Tour of the Great South Coast: Jones wins stage 3

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With victory on stage 3 of the Tour of the Great South Coast Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing) moved into the overall race lead and ending Jesse Kerrison's (Budget Forklifts) stint in yellow. CharterMason duo Shannon Johnson and Raphael Freinstein rounded out the podium on the stage.

"I'm really happy, it was a fast finish, there were a lot of different teams trying to get their sprinters to the front," said Jones. "I think what helped me today was having a strong team and keeping calm, relaxed and patient. I let my legs do the talking in the end.

"Our team took a back seat and all the guys nailed the lead-out and made my job easy to take the win."

Jones holds a four seconds advantage over Kerrison while stage one winner Johnson is third overall, 12 seconds behind Jones.

Earlier in the race, a four man break established after 18km with Michael Hepburn (health.com.au/search2retain), Patrick Lane (African Wildlife Safaris) and Nick Katsonis (CharterMason) being joined by Jordan Stannus (Jayco/John West/VIS) four kilometres later

The quartet's biggest advantage on the day was 3:30 before the sprinters' teams begun their chase in earnest. Hepburn sensing the break was doomed, attacked his companions to build 30 second advantage for eight kilometres before he was reeled in the three men behind him

With the breakaway's advantage decreasing by the kilometre, Theodore Yates (Satalyst Giant Racing Team), Oliver Martin (Team Polygon Australia), Michael Jaeger (Peloton Sports/Turramurra Cyclery Racing) and Michael Crosbie (African Wildlife Safaris Cycling Team) bridged across to the leaders while Katsonis dropped back to the peloton.

The Tour continues on Friday with a morning criterium in Portland before an afternoon 92km road race from Heywood to Casterton.

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