“I think we did the best we could in that situation,” he said.

“I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone in Inverell.”

“I think everyone in Inverell does a great job to keep this race going.

Thank you to everyone and thank you to the team who supported me.”

Meanwhile, Dylan Sunderland said he walked away happy from the race.

“You have to walk away happy from the race having team mates Ayden Toovey and Josh Taylor in fourth and fifth,” he said.

“(It was) an outstanding race from them.”

The crowd started pouring into Victoria Park around 12.45pm this afternoon to see the finish of the 2017 Grafton to Inverell.

David Weidemann was one of the first to tip a record race time, as the race entered the last 10 kilometres.

He said the change of the date of the race meant that riders did not face the same head winds as in previous years, and added that the calibre of riders had grown year on year.

Dylan Sunderland and Ryan Thomas were in the main peloton as the first division race topped Wire Gully. Riders in the lead started to break away around Elsmore Station.

The first division race was around 30km from Glen Innes when Sam Crome and Sean Trainor took the lead.

Support crews streamed video as the riders climbed the Gibraltar Range.