PORT Fairy veteran David Sagnol has won the 56th Fred Icke Memorial Handicap.
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Sagnol outsprinted Ballarat's Tim Canny for the prestigious title after three hours, 23 minutes and three seconds on the road on Saturday.
The 38-year-old, accompanied by fellow 18-minute marker Canny, broke clear of the chasing groups with 20 kilometres left of the three lap, 132-kilometre race.
Canny described the last kilometre with Canny as a game of "cat and mouse", with the latter falling devastatingly short of delivering a hometown victory.
"I'm not a real good sprinter, but I know if I'm going to be sprinting it's going to be an uphill sprint, so I just went for it," Sagnol said.
"I kept edging a little bit more and a little bit more and I just got him in the end."
St Kilda's Sam Edwards picked up third place, with another Ballarat rider, Sam Palanca, crossing in fifth.
The race was marred by a serious crash, with three second-limit riders going down with around 65 kilometres left.
Two were treated for superficial wounds, while another was taken from the race via ambulance.
Sagnol, in his first appearance at the Fred Icke, said he is working towards the annual Melbourne to Warrnambool road race.
Amy Bradley took out the first female title, while Ballarat's Jay Bourke (scratch) took out fastest time honours in 3:8.27.