Hodges made race history as the first New South Wales rider to win the race since 2004 in a time of six hours, 27 minutes and 12 seconds.

Riding in division one, round three of the National Road Series (NRS), Hodges overpowered Inverell's Dylan Sunderland, of Team BridgeLane, in the final 50 metres.

Sunderland rode in a close second place, 25 seconds ahead of teammate Nicholas White who finished third. On a countback, Sunderland was named the NRS individual leader after Saturday's race.

However, due to a big block of racing in Japan and Europe, Sunderland wont be completing much of the NRS this year.

"I knew with 20km to go I was not in a good way. Coming into the finish I was in survival mode. I knew I had Nick behind me and was hoping he could get back to us because he is a fast finisher but Will got the better of us." Presented with the Jack Griffin Memorial Shield for winning the 59^th annual Grafton to Inverell, Hodges said it was a hard race.

"Coming over the top to turn left into town I thought they were going to make a comeback but with a couple of kilometres to go I looked back and no one was there. I was confident at that point but it was touch and go for a while.

"There was not a single point where it got easy. We had headwind all the way, a few crosswinds and it was freezing cold at the top of the hill. It was a hard day but an amazing race," Hodges said.

Upon presenting the memorial shield, honouring a former Inverell man, Peter Sunderland spoke of the top three place-getters.

"There's a quality three riders up here, all 22-23 years old with big futures ahead of them," he said.

In division two, Andrew Finlayson crossed the line first, ahead of Matthew Sunde in second and Thomas Fisk in third.

Sydney's Brendan Howard took the win in division three. Jason Simmonds rode across the line second and Simon Hickey in third.

Megan Scott was the winner for the des Femmes category, in front of Katie Banerjee in second and Kate Perry in third.

Inverell's Brent Rees placed 31^st and Ryan Thomas finished 45^th in division one.

In division two Inverell riders Callum Dolby was fourth, Zak Sunderland was fifth and Alywn Miller 24^th. Codie Miller rode in 15^th in division three.

The Ian "Blue" Manton encouragement award was presented to Sunderland at the dinner after the race.