Ballarat-Sebastopol Cycling Club's Jay Bourke, Rhys Gillett and Tim Wettenhall joined forces with Mark Isaacs, Chris Steffanoni and James Mowatt to claim victory in the main prelude event to yesterday's Jayco Herald Sun Tour preface.

The Ballarat team, led by Mowatt who finished third, won with a score of 13 points. They defeated runner-up Total Rush Racing (22 points) and third-placed Tour Challengers (26).

It was an exciting, action-packed race around the Ballarat circuit, which took in a large section of Sturt St.

There was a number of early breaks from riders before an eventual group of seven, including Steffanoni, Gillett and Mowatt, shot clear into a race-winning lead group.

These riders were well clear of the chasing peloton for at least half of the race, and it wasn't until the final lap that eventual winner, Tom Leaper from Blackburn CC, made his winning move.

Leaper accelerated clear in the first half of the final lap and held his advantage along the tough, uphill straight to score a rather comfortable victory from Mowatt, who narrowly tipped out Tim Hucker for second.

Hucker overcame a puncture in the latter stages of the race.

* Ballarat-Sebastopol CC took a clean sweep of placings in the masters' B-grade event yesterday.

Stuart Grigg claimed the victory ahead of runner-up Matthew Smith and Guy Fella.

Blackburn CC's Tony Chandler claimed an emphatic victory in the A-grade event from Carnegie-Caulfield CC's Roy Clarke and Geelong CC's Paul Nyko.