The scratch group trio of Grant Harvey, Darryl O’Keefe and Michael Thomson were given a massive task, chasing seven minutes to the next group on the road.
They made up only three at the half-way point and, being a mostly downhill ride back to Seymour, their chances of closing the gap were slim.
Further up the road the seven minute pair of Christy Rilen and Shayne Kirby reeled in the 12 and 16-minute groups with 10km to go, which left lone limit rider Adam Inness still out the front.
As the kilometres ticked over, Rilen and Kirby were ably assisted by Bret Bender, Ian Baker and Ian Porter from the 12-minute group, with Brian Inness and Kevin Bartlett also pitching in.
With 3km to go they sighted the lonely figure of Inness in the distance, which prompted Kirby to increase the pace and push everyone to their limits.
An exhausted Kirby finally relented and with 200m to go, Rilen found himself at the front and unleashed his sprint, overtaking Inness.
Rilen went on to win ahead of a determined Bender with Porter third.
The rest were B. Inness, Baker, A. Inness, Bartlett and Kirby.
The scratch group pushed hard all the way to the finish, eventually finishing just over two minutes behind with Harvey claiming the fastest time in 1:10:37.
This Saturday’s race starts from Burgess Signs at 2pm
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