Tour of the Murray River: Tyler Spurrell solos to stage 6 victory

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Tyler Spurrell (African Wildlife Safaris) became the latest rider to claim a debut National Road Series (NRS) victory as he soloed to the win on stage 6 of the Tour of the Murray River in Cobram.

With six kilometres remaining in the 104km stage, Spurrell launched the winning move which saw him take the biggest win of his career. He finished four seconds ahead of Josh Harrison (SASI) and Kane Walker (Satalyst Giant).

"I'm ecstatic, it's my first win in the NRS," said  Spurrell. "I thought why not, let's have a crack.

"I attacked and got maybe a 15 second gap and I just held it there. I knew with four kilometres to go I pretty much had it because with my track background, I know how to pace myself.

"It's without a doubt the best thing I've done on the road and on the track too."

Spurrell was part of a 12-man breakaway that established when once again winds and narrow roads distracted the peloton with just 35 kilometres remaining in the race. The group quickly gained a 3:30 advantage before a frantic chase ensued from the peloton led by the Budget Forklifts and CharterMason teams.

Tour leader Brenton Jones (Avanti Racing) led the main group across the line to retain his overall race lead, five seconds ahead of Jesse Kerrison (Budget Forklifts) with one stage remaining in the race

"Today we showed we're still good enough to control the race by letting a group get away that didn't effect me on general classification," said Jones.

"Anything can happen as we saw yesterday with the unfortunate incident I had, so we'll just go into [the final stage] with confidence and hopefully we can get the job done," said Jones of his stage five crash.

The Tour concludes tomorrow with a waterfront criterium in Yarrawonga.

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