The Warrnambool Mountain Bike Club member was part of the leading pack early, but had to make up ground in the second hour as road cyclist Matt Lane showed he is far from one-dimensional.

“It was a really quick start and I rode with the first four guys for maybe the first hour,” Ernst said.

“Matt Lane got a bit of a gap on me and made me work really hard to close it.

“In the last hour, I got a gap on him and held onto it.

“I was pretty happy (with the win), actually: it was a really hard race this year with a few stronger guys like Matt racing.”

Ernst completed 10 laps of the 7km course in the three hours of the race to win from Lane, with Adam Alexander third.

Torquay cyclist Chiara Hill took out the women’s race from Mia Easton and Debbie Rodgers.

Louis O’Callaghan was the first junior across the line in the TP180.

Leigh Dufty was part of the winning combination in the teams’ event for the second year running, taking out top spot with new partner Simon Crispe.

“We didn’t enter to race, we just did it for a social ride,” Dufty said. “But in the first lap, Simon went really well, so we just went on from there.”

Dufty said his laps of the Thunder Point course took about 27 minutes.

It was a successful day out for the Crispe family, with Simon’s sons Noah and Seth finishing first and second respectively in the dirt master juniors in the morning.

The 2017 TP180 had been postponed from its usual mid-year timeslot after the Warrnambool Mountain Bike Club awaited a permit to undertake maintenance works on the track.