CSB - Josh Burnett - Tour of Southland Champion

Winning a second SBS Bank Tour of Southland in the space of three years is something that will take some time to sink in for Josh Burnett.

The 24-year-old produced a strong final day in the 68th edition of the Southland tour to add his name to an elite list of riders who have won the fabled event multiple times.

Burnett was third in the morning’s individual time trial in Winton, before his Creation Signs-MitoQ-NZ Cycling teammates delivered him safely to Invercargill’s Queens Park over the final 77km stage in gale winds to collect the title.

The win sees him join the likes of Warwick Dalton, Tino Tabak, Stephen Cox, Jack Swart, Brian Fowler, Gordon McCauley, Hayden Roulston and Aaron Gate.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time to talk cycling now and the Tour of Southland
and a second career Tour of Southland title for local
writer Josh Burnett. The Invercargo rider won the famous cycling
race back in twenty twenty two, and here we are
twenty twenty four he does it again, finishing safely in
the peloton on the weekend to take the title very
windy final stage from Winton. He joins us on the

(00:22):
show this morning Morning Josh and congratulations.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Mate, Yeah, thanks, it's yeah, it's been a pretty pretty
good week. Really, it's gone. It's weird to say, but
it's almost like the longest the shortest week of the year.
But yeah, it couldn't have gone much bitter.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
It must be nice waking up on a Monday morning
like today knowing that you actually don't have to get
into the liker and get on the bike again.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah. I think he's been enough racing over the last
week for the next while to have a good break,
So it's definitely nice to you know, the cycling routine.
But and yeah, take a ship away to kind of
and yet to look back and enjoy what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
And the weather was an interesting one during the week
started off actually brilliantly fine, but in the latter part
of the week, in the last couple of days, it
was wet and it was windy, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, he pretty much hid everything. The first day was
nice and had a look really windy day, and then
I went to Tiana which is nice, and Queens was nice,
and then yeah, the rain came on the way to Gore.
We also got heat, a lot of wind and went
on and winter and then the last day back from
the cargo, so yeah, pretty typical, typical south and week

(01:42):
you had everyone freezing in the in the rain on
the way to Gore, but they had sunburne from the
day before, so yeah, it was a good mixture.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Interesting. So what does it mean as a Southland of
winning the Tour of Southland for you? Yeah, I think.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
It's just a really cool way that I can show
how much the community means to me. And yeah, I've
always had had this aboard and whether it's at this
race or other races, yeah, everyone has always follows along.
And so when I get the chance to race at home,

(02:19):
it's not like we're rugby players or things like that.
We're you know, playing at home every week. This was
the only chance we get all year. So yeah, to
be able to win again as for myself is great,
but I think it's yeah, just almost a way of
giving back to those who have always reforded me.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
As I mentioned, you won it back in twenty twenty two.
So how does it feel? And compare winning it this
year to the first one you won?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, I think it was different. You know, the first
one was when I unexpected, but it was more of
a you know, like we were underdogs for most of
the week, and in this one, wee hit everyone watching
us whole week, so we had to go about it differently.
And yeah, I think they're both just equally as rewarding,
and we hit the race differently but can get the

(03:11):
same results. I think it same speaks volumes about our
team and management and everyone in the Creation Times Mike,
you you know cycling projects you up?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, I mean how big was because it is a team.
If we forget about that, isn't it. The Creation's teammates
over the weekend, how big were they?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah? They yeah amazing. They had to ba sit in
the wind the whole day and they get the drink
bottles and yeah, they do all the nasty work really,
so it saved my leagues for later on in the race.
And without the en I wouldn't I wouldn't get to
those parts of the race. So you can't you can't

(03:51):
really overstate how important they were in this. And yeah,
it's definitely just as much as minus as And boy,
there's some.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Big names on that trophy, Warwick, Dalton, Tino to Beek,
Aaron Gate, all multiple winners of the Tour of South
and so to add your name to it again, that's
got to be special.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, some really really good names on there, and so
have my name on there again is yes, special and
almost surreal to be up with those guys as Ray
when I was growing up. So I for sure it
hasn't really sprunk it yet, but I'm sure we'll over
the next few days.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
So we're only a month left of the year. Is
it time to put your feet up and have a
break before you're back on the bike. I mean, what's
next for you?

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, basically a short break of we should probably two
weeks and then start training next year. So not one
hundred percent sure what that looks like yet, but I'm
sure we start doing the first steps towards that planning
wise this week, but there won't be any bike riding.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Nice one more Josh again. Congratulations mate, well.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Done, so thank you. Cheers