Desperate to secure the green and gold jersey for its maiden overseas season, GreenEDGE threw everything at the elite men’s road race with 16 riders lining up at Buninyong yesterday.

But it took a massive effort from Gerrans to land gold for GreenEDGE in the Mars Cycling Australia Road National Championships.

Gerrans was pushed to the limit by Matthew Lloyd in the last of 16 laps before out-sprinting the 2008 national road race champion.

Tasmanian Richie Porte was third behind the Victorian duo in an all-climbers’ finish.

An estimated 20,000 people lined the 10.2km circuit to see a classic race – touted by the cycling community as the best in the history of the championships.

GreenEDGE was expected to dominate the 163.2km torture test and it did largely, having riders in every break and then seeing Cameron Meyer get more than three minutes clear in a solo break which began with six laps to go.

Meyer appeared to have the race under control before “hitting the wall” on the third last lap, leaving it to Gerrans and Lloyd to ultimately lead the attacks.

Gerrans, who was won stages in each of the three grand tours – Tour de France, Tour of Italy and Tour of Spain – said winning the championship was one of the proudest moments of his career.

Gerrans said GreenEDGE felt the pressure of expectations going into the event.

“The pressure was on us to win.

“We (GreenEDGE) tried to dominate, with riders in every break.”

He said in the end, though, the advantage was lost and it became an even playing field.

The race featured a flurry of attacks.

Reigning champion Jack Bobridge, Nathan Haas and Luke Durbridge were the first to get away.

While this break did not remain long, there was never any respite, with Ballarat’s Pat Shaw spending a significant amount of the race in lead bunches, which varied in numbers to more than 20 at times.

There were 23 riders in the lead group with a lap to go.

This is Gerrans’ first national road championship, having finished third last year.

He won the national under-23 men’s road race in 2003.

Gerrans also took out the King of the Mountain.