Taipei, Taiwan - The five-member Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis Representatives squad for the 2008 Tour of Taiwan completed a monumental task on Sunday: defending the overall race lead of John Murphy for six stages after Murphy took over the lead following the race's second stage last Monday.

A number of riders were well within striking distance of the race lead coming into Stage 8, a 60 km criterium in central Taipei, including last year's winner, former Health Net Presented by Maxxis teammate Shawn Milne (Team Type 1), who was just nine seconds behind.

Once again, it meant that the team had to be attentive in either keeping Milne out of the points and time bonuses in the intermediate sprints, or putting Murphy in them. The team, in fact, did both.

For the first sprint, with 36 laps remaining, a small group got off the front, taking the first two spots in the sprint, while Milne was able to grab third and a one-second time bonus.

When the first break came back, Kirk O'Bee of Health Net Presented by Maxxis countered and took three others with him. The group opened up a gap that reached 30 seconds, and O'Bee successfully took first in the second intermediate sprint with 24 laps to go.

At that point, the Giant Asia Team went to work on the front to bring back the break to protect their 15-second lead in the team general classification. With the gap down to 10 seconds, O'Bee attacked solo in an effort to stay away and scoop up the top time bonus and points on the final intermediate sprint. But the field swallowed up O'Bee on the sprint lap - with 12 to go. However, Kyle Gritters was there to shepherd Murphy through the final turn, 120 meters from the line, and perfectly set up the race and points leader for the win of the intermediate sprint, with Milne third.

This put last year's winner 10 seconds behind, with a 10-second bonus awaiting the stage winner. A victory by Milne and a finish outside the top three by Murphy would put Milne on the top step by virtue of his stage wins even though they would be tied on time.

In the closing laps, a series of attackers tried to get away, including Roman Kilun of Health Net Presented by Maxxis with four to go, but everything got chased down, setting up a sprint finish.

Kilun and Gritters were set up to take Murphy to the line. "Things got pretty sketchy on the last lap," said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. "Roman hit the deck pretty hard, but Murphy was able to keep it upright. The finish turned into a big swarm."

Merida Europe rider Wesoly Marek took his second stage win of the race, while Murphy finished safely in eighth place, securing both the overall classification by 10 seconds, and the points title by a comfortable 22-point margin.

Race notes

Giant Asia protected its team GC win, but Health Net Presented by Maxxis finished third in the competition, earning yet another trip to the podium. In all, the team's riders appeared on the podium 19 times during the eight-day race, including Gritters' Stage 6 win, and Murphy's daily double of receiving his race and points leaders jersey's for last seven of the race's eight days. Murphy held the points lead from start to finish. In all, Murphy collected eight green jerseys and seven yellow jerseys.

For the second day in a row, representatives of presenting sponsor Maxxis got to witness the double jersey presentation, and celebrate the final overall win with the team.