Warwick Dalton wins 1961 cycling Tour of Southland......

Tony Walsh winning the third stage of the Tour of Southland just ahead of Warwick Dalton who won overall.

The 1961 Southland cycling tour champion was Warwick Dalton of Invercargill.
The 24 year old had only just returned from Britain and the Continent and that ride proved that he was one of the best in the country.
He was a marked man, but that was just the way he liked it. Aucklander,  Tony Walsh was the one challenging and the crowd were treated to a great contest.

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Down by a minute to tour leader on the second day, to Ritchie Thompson of Wellington where the tour started at Lumsden.
However, Dalton and Walsh worked together and made it hard for the Wellingtonians.
The first serious break came after Winton when Dick Johnstone and Trevor Morris along from Auckland and Rob Rowery of Wellington in tandem split from the field.

After Mataura the front riders were eight minutes ahead of the rest of the field and looked like no one would catch them.
But Dalton, who never says 'die' teamed up with Arden, Harcourt and Lankow to set upon the leaders.
Tour leader, Ritchie Thompson tried hard to stay with them but could not handle the pressure.
Dalton and his group slowly pulled back the leading pack and at Woodlands were only 500 yards away from the group.
Averaging 25 and 27 miles an hour Dalton's team caught the leading bunch averaging 22 miles an hour.
Sowrey felt the pinch and dropped out, then next Morris and Harcourt.
Heading towards Pukemaori, Johnstone was completely exhausted and had a bad tyre which saw him withdraw from the race.
Lankow soon after punctured and lost two valuable minutes.
Arden also dropped out just leaving Walsh and Dalton to the task.
They rode the last five minutes together and entered Kew Bowl which had a crowd of 2,000 waiting. Dalton won by a tyre - 1 sec ahead of Walsh.
"King of the Mountains" was Johnstone who was consistently