Biniam Girmay has won the Surf Coast Classic as the return of Luke Plapp gave Australian cycling team Jayco AlUla a timely boost to their domestic campaign.
The Eritrean star (Intermarche Wanty) outsprinted Italian Elia Viviani (Ineos Grenadiers) and New Zealander Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) to take out the 156km race, ahead of Sunday's Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
Plapp suffered severe road rash a week ago and had to pull out of Adelaide's Tour Down Under when he crashed near the end of stage four.
It was unclear whether he would race this week, but the three-time Australian road champion was back in action on Thursday.
After dominating the road nationals at the start of the month, Jayco AlUla went winless at the Tour Down Under in the men's and women's events, with Plapp's crash and Caleb Ewan's pre-race illness adding to their woes.
The Classic went from Lorne to Torquay on the Surf Coast, going inland through the Otways.
Girmay, who was prominent in the sprint stages at the Tour Down Under, overtook Viviani in the final sprint.
"I'm just thinking to cross the line first because I felt super-good," Girmay said.
"My team did such a good job and it was a fast sprint so I was a bit afraid of Viviani because he's also fast. In the end, I had good legs today."
Girmay is confident about his chances on Sunday, but acknowledged the demanding finishing circuit in Geelong will make for a harder race.
"I hope Sunday we can do better than today. It's going to be a hard day with the circuit but I think we have a team to control the race," he said.
"We need to do the same tactic as today. We need to control the race but it'll be harder on Sunday."
