In what was described as a tough tour including numerous bunch sprint finishes, the Mudgee cyclists helped their Subaru NSW Institute of Sport Development Team finish 11th in the general classification.

The riders also helped teammate Nathan Bradshaw finish 13th in the individual general classification. Toovey finished 27th, one minute and 23 seconds behind overall winner and series leader Brenton Jones (Avanti). Payne finished 60th, seven minutes and two seconds behind Jones.

Payne’s best performance came on Saturday in stage seven, the Koroit to Peterborough road race over 104 kilometres, where he placed 24th in the bunch sprint.

“Stage seven was another afternoon road race and very similar to the previous one, no early break was allowed to go. I was quite active at the front but nothing would stick. With the bunch all together coming to the finish I stayed close to the front, staying out of trouble and making sure Nathan wouldn’t lose any time,” Payne told his team’s Facebook page.

He said his criterium form was gradually getting better each day, and he managed to hang on and try and move the Ayden and Nathan up the front towards the end.

Toovey’s best finish came in stage four, the Portland criterium, which saw 25 laps of a 1.6 kilometre waterfront circuit. He finished 23rd in a bunch sprint.

After the last stage Toovey said it was tough tour.

“To top-off a hard Tour of The Great South Coast we finished with a 50km crit on a 2.6km circuit around the streets of Port Fairy. Going into the final stage there was still a chance for the top riders to get onto the podium with all the time bonuses out in course. The stage was fast as expected, full of attacks and tactics. Nathan was keen to try and get a few seconds at the intermediate sprints in an attempt to move up on GC,” Toovey told the team’s Facebook page.

“Each one of us tried his all to help Nathan go in a break. The stage finished in a bunch sprint with all of us in the main bunch, ending what had proved to be a tough tour.”