As a popular four-day Northern Tasmanian event reached its dramatic conclusion, its participants were hunched over, battered and bruised in gruelling conditions.
Sunday's Gilmore Classic was a fitting end to the 2026 Tour of Tasmania with the wet weather making Launceston's city streets prone to carnage.
But it was actually the Saturday stage, from Longford to Poatina, that contained the tour's largest crash.
The women's stage was ended prematurely when a large-scale collision sent most of the peloton smacking into the road, leaving many with injuries that either ended their tour or severely impacted their ability to compete.
The Tour of Tas' epic prologue up the extremely steep and winding Bourke Street hill was also a great test of the riders with NSW-born Launceston cyclist Cam Ivory proving his mountain-biking ability once again, winning the prologue for the fifth time.
Levi Hone and Sophia Sammons were the overall men's and women's champions.
Tassie teen storms home to best national champ and claim first win
A 19-year-old Tasmanian has claimed his first major road victory in the revamped Gilmore Classic.
The race moved away from Boxing Day to act as the final stage for the Tour of Tasmania.
Hobart's Reuben Page-Brown came home in a hurry in the final sprint to win by a couple of lengths to close out his home tour on a high.
With five laps to go, a six-cyclist breakaway group, including Page-Brown, had built a 30-second advantage over the peloton.
As they moved on to the final lap, 2026 national champion Patrick Eddy had pulled out to lead the breakaway group by a couple of seconds but Page-Brown reeled him in to come out on top.
"Pat Eddy got a decent gap and up the main climb I knew I just had to bridge to it and I was worried I'd bring everyone with me," Page-Brown said.
"But I managed to drop them and just closed onto Pat Eddy's wheel at the top of the climb and then I knew I could have a really good shot at the sprint at the finish.
"I knew I had to lead into the last corner because it's a short sprint with a tailwind and I just managed to get in front of everyone else."
It will be Page-Brown's last road race for a while as his attention turns to mountain biking in the coming weeks.
But his last road race will be one to remember for a while.
"It feels really special, being from Hobart I had lots of fans along the course and to win in front of them was really special," he said.
Levi Hone claimed the overall tour win by just two seconds over Oliver Bleddyn.
Women's race
In the earlier elite women's race, it was mad scramble for the line with 23 riders finishing within 10 seconds of the winner.
Ruby Taylor, representing Team Redcat, claimed the win after slingshotting herself ahead on the final stretch to win by a bike length.
It was her second stage win of the tour after winning the opening prologue on Thursday.
The rain started to tumble around the midway point of the race, making positioning more critical as the available lines lessened.
"The problem is all of the corners down the back section are downhill and quite technical," Taylor said.
"When it started raining, the position that you were in coming into those turns became very important.
"I knew that the way to ride this criterium was at the front and not to be scared of being on the front because it was actually the easiest race you could ride and the more technical the course is the better that works out."
Taylor's preparation coming into the tour was less than ideal, dealing with a cold in the lead-up.
But that didn't stop her from claiming second overall on the tour.
"Honestly, I really wasn't sure how it was gonna go, I had most of last week pretty easy mostly off and was just resting up," she said.
"So I was meant to fly in on the Monday morning and ended up flying in on the Thursday morning - the day of the first stage - so I had no idea what I was going to do, hadn't ridden any of the stages."
Sophia Sammons claimed the overall tour win.