A delighted Aaron Kemps (Astana) proved the strongest of a nine-man breakaway during the opening day of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour in Bendigo, breaking clear two laps from the finish to claim a popular solo victory over Tom Southam (Drapac-Porsche) and Craig McCartney (Savings & Loans).

For the 24-year-old Queenslander, the Jayco Herald Sun Classic was a long-awaited first-season win, whose year has been dogged by ill fortune, courtesy of ex-team-mates Alexander Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin, busted for autologous blood doping at the Tour de France.

"The last half of the year for me has been a real big disappointment," Kemps conceded. "I was down to ride the Tour of Germany and Tour of Spain, and because of the mishaps with the team this year, we weren't able to participate, which is a shame. My program got cut down from about 40 days of racing to eight."

Nonetheless, it was a little unusual to see this up-and-coming sprinter of sorts take his chances rather than wait for a drag race to the line. But Kemps said he knew he had his rivals on the ropes — even more so when Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell-SRAM) and Bernard Sulzberger (DFL-Cyclingnews) crashed shortly after he chose his moment to attack.

"I think I felt the strongest. I was always setting a good pace and my legs never hurt up the little bit of a rise,” he said. "Whenever someone tried to attack, I was straight on it all the time.

“With two laps to go, I knew those other guys were going backwards and I still felt good in the legs. I hit it up the hill hard and got away, and I knew I'd be able to hold it off till the finish. Obviously, there was a crash in the final that made a little bit of luck come my way, but I still feel I was strong enough to win.”

British rider Southam, judged the day's most aggressive rider, had a reason for riding hard — he and his wife, Irene, live in Bendigo.

"This race went past my house today every lap, so I had to be kind of in it [the action]," he joked.

Time to blow out the cobwebs
It was a picture-perfect Sunday afternoon in the central Victorian town of Bendigo, and although the criterium (60 minutes plus three laps) didn't count towards the overall classification, the race proper kicking off Monday, you wouldn't have known it. The 100-odd riders took off right from the get-go, keen to “blow out the cobwebs,” as they say here Down Under, and by a quarter-past-three, nine were away: Joel Pearson (Jayco Australian National Team), McCartney (Savings & Loans), Zachary Bell (Bicycle Superstore Canada National Team), Kemps, Jacques-Maynes, Sulzberger, Southam, Timothy Gudsell (Mitchelton Wines New Zealand National Team), and Matthew Wilson (Unibet.com).

A few laps later, their lead was around the half-minute mark — not much in road-racing terms, but on a 1.7km circuit full of twists and turns, plenty to keep them out of sight. In fact, the only time they came within sight again occurred as they found themselves at the rear of the bunch they were once in, and at that point, still with around 20 minutes of racing to go, chief commissaire Wayne Pomario pulled the peloton out, making it a nine-man bike race.

Ten minutes from the finish, Pearson was the first to attack his breakaway buddies, and although that came to naught, it didn't stop first Gudsell, then Wilson, from having a go not long after. When they too were reeled in, Kemps, Southam and McCartney made what turned out to be the day's winning move.

"Everyone was sort of watching everyone," said Kemps, "and most of the other guys were looking at me to chase everything down; at times, they wouldn't chase the break down and they'd all sit and wait and I'd have to chase it down anyway."

A touch of wheels and the resulting crash by Jacques-Maynes and Sulzberger did no harm to their chances, and on the uphill back straight with two laps remaining, Kemps gave it one last nudge to solo clear. Riding out the final lap on his own, victory never in doubt, his two-armed salute came well before the line as he crossed four seconds clear of Southam with McCartney third at 10 seconds.

Kemps will wear the leader's jersey in Monday's 149.9km leg from Bendigo to Nagambie, but knows it mightn't be for keeps.

"Yeah, I think that stage up to Falls Creek [on Stage 4] might be a little bit too hard for me — depends if I'm going strong and can get up the hill all right, but with our team, we're pretty lucky; if one of us gets in a break, any one can ride as the overall contender," he said.