Tristan Ward, Michael Troy and Jade Colligan were there racing against the cream of Australia’s domestic cyclists in the men’s and women’s events over four stages in three days.

A nine kilometre individual time trial started the program on a flat out and back course from Dalz Otto Winery.

Stage two was a 40km criterium in the Wangaratta CBD, then on day two the feature was a 111km road stage with gravel roads, where the five kilometre section over the Strada Nero climb was followed by two more gravel sections.

The third day and the fourth stage was 89 kilometres and featured two major climbs, that determined the respective king of the mountains and queen of the mountain awards.

Tristan was racing in the Canberra based Pheonix Cycling Collective team, Michael was with his GPM Stultz team and Jade was without a team but racing for Optus Nowra as an individual rider. 

One hundred and fifty riders started the men’s event and there were 75 starters in the women’s race.

All three NVC riders came through day one without incident, with both Tristan and Michael midfield in the ITT, while Jade placed 21st in this first stage.

The afternoon criterium had Michael over the line in 18th position and Tristan 42nd.

Jade finished 26th in the women’s criterium and went into day two in 23rd overall position.

The gravel roads on this day proved the undoing of many riders, as punctures were rife in the men’s event, as they raced over the dirt in a compact group.

Both Tristan and Michael punctured and with so many riders being serviced with spares, the wait was long.

Michael lost over five minutes while Tristan waited more than 10 minutes for his spares to arrive.

Jade raced well through to the five kilometre Strada Nero climb but cracked a kilometre from the top.

A fast descent and eventually joining up with seven other girls chasing the lead Jade finished stage three in the second group over the line but dropped to 43rd position overall.

The Sunday race started with the women first away in light rain.

Jade avoided a 13 rider crash and went into the first four kilometre climb in the main bunch.

Climbing well on the day, Jade rode over this climb in the top10, positions while many riders dropped off the pace.

Into the second climb of just over a kilometre but much steeper, Jade moved up to be with the top climbers of the day.

From there, it was 20km to the finish and now there was a break of four of the leading riders.

Jade joined the chasing efforts in the closing stages and the field came together in the final 500 metres and then Jade sprinted into ninth position over the line.

This was a huge improvement from the previous day and the joy was back with her again.

Jade finished the event in 35th position but displayed some outstanding pedalling in this final stage, over two long and difficult climbs.

The final men’s stage followed the women’s finish but a massive crash brought the race to a half after 25kms.

Over 80 per cent of the bunch hit the road with some serious injuries.

Michael Troy crashed hard and along with losing considerable skin, he has a broken collar bone and ribs.

Tristan avoided the crash but was held up in the tangle.

The race was terminated after this incident without a stage four result.

A return to club and state racing next weekend with the NSW individual time trial championships being held at Breadalbane on Saturday and the great divide road races at Gunning on Sunday.

The local events will be criteriums at the Albatross Aviation Tech Park.