John Murphy relied on some savvy team work by his Health Net - Maxxis team to preserve his lead in the Tour de Taiwan Sunday.

Murphy and his teammates successfully defended the lead against challenges from last year's winner Team Type 1's Shawn Milne, who started the stage 9 seconds behind Murphy on the GC.

Besides Milne, who rode for the Health Net team for his victory last year, several riders were well within striking distance of the race lead coming into stage 8, a 60km criterium in central Taipei.

Milne closed the gap on the day's first time bonus sprint, taking third place and a one-second bonus.

But Health Net's Kirk O'Bee got into a breakaway before the next sprint, and grabbed the top points there, protecting his team leader.

At that point, the Giant Asia Team worked to bring back the break, which threatened its lead in the team GC competition. The pack sucked up the break before the next sprint, which Murphy took, with Milne third.

With a ten-second bonus to be awarded to the stage winner, Milne could still win the overall in the week-long stage race if he won and Murphy finished worse than third.

In the closing laps, a series of attackers tried to get away, including Roman Kilun of Health Net. But with four to go the pack came together and a sprint finish became inevitable.

Milne was fourth and Murphy narrowly avoided a crash on the last lap to take eighth, with Merida Europe rider Wesoly Marek taking his second stage win of the race.

Milne maintained his second place overall, and besides the overall win, Murphy won the points competition.