, but the tour winning attack came on the penultimate stage this morning from Te Anau to Lumsden.

On the 79km stage Roulston simply rode away from the pack on a tough climb after 52kms, then set to the task of bridging the gap to the escapees up the road.  Showing glimpses of that Olympic medal winning form, Roulston caught the leaders, then later cross the line in Lumsden just 2 seconds behind stage 8 winner Kirk O'Bee, but more importantly for Roulston 2min 28sec ahead of Gordon McCauley who had to pass the tour leaders yellow jersey to Roulston for the final stage in the afternoon.

The mornings stage win set Roulston up with a comfortable 2min 09sec lead, and challenger Gordon McCauley the unenviable task going into the final short stage from Winton back to Invercargill.

With just 64.4 km remaining to the end of the tour, the pace on the afternoon stage was hot as they speed along the plains sometimes up to 65km/r, limiting chances of breakaways and any changes on the general classifications.

As the large peloton crossed the line in Invercargill marking the end of the tour, it was Hayden Roulston (The Southland Times-Trek) who had won the 2008 Tour of Southland by just 1min 58 seconds from Gordon McCauley (Cycle Surgery) after 20 hours of racing over the last week. Heath Blackgrove (Colourplus) was third, with early tour leader Jeremy Yates 6^th, 5min 27sec down.

The teams race was won by Subway-Avanti, with Southland Times second and Raboplus third.

The sprints Ace classification was won by Dominique Rollin, from Gordon McCauley and Joel Pearson, with Jeremy Yates winning the King of the Mountain from Alex Meenhorst and Josh Marley.

Roulston now takes up a professional contract in Europe, with a possibility of race the Tour de France.

Final General Classification