Tour of the Great South Coast: Kerrison wins stage 7

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The rivalry between Jesse Kerrison (Budget Forklifts) and Brenton Jones (Avanti) continued at the Tour of the Great South Coast with the BudgetForklifts rider claiming the win in the sprint finish.

"I timed my kick right, I went early and surprised everyone," said Kerrison who is now just 12 seconds behind Jones on the overall classification. "I couldn't have done it without the boys, they rallied behind me and kept my moral high and it paid off."

Kerrison's second stage win of the race, along with seven bonus seconds earned in intermediate sprints, has moved him back into GC contention after the 20-year-old slipped to third overall following the morning's criterium.

"I had a bit of a rough start with the criterium this morning, I just didn't feel myself, so to come out and win the stage this afternoon was great."

"There is a lot of work to do but we're not going to give up. [The Tour of the] Murray showed me that you can never say die, you never know what is going to happen and you've just got to give it everything until the end," said Kerrison who claimed the final stage in Yarrawonga two weeks ago to win the Tour overall from Jones who suffered a mechanical in the final 300m.

Raphael Freinstein (CharterMason Giant) rounded out the stage podium and sits in third placed overall, 23 seconds in arrears.

The race concludes with a 50km stage around Port Fairy.

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