TOUR HISTORY
In 1956, Southland cycling officials were invited to submit an event to mark the Invercargill city centenary celebrations. A group of enthusiasts met locally and on Saturday 27 September 1956, Invercargill Mayor Adam Adamson fired the starting pistol outside of the old Post Office in Dee Street, to officially start the inaugural Tour of Southland. With gravel roads and blustery northerly winds to contend with, Kelvin Hastie from Dunedin prevailed in the three day event and had the honour of being the victor in the first Tour of Southland, an event that would gain high profile for both the sport of Cycling and the province over future years.
From its modest beginnings as a three day event, the Tour has always caught the imagination of the Southland people and the public have traditionally turned out in numbers to see the high profile event travelling literally past their back doors.
Many of New Zealand’s champion cyclists have competed in the Tour of Southland during their careers. Names such as Warwick Dalton, Tino Tabak, Stephen Cox, Jack Swart, Paul Jesson, Graeme Miller, Brian Fowler, Hayden Roulston, Aaron Gate and others, became household names in Southland and for many of these riders, the Tour of Southland featured prominently in their illustrious careers.
Over the years, the Tour has taken regular progressive steps to ensure the event’s popularity and success with the most significant change coming in 1995 when the event successfully made the transition to a team’s event and in 2002 when the event gained UCI status and became a registered category 2.2 UCI international Tour.
In recent years, the Tour of Southland has attracted many international riders but during its 68 years of history there have only been five international riders who have won the Tour - Mel Powell (Australia) back in 1964, John Lieswyn (USA) in both 2002 and 2004. Mitchell Lovelock-Fay (Australia) 2014, James Piccoli (Canada) 2017 and Dan Gardner (UK) in 2023.