After the usual aggressive start, the pace settled down somewhat as the peloton began to feel the effects of the 44.65 km/h average speed of this race so far. Two Australian riders - Casino Canberra's Cameron Jennings, and NSW Institute of Sport's Tom Brook, were able to get clear of the bunch at the 28 km mark and built a steady lead over the lethargic bunch. Jennings is a university student from Queensland and is as talented as his brother Warren, who rode very well in this race last year, while 33 year old Brook, the current Lanterne Rouge of the race was seeking to make amends for his first few days.

The peloton decided to take it easy for a while, with the only incident being a crash at the 32 kilometer point involving 8 riders. Included amongst these was race leader Jeremy Hunt (Sportscover), however he and the others regained the peloton safely. The breakaways' maximum advantage was just over 7 minutes at the 75 kilometer mark, before the combination of a cross wind and the teams of Festina and Ekono Chile started to eat into it. Brook managed to snare the KOM points from Jennings as the gap came down, and they were swallowed up after nearly 110 km alone.

The bunch had only 17 kilometers left at this point and things became really aggressive, with several attacks being made by Team Ekono and Festina. However with just two kilometers left, it was Websdale's Max van Heeswijk who put in a big attack up a slight rise enabling him to score a fine solo victory. Sportscover's Kam Po Wong had strapped on his fast legs today and led home the bunch over the speed humps(!), with MROZ's Raimondas Rumsas taking third.

For 26 year old van Heeswijk it was his second win of this year's tour, and his tenth in total, giving him the overall outright record of stage wins in the Classic. He was understandably happy with this result, coming at the end of a good year for him. "It's nice to win again - I think I am getting over my jet lag which left me really tired yesterday. Today was pretty easy and we didn't have to do much chasing, but the end was hard. There was a little hill with 2 km to go and I gave everything and I knew I was strong enough to stay away," he said. He has already won three races this year, along with a second at Paris Camembert and numerous placings. He has signed for another two years with Mapei and is very happy with the environment there and the trust within the team.

Race leader, Jeremy Hunt finished out of the placings today but still managed to maintain his 13 second grip on the jersey over Piotr Wadecki (MROZ), while Australian rider Bart Hickson (Caravello) moved himself up to equal 3rd by virtue of a time bonus on the KOM. Hunt is taking a relaxed attitude to defending his yellow jersey, not wanting to put his team under pressure by chasing down every break. Tomorrow he will have to contend with the infamous Bumble Hill, which may see a shake up in the GC as the climbers come to the fore.