Anderson wins Grafton to Inverell in two-up sprint

Jack Anderson has said an emotional goodbye to his Budget Forklifts teammates by winning the Grafton to Inverell one-day classic in Inverell on Saturday. Bound for Drapac Pro Cycling next season, Anderson has had a stellar end of season with second at the Melbourne to Warrnambool -after breakaway away with teammate Sam Horgan in the dying moments- and now victory at Grafton.

"It's going to take a little while to sink in to be honest," Anderson said post-race. "At the moment I'm just tired. Obviously it's the last race of the season so I'm a bit relieved I can have a few easy weeks now.

"If you're familiar with Australian cycling you know that this is arguably the toughest one day race in the country," Anderson added. "For me it's definitely the hardest – I've done it a couple of times now and it was certainly much more difficult than I expected. And to join 50 or so other names on the shield is very humbling and overwhelming."

Anderson came to the head of the race with runner-up Ben Johnson in a group of six riders, only for the pair to leave their compatriots behind inside the last hour of racing. The pair committed to the line and got out to over one minute as they extinguished the hopes of those chasing behind. Anderson took the sprint as the pair came in to the finish straight in Inverell and capped what has been a breakthrough season for the 26-year-old.

"I was confident I could take it in the sprint," continued Anderson. "Ben's a class rider, but he's been out of the sport for a few years. I basically sprint the same after 5km as I do after 230km, so I knew if I could get to the finish I'd have a good chance of outsprinting him.

"It was fantastic to have him with me, we were the two strongest out there so when he came with me I thought it was a good move. Thankfully I had enough legs to finish it off."

Johnson who will also join Anderson at Drapac next year was content with second as he continues to make ground in his return to cycling after a five year hiatus.

"If I'd known I was going to get second at the start of the day I would have taken that," Johnson explained. "It's a bit disappointing – it is such a big race and to win it would have been fantastic, but Jack was really strong and we worked well together at the finish. It's my first big race where I've been reasonably fit for a long time, so I'm really happy with the way it went."

At the conclusion of the Subaru National Road Series for 2013 Jack Haig has taken individual honours and his Huon-Genesys team have claimed the teams aggregate for the fourth year in a row.

Results