Australian Jay McCarthy has taken out the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Manawatu, finishing safely ahead of his nearest rival, compatriot Darren Lapthorne, in a mass sprint ending to the final stage.

The 112km stage in and around Palmerston North on Sunday was won by Aucklander Aaron Gate, part of a team made up of BikeNZ endurance track squad members.

The BikeNZ team – also including Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Shane Archbold and Myron Simpson – used the five-day tour as part of their Olympic preparations and grabbed two stage wins, the other to Bewley.

McCarthy (Jayco-AIS) had taken over the yellow jersey on Saturday and had gone into the last day just 3sec ahead of Lapthorne (Drapac).

The 19-year-old came home in the front bunch, extending his lead to 9sec at the finish line.

“The team did everything for me,” McCarthy said.

“It was a hard day today. Big ups to the New Zealand national team for making it a hard race.”

With 20km to go, Wellington’s Joseph Cooper (Ricoh) put in an attack as he tried to make up the minute and a half he needed to take the overall title.

The break proved short-lived, although Cooper did manage to retain his King of the Mountain title from last year.

Gate described the windy conditions on the stage as “pretty brutal”.

“I definitely had a couple of times in the gutter struggling along, but we were the ones trying to make the other people hurt at times, so it definitely worked in our favour,” he said.

“Coming down the home straight, I had the perfect lead out from Sam and Marc.”

He said the week had provided solid training ahead of the track world championships in Melbourne in April.