Pearson prevails at Tour of the Murray River

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Gippsland's Joel Pearson notched the most emphatic triumph of his impressive career with a hard-fought victory in the Elgas Tour of the Murray River today. Pearson won the eight-day tour by 11 seconds from Canberra’s Stuart Shaw, with New Zealander Gordon McCauley a further second back in third place.

For the red-haired Pearson, who gained and lost the tour’s purple jersey three times throughout the 902km race, it was his best result since winning the 262km Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic last October. Four months ago Pearson underwent a serious hip operation which threatened to derail his 2010 season but, after a slow start he gradually rode into peak form and was given backing by his Genesys team-mates throughout the 14 stages of the gruelling tour.

Pearson, runner-up to the blisteringly-quick Queenslander Jonathan Cantwell in last year’s Murray tour, said it was an “unbelievable feeling” to finally win a major Australian stage race. “This is my biggest enjoyment because it was such a hard-fought, tough battle from start to finish,” Pearson said.

“The likes of Stewie Shaw and Gordon McCauley threw everything at me over the last couple of days but I managed to hang on, mainly through the help of my Genesys team,” he added.

The final stage, a 66km criterium raced on Mildura’s riverfront, was won by the incredibly nimble Malaysian Harrif Saleh who narrowly defeated young New South Welshmen Scott Law (Virgin Blue RBS Morgans) and Alex Carver (Jayco Skins). Saleh won four tour stages and will be a front-line rider for Malaysia in the road race at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games next month.

McCauley will also be in India for his fourth Commonwealth Games after he represents New Zealand in the time trial at the World road championships in Geelong on September 30. In addition to his third placing, he also won the tour’s king of the mountains championship and the Merbein Bendigo Community Bank most aggressive rider award.