The return of the Kingston Flyer and the iconic ‘Antlers Up’ featured on day four of the SBS Bank Tour of Southland as defending champion Josh Burnett climbed his way into the orange jersey.

Burnett has made the stage from Mossburn to the Remarkables, near Queenstown, his own since winning his debut tour in 2022.

The PowerNet rider made it three stage wins from three attempts today as he and Matthew Wilson (Advanced Personnel Cycling Team) stomped their way up the 6km ascent of the ski field access road.

Cyclilsts making their way past Lake Wakatipu. Photo: Supplied

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Burnett rolled around Wilson in the final meters after a slow motion sprint, but with enough time to throw the Anters Up sign made famous by his favourite rugby team, the Southland Stags.

Earlier in the day, Alex Heaney (Pista Corsa-Spoken Cycles.co.nz) and Craig Oliver (Central Benchmakers-Willbike) were able to finally make a break stick after multiple attempts by would-be protagonists.

As they worked hard around beautiful Lake Wakatipu and their advantage grew to more than three minutes, tremors of nervousness went through the peloton.

A crash on the Falrlight straight, one of several this year, and the strongest cross-headwind this week, made life tough for all the riders. The climb saw a significant shake up of most of the race’s classifications.

Burnett has a 15sec lead over Wilson, while Ben Dyball (Macaulay Ford-Good Tech Team) also produced a great climb to claim third place on the stage, along with third overall and the lead in the over 35 classification.

Macaulay Ford-Good Team Team lead the team’s classification, with Noah Hollamby (Onya Bike) the leading under 23 rider in fifth place overall, James Gardner (Creation Signs-MitoQ-NZ Cycling Project) leading the Sprint Ace standings and William Heffernan holding a one point lead in the King of the Mountain classification.

Defending champion Josh Burnett outlasted Matthew Wilson on the climb to win this stage for the third time in a row. Photo: Supplied

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“I just want to take my hat off to my team today,” Burnett said.

“The expectation is on us to control and they did a fantastic job. Hagrid (Josh Haggerty), Ben (Airey) and Tom (Stephenson) took over quite early. Craig and Heaney built up quite a nice wee gap. Kiaan (Watts) hit the front and managed to pull back one minute really fast, which shows his class and his selflessness to do that for me while he was in the (orange) jersey.”

It was PowerNet’s second stage win in succession, another strong result despite losing Ollie Jones to a serious crash on Tuesday. Jones was back in the team van for the Queenstown stage, albeit with a fractured wrist, elbow and hip.

“I’m stoked that I could finish it off for them,” Burnett said.

“Matt was super strong today, he did most of the work today. When we got to the bottom we had a pretty big gap and I was on the ropes for a little bit, but after that I felt quite controlled and approaching the top I was pretty sure I’d be able to come around.”

Tour of Southland. Photo: Supplied

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Oliver had tried to jump away from Heaney early in the climb and steal a march on the peloton before being overtaken, but he was rewarded for his hard mahi with the Most Combative jersey.

“I knew going up the climb that I’d just put in my best effort after a hard day in the legs, and it wasn’t quite enough. I enjoy racing my bike hard and making a good race of it. I was glad to get a tiny bit of leash, even if it was a tight one today.”

The other feature of stage four was the return of the historic Kingston Flyer, with the big, beloved steam train racing the riders along the Fairlight straight for the first time since 2008.

The climb to win this stage. Photo: Supplied

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PowerNet will be tasked with another hard day of keeping things on track in stage five, a lengthy 166km stage from Invercargill to Lumsden.

The leader’s orange jersey has changed hands after every stage this week so far, including stints with Southlanders Marshall Erwood and Tom Sexton.

“Marshall and Tom have had it over me this week, so it’s pretty cool to get a third Southlander in the orange jersey,” Burnett said.

“To have all that support out on the roads and so many friends and family, it’s been super special and hopefully it’s more of the same for the next few days.”