Luke Davison (Budget-Forklifts) is celebrating after claiming his maiden Subaru National Road Series (NRS) crown, with the 22-year-old unrivalled as he held the Series lead for the final six events of 2012.

"I feel relieved that all my hard work has paid off, it has been a long and hard year," said Davison, who claimed line honours in the Tour of the Murray and the Goulburn to Sydney Classic.

In the final event of the Series, the Grafton to Inverell Classic held on Saturday, Davison's team mates Michael Cupitt and Peter Herzig went one-two in the historic race following an epic effort by the pair which saw them leave the leading break at the 96 kilometre mark and ride the remaining 130 kilometres to the finish.

"The team are very happy to see the other guys go one-two in the final event for the year, I just wanted the guys to get up there and get their own result after putting their personal results on the line for me all year," Davison said.

It was a break through year for Davison's Budget-Forklifts team with a dominant display throughout the entire 2012 Subaru NRS.

Victoria's Mark O'Brien held the leaders jersey for three tours after winning the opening three events on the calendar - the Mersey Valley (TAS) , Toowoomba (QLD) and North-Western (NSW) Tours.

From there the leader's jersey rested in the hands of Victoria's Will Walker (Drapac-Cycling) when he took the NRS by storm after winning the Tour of Gippsland in August in his return to domestic cycling following a long lay off due to illness.

Unfortunately Walker's health concerns ended his reign a week later at the Tour of the Great South Coast, with his withdrawal allowing West Australia's Giacoppo to claim his maiden NRS tour.

However the jersey was back in the hands of Budget Forklifts the very next week following Davison's spectacular victory at the Tour of the Murray where he claimed four stage victories during the 14 stage, eight-day tour.

Davison then sealed the Tour victory over Malcolm Rudolph (Drapac-Professional) and Aaron Donnelly (Jayco Honey-Shotz) with a consistent run home which saw him claim a podium finish in each of the final four stages of the Tour.

"We won the first stage and thought it would be a rainbow road to the finish, but in the second stage we lost a lot of time," said Davison of his Tour of Murray. "For the rest of the tour we were fighting tooth and nail to claw my way back up on GC.

"The boys kept reminding me that they could do it and their support really helped me through," Davison said.

Davison backed up his successes a week later, winning the historic Goulburn to Sydney one-day classic.

With a stranglehold on the Series, Davison opted not to compete in the Launceston to New Norfolk, the Tour of Tasmania and the Grafton to Inverell races, with the Sydney-sider turning his focus to track training for the November's Oceania Track Championships in Adelaide.

"I would have loved to have finished the season with the team but I have had track commitments and I have always used the track as a huge stepping stone in my career," Davison said.

Davison's closest rival Anthony Giacoppo (Genesys-Wealth) needed to a top five finish in Inverell to take the title, however the sprinter was unable to hold on over the climbs in the notoriously tough race.

Although disappointed with not capitalising on the absence of the Series' leader in the latter part of the season, Giacoppo was pleased with his 2012.

"I am happy with how I went this year but you can always do better," said the West Australian. "It would have been nice to win the NRS, and I was coming to Grafton hoping to take the lead.

"But the boys did everything they could for me and at the end of the day I didn't have the legs to do it.

"Luke is a strong rider and it has been good racing with him this year and we have had a big battle this year but as time went on we started to respect each other a lot more," Giacoppo added.

Genesys-Wealth took out the overall NRS team's ranking for the third year running, something which was not lost on Giacoppo.

"Winning the overall teams classification for the year is quite a big achievement. It was a big goal for us and it means a lot to our sponsors, hopefully we can do it again next year," Giacoppo said.

Despite only contesting a handful of events in the 2012 Series, Drapac-Professional Cycling managed to make a big impact.

Darren Lapthorne won the Launceston to New Norfolk Classic while team mate Lachlan Norris went on to claim overall honours in the Tour of Tasmania. Floris Goesinnen then did the double, winning the final two events the team contested - the Melbourne to Warrnambool and the Shipwreck classic.

Cycling Australia will announce details of the 2013 Subaru National Road Series in the coming months.

Cycling Australia