Day 6

The mornings stage was pretty unevntful really, in fact it was one of the quieter stages of the tour.

The afternoon stage from Winton to Invercargill is a good chance to see who is feeling the effects of the tour and who is getting stronger. I was starting to feel pretty ordinary as i have picked up a cold from one of my team mates, it sounds like he has tuberculosis so i hope mine doesn't get that bad. Out of the blocks I followed a move and 3 of us got a little bit of rope but as the sprint ace was decided it was never going to work. Still it was a good chance to get the green shirt out in front leaving Winton and the sponsors saw it up the road so that was a good thing.

It was nice making to to invercargill and it was pretty cool riding home with Aaron Lawson. For someone who hadn't ridden a bike tour before he rode bloody well and with a few more miles under the belt I am sure he will be able to do something in a big tour before too long. I wish the last stage was a parade like in le tour but that would be against everything that southland is i Guess.

After the stage it was back to winton, then back to invercargill then back to winton to enjoy a few festivities, meals and the like. One of the traditions of the team is that the riders pour beers for the locals on the last night, so I clocked in with a couple of solid hours of bar work which was great fun and a good chance to give something back to the people who had made Tour memorable. We were eventually kicked off to bed shortly before 5am when they thought it was time to shut the bar for good.