The SBS Bank Tour of Southland celebrates its 70th edition this week, with 17 teams and about 100 riders lining up for a prologue and eight stages covering 920km over seven days.
New Zealand's longest-running stage race starts in Invercargill's Gala Street on Sunday 1 November and finishes back in the city on Saturday 7 November, where the overall winner is traditionally crowned on Gala Street.
It is the second Tour of 2026. The 69th edition, originally scheduled for November 2025, was postponed after the October 2025 storm and state of emergency and was instead raced from 18 to 24 January, when Southlander Josh Burnett of PowerNet took the overall title.
Race director Waine Harding said the platinum anniversary represented something rare, strong and durable, and thanked the volunteers, many of whom are giving up their time for a second tour in the same year. "We are really grateful for the many people who have given up their time," he said of the volunteers who have supported the race over the decades.
The anniversary will be marked with a Legends on Tour dinner on Friday 30 October, bringing together 14 past champions. Among them are Brian Fowler, whose eight victories make him the most successful rider in the race's history, three-time winner Warwick Dalton and two-time champions Jack Swart and Graeme Miller.
Burnett sidelined, Wilson returns
Burnett will not defend his title. His professional contract rules him out of racing, and he will instead support teams from the team vans.
Cambridge rider Matthew Wilson of Advanced Personnel, runner-up to Burnett at each of the past two tours, returns after a season of professional gravel and mountain bike racing in the United States.
Other riders to watch include 2023 winner Dan Gardner, January stage winners Zakk Patterson, Daniel Morton and Kiaan Watts, Ollie Jones, and Tom Sexton, who arrives fresh from a silver medal in the scratch race at the world track championships. Sexton has previously won stages, worn the yellow jersey and taken the Sprint Ace title.
George Jackson, a former Sprint Ace and King of the Mountains winner, and Southlanders Nick Kergozou, the 2025 Sprint Ace and a multiple stage winner, and Marshall Erwood add local interest. Two Australian teams, McCarthy Homes-QCF and Team Brennan Racing, are among the 17 squads.
New roads
Racing returns to Queens Park and Gala Street after storm damage forced course changes in January. Stage 2 on Monday takes the peloton 166km from Invercargill to Gore, skirting the Hokonui Hills and passing through Waikaka before a new finish beside East Gore School. Stage 5 from Invercargill to Lumsden climbs through the White Hill wind farm for the first time, and the stage 7 individual time trial has shifted to the outskirts of Winton.
Harding said the riders had really missed being cheered on by the schools the race passes during the week when the tour was run in January, outside the school term.
The 2026 route:
- Prologue: team time trial
- Stage 1: street race
- Stage 2: Invercargill to Gore, 166km
- Stage 3: Te Anau
- Stage 4: The Remarkables
- Stage 5: Invercargill to Lumsden
- Stage 6: Bluff
- Stage 7: individual time trial, Winton
- Stage 8: Invercargill
The final day features two stages, the individual time trial and the finishing stage in Invercargill.
Funding partners for the event include the ILT Foundation, The Lion Foundation, Community Trust South, Aotearoa Gaming Trust, the Bobby Foundation, New Zealand Community Trust and Invercargill City Council.
