A professional mountain biker who won the Whaka 100 in Rotorua a week ago holds the first leader's jersey in this year's SBS Bank Tour of Southland, the 70th running of the race.

Nelson's Cameron Jones (Advanced Personnel) pulled on the orange jersey on Sunday evening after a morning in which his team won the team time trial, 4.2km around Queens Park, and an afternoon in which he finished second in the 42km street race through Invercargill.

The stage went to Australian Max Campbell of Macaulay Ford-Goodtech, who got clear with Jones and held off the chasing bunch to win a two-up finish in 49 minutes 48 seconds. PowerNet's Kiaan Watts led the rest home 25 seconds later.

Campbell said afterwards he had been told the pair had about 40 seconds but had not expected to stay away until the closing kilometres. "I'm more than stoked," he said, adding that he was still processing a result he had not expected.

The combined result leaves Jones on 54:25 overall, 13 seconds ahead of Campbell. Wanaka's Sam Ritchie (PowerNet) is third at 28 seconds, with Watts, Jones' team-mates Matthew Wilson, Kyle Aitken and Nathan Bunn, and Invercargill's Marshall Erwood (Creation Signs Whoosh NZ Cycling Project) all 29 seconds back. Wilson has finished runner-up in each of the past two tours.

Erwood and his Invercargill team-mate Jeremy Presbury, ninth at 31 seconds, are the best-placed of the Southland riders in the field.

Advanced Personnel swept most of the jerseys on day one. Jones holds the overall lead, Aitken the under-23 classification, Bunn the over-35 jersey and the team the teams' prize. Jones said the whole team had ridden "super well" in the prologue and had decided to "share the jerseys around" for the day.

Campbell leads the Sprint Ace standings on five points from Ritchie and Jones on four. Christchurch's Ollie Jones (PowerNet), riding his 11th tour and 10th in a row with PowerNet, took the first King of the Mountain jersey. Team Brennan's Julian Baudry was named most combative rider of the stage.

Sixteen former tour winners were among the faces at the Gala St start as organisers marked the 70th edition, according to the Southland Tribune, which described a blustery opening day.

Stage two, the first open-road stage, left the Invercargill velodrome at 9.30am today for 166km to Gore. The route skirts the Hokonui Hills and passes through Waikaka before a new finish on Wentworth Street beside East Gore School, expected at about 1.15pm. Gale-force winds were forecast for the day.

Campbell said his team had looked at the week's forecast and was braced for weather "a little bit miserable" every day.

The tour continues until Saturday 7 November. Results and the leaders' board are published daily at tourofsouthland.com.