Peterson's solo effort nets V Australia second win of the day

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It was a case of double happiness for V Australia, claiming their second stage of the day at the Tour of Tasmania via Cam Peterson on the third stage over 78.6 kilometres, a steady climb north from Hamilton to Bronte Park.

Wednesday afternoon's victory was also enough to give the 27-year-old who earlier in the season took out a stage at the Joe Martin Stage Race in the US, the CAT Underground Mining leader's jersey heading into Thursday's fourth stage.

Peterson's win was a sweet one, finishing solo ahead of many of the NRS's big names and bringing back all of the deficit - and then some - to previous leader Dale Parker (Jayco-2XU).

How it unfolded

The race was characterised by an early break that included Nathan Earle (Genesys Wealth Advisers), Trent Derecourt (John West Cycling), Taylor Shelden (V Australia), Phil Grenfell and Andrew Crawley (BikeBug.com), Alexander Ray (TDU), Ben Dyball (Jayco-AIS), Ben Mather and Malcolm Rudolph.

That group stayed away for the most of the day before being brought back as the bunch approached the final 20 kilometres. As the bunch closed on cresting the day's final climb up Tungatinah Lagoon the field split to pieces.

Nathan Haas (Genesys Wealth Advisers), tried to jump away but was marked astutely by the Jayco-2XU duo of Josh Atkins and Dale Parker.

With Haas' move neutralised, V Australia, who had avoided much of the early action, attacked with Cameron Peterson who took advantage of the foxing of Jayco-2XU and Genesys. His advantage built up quickly and by the time there was a reaction victory was assured.

He crossed the line 1:05 in front of second place Jay Bourke (search2retain), and holds the overall lead by 19 seconds ahead of Dale Parker (Jayco-2XU).