Patrick Bevin (Avanti) again confirmed his huge potential when he won the queen stage of Australia’s oldest stage race Herald Sun Tour with a powerful sprint in the final few hundred metres of the 3km up Arthur’s Seat. Overall leader Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEDGE) did well to finish second ahead of his teammate Simon Clarke which was enough for him to claim the overall win in the five-day race.

Last year Patrick Bevin had a breakthrough season when he won the overall National Racing Series title, marking himself out as a man to watch for the future. Today he confirmed his potential by winning the biggest race of his career when he came out on top in the Herald Sun Tour queen stage that finished at the top of the famous Arhtur’s Seat climb.

"I was just grovelling for wheels to be honest, it’s a pretty tough finish and I have a bit of weight over those guys so I was just waiting for the road to flatten out with 600 to go. I knew if I waited till there, I’d be tough to beat in the run to the line," Bevin said after the stage.

"It’s tough when you’re balancing the GC and the stage. We knew when we came around with two laps that GreenEdge still had a full squad there and it was going to be pretty tough to unseat the GC. We talked about the other options and I spoke to Joe [Cooper] at the bottom and he said he was a bit ‘so-so’ and I knew that if I could just hold on for dear life I would be pretty good odds in the sprint."

“It was a great feeling to get up that berg for the last time and be there at the pointy end and have enough for the sprint to take out the stage,” explained Bevin. “It’s a great victory and it’s the type of finish I’m beginning to really like.

“We threw it at them and we gave it a good nudge and to come away with a stage win is consolation for sure. It’s a pretty tough finish for me. Hilltop finishes are never easy and to be there with that calibre, there was only a handful of guys left in contention.

“It says pretty good things about my form and it’s a luxury to be able to sprint on top of that."