The Copper City Cycling Club sent a team to contest the annual event between Alice Springs Cycling Club and the Cominbed Darwin and Tennant Creek team on Saturday and Sunday.

The Isa team was up against it from the start with a small team of just 10 making the 670km trek into the Northern Territory to try and pinch the shield from Alice Springs and their team of 21 riders.

The first event was the grading prologue of 6.8km which put the seniors through a series of rolling hills against a stiff headwind.

The best time went to Darwin's Adam Hartley with a blistering time of 10:54.13.

The best Isa rider and the only rider to make A-grade was Brendan Seal who finished the short blast in 12:14.05.

Mount Isa was widely represented in B-grade with John Braithwaite and Rory French posting the quickest times of 13:50.30 and 14:00.10 respectively.

Max Shawcross, James Lonie and Linda French also made the B-grade cut.

In C-grade, veteran rider Lyn Roughan posted the fastest time at 15:06.10 marginally missing the B-grade cut.

Tony Sweeney, Frank Long and Jason Ahearn joined her in this grade.

With gradings determined, the afternoon saw the running of the Road Race with A and B-grades covering three laps to ride 78km and C-grade completing two laps for 49km.

A-grade saw a fast sprint finish with Alice Springs' Ryan Coppola narrowly beating Hartley by just .001 of a second.

Isa's Seal crossed the line in sixth.

The B-grade was Mount Isa's to win with a team of five riders to play team tactics forcing Alice Springs and Darwin to chase down numerous attacks.

Shawcross attacked during the last set of hills and had a resounding win crossing in 2:18.03, well over a minute clear of Darwin's Tom O'Neill.

John Braithwaite took third with French fourth.

James Lonie sacrificed his own chances by attacking to force the chase by opposing teams.

Meanwhile, C-grade was well contested with many attacks by the Mount Isa team to make the Alice Springs and Tennant Creek riders chase.

The finish was a bunch sprint, with Long taking honours at 62km/hr from Alice Springs' Deb Gent in 1:41:15.

Isa's Tony Sweeney took third and Lyn Roughan, who was unable to match the sprint, in fourth.

Sunday morning saw the tricky criterium raced at the Tennant Creek Go Kart Track.

With a roaring head wind and challenging turns to test everyone's bike handling skills, the juniors from Alice Springs rode their race of 10 minutes plus one lap first.

It was then C-grade's turn and young under-15 rider Paul Standish took all by surprise by attacking off the line and putting a half lap between himself and the rest of the field by after just 15 minutes.

Long was the next best in second with Deb Gent third.

B-grade raced for 20 minutes and again it was the Isa's for the taking.

The team of five played the team tactics to perfection with only Tom O'Neill to contend with.

Attack after attack by Mount Isa weakened the northern rider and with several laps to go, Shawcross finally put in the killer blow and flew off the front.

The other Isa riders held back and forced O'Neill to try and bridge the gap.

Shawcross rode strongly to increase his gap while a crash on the last corner saw Braithwaite take skin off and halt French's challenge.

James Lonie rode on to take second with O'Neill in third.

Racing is on hold for the next few weeks as riders prepare for the Border Ride on Saturday August 3.