Tour of Murray River: Copp wins shortened stage 4

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A grass fire in Cohuna forced the early finish of stage four of the Tour of the Murray River throwing the stage into chaos as riders were unaware of the changes. Jayden Copp (Arbitrage Racing) was the beneficiary of a chaotic finish as he was awarded the stage win courtesy of being the leader on the road when he passed what became the new finishing line.

No general classification time bonus' were awarded for the victory.

The fire broke out just three kilometres from the planned stage finish which forced event staff to move the finish line forward five kilometres at the last minute with little time to relay the message to riders and their teams.

"Last year I got a second and that felt amazing but to get a win on a day like today was awesome," said Copp who most recently returned tasted victory in Belgium.

"[When I attacked] I was 100% committed to go the whole distance to the finish, but just after the 10km to go sign the motorbike came up beside me and said they were shortening the stage by 5km, so I thought 'oh sweet' because at that point I had a 35 second gap. I thought 'I am actually going to hold onto this' and it ended up being pretty close at the finish."

Sam Witmitz (Budget Forklifts) was second while Eric Sheppard (Search2Retain) rounded out the podium as he finished third without knowing it.

Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing) won an intermediate sprint at Boort Secondary College to extend his overall lead to 12 seconds ahead of Jesse Kerrison (Budget Forklifts).

"It was an interesting stage with the wind today," said Jones. "The race split again and it was the race winning move but unfortunately, a small bush fire caused the race to be shortened.

"Out of all the confusion today, the main positive is that we retained the yellow jersey and even increased the lead by winning the intermediate time bonus sprint during the race."

Keeping with the theme of the race, strong winds wreaked havoc with the peloton, causing splits as riders lost contact with the front riders. The main bunch arrived at the finish line of the 140km race behind Copp with just 30 riders.

The Tour continues tomorrow at 2pm with a road race beginning and finishing in Echuca.
 

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