Fourth stage Craig Wiggins’ best finish at the Santos Festival of Cycling in Adelaide

Albany cycling star Craig Wiggins impressed on the national stage at the Santos Festival of Cycling in Adelaide last month.

Wiggins rode for his Queensland-based team, Australian Cycling Academy, at the National Road Series, which is part of the Santos Festival of Cycling presented by Santos Tour Down Under.

He was joined by younger sister, Danica, who rode for Velofit Australian Racing Team at the same event.

After the gruelling four-stage NRS Tour for both men and women from January 21-24 against a host of Australia’s strongest UCI Continental, National Road Series and wildcard teams Craig Wiggins finished 59th overall in the men’s general classification category.

He finished 26 minutes and 37 seconds behind winner Luke Durbridge on overall time.

In the first stage, Craig Wiggins finished 76th before he was close up with the leaders on stage two, finishing 1min.44secs from the winner.

Craig crossed the line 8:39 behind the winner of stage three before finishing strongly in the fourth and final stage.

He was able to finish eighth in the sprint finish on the final stage.

“My role in the team was to be up there in the sprint sections and get the team over the time limit,” Craig said.

“It was a hectic course and it was a really hard finish heading into the last corner (on stage four).

“It’s a slow progression but I thought I did decent and was happy with my finish.

“It was a great experience and good to get racing back.

“Riding with my team for the first time was fantastic; the structure is really nice.”

Danica was unable to finish the first stage inside the allocated time limit and was unable to compete in the final three stages of the race.

Riding in her biggest race in her career so far, Danica said she enjoyed the experience.

“Having Erin (Bertram), our team caption, on our team made such a big impact on the whole experience; she shared so much knowledge to all of us girls,” she said.

“Also, shows the level of racing those girls are at and where I have to be in future races.”