Heath Blackgrove, Tour of Southland champion

Nov 7th, 09. Today was always going to be a great day for Heath Blackgrove, and it had nothing to do with cycling.  It's his wedding day.  Not many things can top that, except maybe winning the PowerNet Tour of Southland.

Let the celebrations begin (c)RoadCycilng.co.nz

Timing it to perfection is something Blackgrove has done a lot this week.

On day 1 he missed the crashes that affected so many teams and ended the tour for three time defending champion Hayden Roulston.  He was rewarded with the yellow jersey.

Blackgrove may have missed the decisive break on Stage 5 giving Jack Bauer a day or two in yellow, but he made up for it in Stage 7 when he and his team left Bauer behind on the stage into Te Anau to take back the yellow jersey.

This morning he started with just an 11 second lead on the 2nd best rider.  Great team tactics and strength had that lead extended to 1m07s before this afternoon's final stage where the team protected Blackgrove and got him safely back to the fans, and his wife to be, in Invercargill.

"This is the biggest race in New Zealand, and I am a very proud new Zealander. I've had two elite national titles, but Southland was the one that has always eluded me. So this is huge for me," he said.

Blackgrove said there wasn't one particular day he'll remember about this tour. "Every day was defining in this tour. The weather makes it a race, the biggest thing for me was the team,"

The Zookeepers / Cycle Surgery team were a great support to Blackgrove throughout the tour.  With a team full of top New Zealand representatives in Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Glen Chadwick and World Champion rower Hamish Bond, the team wasn't lacking in horse power or experience.

"My team, I can't say enough about them, how strong they are, they controlled the race. They were the only team that could, and if anyone would really have threatened us, we could have threatened pulling them to pieces. I believe we could have done that," he said.  The team deservedly won the Team's Classification.

Blackgrove has been in many Tours of Southland. His first was back in 1997 as a sixteen year old when he finished 13th. Now, twelve years later, he's won the event.

"This is the one I have always wanted, and to finally get it, it's an amazing day," Blackgrove said after the final stage.