Victoria's Simon Gerrans, 31, has been crowned Australian champion after a thrilling elite men's road race at the 2012 Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships in Buninyong, near Ballarat.

GreenEDGE's Gerrans, the only Australian to have claimed a stage win in each of the 'Grand Tours', Tour De France, Giro d'italia and Vuelta a España, edged out Tasmania's Richie Porte (Team Sky) and Victoria's Matthew Lloyd (Lampre - ISD) in a sprint to the line at the end of the 163.2 kilometre race.

"This is such an honour, it is far and above one of my proudest moments in cycling and to now (I get to) be crowned Australian champion for the next twelve months, and to be able to wear the green and gold through all the big races in Europe," said Gerrans.

"I just capped off some great team work from GreenEdge today, I am so proud of all of the guys," he added.

A field of 140 riders set out to conquer sixteen laps of the 10.2 kilometre course and the pace was fierce from the start. Repeated attacks and counter attacks had the fans enthralled as Australia's top talent battled for the green and gold in a brutal contest that saw only 21 of the 140 starters complete the race.

Every lap saw the peloton whittled down and by the time the race went under the start finish arch for the bell lap, 23 of the world's best headed into the final ten kilometre showdown.

On the final climb of Mt Buninyong Gerrans made his move with Lloyd hot on his tail. Porte struck out to join them but the pair in front made it tough and it wasn't until the final few kilometres that Porte managed to get on the wheel. Then came an engaging game of cat and mouse before Gerrans, the superior sprinter of the three, outfoxed his opponents on the final run into Buninyong to claim the title in front of around 20,000 fans.

"The way the race unfolded didn't really go to plan, but it went to plan that I won it," said Gerrans. "I was going to try and save as much as I could for the last few laps of the race, but as it turned out, the race was blown to pieces after about 50 kilometres. 

"Then with a couple of laps to go, Cameron Meyer (GreenEDGE) who was out the front ran out of gas and it became an even playing field as we had the same amount of guys at the front as a lot of other teams, so it was pretty much every team for itself and we lost our advantage. 

"I have done a lot of hard work over the past couple of months to start the season in good shape, so that's why it is such a thrill that all that hard work has paid off with a win." he added. 

Despite being forced to battle it out in a sprint at the end of the race, the experienced Gerrans revealed he was confident heading into the final moments although he had been a little worried when he and Lloyd thought that it was Tour of Spain stage winner, CJ Sutton (Team Sky), a talented sprinter chasing them not Richie Porte.

"It was only about five hundred metres before the line when I realised that it was Richie Porte, so I was a little less worried knowing it was him," said Gerrans. "Coming to the finish after a long tough race like that one with a time triallist and a climber, I knew I had a bit of a kick on me to finish off a race like that, so I was confident coming to the line."

The win gave the GreenEDGE team it's first professional win and Gerrans paid tribute to his teammates efforts during the race.

"It is such a great way to start a season with a new team and some big races here in Australia to get the season under way, I was really motivated to start the season in good shape," Gerrans said.

"My team was incredible, but I guess we had quality, not quantity, but hats off to GreenEDGE," he said. "I have trained specifically for the time trial, so now I need to recover and come out swinging on Tuesday."

Cycling Australia