handsome 425. This morning, the riders have a 100 km stage to Westport, then an afternoon 77km on to Reefton. Results.— Stage one. Christchurch to Greymouth: C.Sefton 1, A. Peiper 2, S. Cox 3. Time 4:15.13. Stage two. Arthurs Pass to Greymouth: M. Bell 1, B. Boswell 2, E. O'Brien 3. Time: 2:27.48. Genera) classification: Sefton 1; Cox and Peiper at 2s, equal 2; Fowler, at 3s, 4; Stockwell, at 3.35, 5: Boswell, at 7.31, 6; O'Brien, at 7.34, 7; J. Foster, at 7.38, 8; G. Parke. W. Messman and R. Sumich, at 7.41, equal 9.