The final stage in the Wellington CBD on Sunday was won by Strong’s team-mate Campbell Stewart.
Strong was second and finished ahead of team-mate Finn Fisher-Black, who was leading the tour going into the final stage.
Strong won overall by eight seconds from Fisher-Black.
A technical error in the results the day before initially gave Strong the yellow jersey before it was given to Fisher-Black following a result audit.
Strong, who won the points race at the world championships last year, was faster in the final stage and was able to start the year with victory.
“It’s a pretty surreal feeling.’’
For five hours on Saturday he thought he was going to be in yellow going into the final day’s racing.
“It was pretty tough hearing that my team-mate, who is a really good mate, was actually in yellow and we were in a difficult situation where the last stage was a race pretty much tailor-made for me and the gap was tight.
‘‘But we had to go and race it … we weren’t racing against each other. We were racing to keep the jersey in the team.’’
Strong and his team-mates further celebrated as they won the teams classification on the five-day tour.
