The race for the overall ended up being fought out by the riders who made the decisive move on Stage 3 of the Tour, where wind, rain and generally atrocious conditions saw the race split to pieces and only a group of six arrive at the finish together.
That group then contested all the time bonus sprints on offer, with the New Zealander Evans taking the lead off Coyle and maintaining it to the end of the race.
Evans has also taken the lead in the overall 2017 Subaru National Road Series from previous holder Neil van der Ploeg (Isowhey Sports-SwissWellness), with team mate Mathew Ross holding onto the Young Rider's jersey.
“It is a fantastic race here, two years ago I actually won this very criterium so I’ve got good memories here and it’s a good race for me and the team," said Evans.
Evans has had significant success in the NRS in the past, winning the 2015 Tour of Tasmania before spending most of last season racing abroad with the now defunct Drapac Pro Continental team, before coming back to local racing with the feeder team to the Cannondale-Drapac WorldTour setup.
"We’ve got a very good team culture," said Evans, "everyone puts it on the line for each other and we got some good results today with two of us on the podium, so we’re really happy."
Isowhey Sports-SwissWellness are used to dominating the general classification results in the NRS, but they can take consolation in the performances of top sprinter Scott Sunderland. He was the dominant man in the flat finishes, taking out four of the five bunch sprints, with only Malaysian rider Harrif Salleh (Terengganu Cycling) able to beat him, nabbing Stage 1.
It was also a race to remember for Oliver's Real Food Racing, who operate on a very small budget, taking their best ever result on a NRS event with Ryan Thomas' second place showing.
“We had a great tour with a couple of podiums and 2nd on GC – I’m really happy with that," said Thomas. "We’ve come in with really great form and the Oliver’s guys were unreal yesterday pulling the time back to keep me up on GC."
The next event in the National Road Series will be the Tour of King Valley on 25-27 August, which will be contested by both the men and the women.
