Kerrison wins Stage 4 bunch sprint

Jesse Kerrison has provided a revenge victory for his Budget Forklifts team on Thursday during the fourth stage of the Tour of the Murray River. Kerrison proved the fastest of the fast-men by claiming the bunch sprint with defending champion Luke Davison (Drapac) in second and Anthony Giacoppo (Huon-Genesys) rounding out the podium.

The 140km stage from Kerang to Cohuna saw the Budget team begin the day one rider short following the overnight disqualification of Sam Horgan for holding onto a team car.

"This is my second stage win for the year, it’s incredible to get my first road stage win too," Kerrison exclaimed. "With about three kilometres to go Huon-Genesys, Euride and Drapac were all fighting for the front. I was swapping from wheel to wheel because I knew we probably didn’t have the strength today.

"I saw Shannon Johnson (Charter Mason) kick with 500 metres to go and I jumped on his wheel and he gave me the perfect lead out," continued Kerrison. "At the start of the day it was huge motivation having Sam not able to ride, I wanted to win it for him."

In the team briefing that preceded Wednesday's stage three road race, teams were given stern warning from the race jury that any riders seen holding onto cars would be disqualified. Not wanting to see bad luck decide the outcome of a race, Australian commissaries –in a similar fashion to their European counterparts- have tended on the whole to allow riders to be motorpaced back to the peloton following punctures or crashes.

Following what commissaries said to be an abuse of the rules with riders spotted holding cars without pedalling, it was made clear that this would no longer be tolerated. After being taken down in a large crash during stage 3, Horgan was disqualified for holding onto a team car whilst returning to the front of the race. The New Zealander -who just won the recent Tour of the Great South Coast- did have to change bikes following the crash, and claimed to be having his seat post adjusted.

Race commissaires, on the other hand, decided otherwise and Horgan was made an example of. The merits of the contentious decision can be debated, but there was no doubt that his disqualification provided much motivation for his remaining Budget teammates.

How it Happened

Stage 4 was another fast affair with the race highlighted by a two man breakaway of Darcy Ellerm-Norton (Pro Team Downunder) and Nick Aitken (Seight Test Team p/b The Biomechanics). The duo broke away after the 60km mark and remained in front of the peloton for another 60km, extending their lead to a maximum of just over three minutes after 90km of racing.

In defence of their race leader, Tom Palmer, it was Drapac Cycling who defended strongly all stage and brought the duo back in the last 10km to set things up for the bunch kick.

With the Huon-Genesys, Euride, Budget and Drapac sprint trains all duelling for position it was Kerrison who came out on top.

Palmer won the first intermediate sprint of the day ahead of Giacoppo and Kerrison, but it was Giacoppo's third place in the stage that saw him etch close to Palmer's overall lead. Six seconds now separate Palmer and Giacoppo, with Budget's only remaining Kiwi, Michael Vink, sitting in third overall just 7 seconds down.

Kerrison leads Palmer by 5 points in the sprint jersey classification sitting on 16 points, with Palmer's teammate Davison a further 3 points behind in third.

The men's Tour of the Murray River continues on Friday with a 91km road race starting and finishing in Echuca.

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