2011 Cycling Australia National Road Series.

Unheralded Sydney marketing executive Andrew Crawley caused the upset of the Caterpillar Underground Mining Tour of Tasmania with a breakaway victory in the fifth stage, a 72km cruise from Westbury to Deloraine, via a cluster of pretty Western Tiers townships.

The bearded Crawley, 28, went into the stage more than 32 minutes in arrears of tour leader, fellow Sydneysider Cameron Peterson, and used his low profile to sneak away from the peleton with Victoria's Trent Morey at the 30km mark.

Crawley (Bikebug.com) and Morey (Lawson Homes) established a 4 min 40 sec advantage with only 10kms remaining and pedalled furiously as they saw a shock win looming.

Crawley unloaded Morey a kilometre from the line and won by 7 secs, with 3 mins to the fast-finishing peleton, led by another Bikebug rider, the promising road sprinter Philip Grenfell, known as the "Taree Terror."

An ecstatic Crawley admitted he had not won a substantial race since the 2008 Blaney to Bathurst 110km event and described his Tassie tour triumph as the biggest of his part-time cycling career.

"This tops everything,' he said. "There's no way I can win in a sprint so I have to break away."

Crawley, who lives in Manly and runs his own performance based marketing company, rises at 5 a.m. daily to train before putting in a 10-hour working stint.

Then he gets back on his bike after work for more training.

"It's a busy life but, right at this moment, I'm loving it," he said.

The day's opening stage, a 42km criterium at Westbury, was won in dashing style by Queenslander Aaron Kemps from his V Australia team-mate, Tasmanian Bernard Sulzberger, and Sydney's Alex Carver (Jayco AIS).

Kemps, who raced for seven months in America this year, also won the 61km second stage from New Norfolk to Hamilton yesterday (Wednesday).

His V Australia team is racing in sparkling form and will endeavor to parcel up the tour in tomorrow afternoon's classic 78.5km stage from Ulverstone to Penguin, via Gunns Plains.

The stage will be preceded by a 36km criterium at Ulverstone Primary School.

Peterson leads the tour by 16 secs from Nathan Haas (Genesys) and Dale Parker (Jayco 2XU).

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