In a sea of speedsuits, one team stands out more than most, trading last year's leopard lycra for snakeskin.
"It's always a fun week in Southland so we've got animal theme," Ben Oliver, who is riding for Creation Signs MitoQ, said.
They're a UCI Continental team who have already stamped their mark on this tour, after winning four of the six classifications at stage one. However, stage two is a whole different beast.
The Mountain Biking Commonwealth Games silver medallist says their game plan is aggressive.
"Don’t miss a move, ride aggressively - just do what we know we can," Oliver said.
But in the first open road stage, tactics are crucial. The first 10 kilometres are full of sprint efforts.
"They’re obviously gonna try and break and not wanting us in the break so it’s going, we’re gonna have to work hard to be there," Commonwealth Games track cyclist George Jackson, who is also riding for Creation Signs Mito-Q, said.
Adding to the challenge, a 166km ride from Invercargill to Lumsden, making it the longest stage of the tour.
While the Southland sun on Monday may have slowed down a few riders, it was nothing on the gravel road into Balfour.
"It just causes mayhem," Jackson said.
"Whenever the wind picks up it’s like a bomb that goes off in the Peloton. It’s just nuts."
Stage two saw a crash involving more than 30 riders - a quarter of the field - on the way to Nightcaps.
The crash splintered the Peloton across western Southland, with defending champion Michael Vink one of the riders forced to ride hard to catch up. Vink finished the stage in 92nd place and trails the yellow jersey by nearly 10 minutes.
It opened the door for Australia's Marcus Culey, who won a four-man sprint up the main street of Lumsden.
"I used to race with a team full of Kiwis and they used to say, 'You’ve got the Tour de France in July, but this is the real tour, isn’t it?'" he joked.
Waikato rider Boris Clark finished the stage in third, which was enough to take the jersey off Oliver.
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