Dunedin's Brad Evans has triumphed up Bluff Hill to win the second stage of the Tour of Southland.
Riders set off from Invercargill in southerly winds and a temperature hovering around 5degC.
Team jerseys were buried under rain jackets, including overnight tour leader Roman van Uden.
"Looking windy, it's going to be pretty nasty with a lot of cross wind as you can see," van Uden said.
He's just come off a busy international season on the road.
But that's more of a part-time challenge for three of the Kia-Ascot Park team.
Pieter Bulling, Marc Ryan, and Alex Frame were part of this year's World Championship-winning Team Pursuit squad.
They're approaching the race as a training tool leading into the track season.
"It's the next step towards the World Cup in Cambridge. So for us it's a big training focus of endurance and power, of six days of racing hard days on the bike," Bulling said.
A group of 14 riders extended an early breakaway lead to almost 10 minutes on the long, winding route around the outskirts of Invercargill.
Fraser Gough and Travis McCabe took control of the race on the road to Bluff, McCabe continuing solo up the steep climb.
But it was Brad Evans who had the legs to push clear at the top.
"I don't know how I had something left; it was a pretty tough climb. But I just had that little bit of something left and just kicked away with about 200 metres to go," Evans said.
The stage win puts Evans in the yellow jersey, heading into tomorrow's stage towards Te Anau.
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