Steele Von Hoff grabs stage win number four in Ouven

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Steele Von Hoff (Genesys Wealth Advisers) grabbed his 14th National Road Series stage victory with yet another textbook sprint in the streets of Ouven. Perennial runner-up Ben Kersten (Swan Hill Heart of the Murray) was second, while Phil Grenfell completed the podium.

Patrick Shaw retains a narrow lead in the overall standings with Steele Von Hoff now within 6 seconds of the Tour of Toowoomba winner.

Von Hoff reminded spectators at his podium presentation that there were still three stages remaining in the eight-day Tour, and he still had unfinished business. He was especially direct in his rivalry with Queenslander Jonathan Cantwell who has won three stages of the Tour.

"If Cantwell wants to play this game, I will play just as hard," Von Hoff said.

"It’s friendly rivalry. I am delighted with my performance. I couldn’t be happier."

How it unfolded

The longest stage of this year's Tour of the Murray River, at 86.5 kilometres started after a minor delay in the town of Ouven, just after 1:45 pm.

After successfully navigating the neutral zone, Eric Sheppard (Jayco VIS/Apollo) was the first to attack, moving away for an ultimately unsuccessful early solo move. A dangerous break of 10 riders then formed off the front however the presence of a number of the general classification contenders, meant it was also doomed to fail, and again the field regrouped.

For 50 kilometres of racing moves went and came back however, nothing stuck. The one major development was that Joe Lewis (BikeBug.com) got the best of the day's KOM points to move himself into the lead in that classification.

In the last 10 kilometres, the pace was frenetic, with the usual grouping of Genesys, V Australia, and Drapac forming at the front to contest the day's final sprint.

Ben Kersten put in a strong sprint, but it was Steele Von Hoff, who took the win, and closes further in the general classification to teammate Patrick Shaw.