Brenton Jones wins opening stage of Tour of the Murray River

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On a windy opening stage of the Tour of the Murray River it was Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing) who prevailed in the bunch sprint to claim his first NRS stage win of 2014. Teammate Neil van der Ploeg was second while CharterMason Giant's German sprinter Raphael Freinstein was third.

The wins extends a fruitful period for Jones who notched two stage wins at the UCI 2.2 Tour of Singkarak during the mid-season NRS break and also recorded a third place at the UCI 2.1 Tour of Japan.

"It's great to go overseas and mix it with the best international competition in Asia, but to come back and get a win in the NRS, which has been my stepping stone, is a really nice achievement," said Jones.

The 155km course from Mildura to Robinvale saw several riders hit the deck with teams looking to take advantage of the windy conditions but with Avanti looking to continue its dominance of the 2014 NRS season, the team in blue ensured that the stage would be decided in a sprint finish as it reeled in the breakaway with less than 2km to race.

"You can't start the Tour any better than that," added Jones. "We all had a plan and to perform that perfectly today is awesome.

"The wind today might have isolated a few teams or a few sprinters from their teams. Coming into the finish, the boys held the right hand side of the gutter, putting everyone else in the wind, before executing the lead out perfectly."

Stage 1 proved to be a case of 'Keeping up with the Joneses' as Brenton's brother Jarryd represented (African Wildlife Safaris) in the three-man breakaway which also included Michael Troy (GPM Wilson) and Aden De Jager (Team Scody Downunder).

The maximum advantage the break managed over the peloton was four minutes before the trio became a duo as the windy conditions saw Troy drop back to the main bunch. As Troy was going backwards, Pat Shaw (Satalyst Giant) was going forwards in a hurry as he bridged across the gap to the leaders to restore a third rider to the breakaway and added firepower with 35km to go.

With Shaw doing his best to ensure the break survived, the peloton was forced to chase hard in the closing kilometres but did enough to make the catch within the final 2km of the race.

"It was pretty cool to see my little brother Jarryd out in the break," said Jones. "Coming to the finish line, I was hoping maybe we didn't catch them so he could get up for a win or a podium because he's riding really well, but I'm definitely happy to take the win."

With bonus seconds on the line, Jones leads the Tour by six seconds to Van der Ploeg and nine seconds to Freinstein.

The Tour continues on Wednesday with a dual staged day, beginning with a morning criterium in Swan Hill before a 98km road race from to Quambatook in the afternoon.

Video courtesy of Cycling Australia

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