Luke and Joshua Deasey, Jess and Ollie Saunders and Fletcher Partlin will be using this weekend’s Hunter Valley two-day tour as a warm-up for the NSW Junior Road Championships.

They’re being held in Tamworth on August 15 and 16 and will be run over a similar format to the tour.

It will incorporate a time trial, criterium and road race and be based around the Hunter Economic Zone (HEZ) near Kurri Kurri.

More than 150 riders from across NSW as well as Queensland and the ACT will compete in age divisions from U9s up to U17s.

The Hunter Valley tour follows the Goulburn and Wagga Wagga tours.

All bar Joshua Deasey have participated in one or both of those.

This weekend will be his first go at a two-day tour.

He’ll ride in the U9 boys, brother Luke and Partlin the U15 boys, Ollie Saunders the U13 girls and Jess the U17 ladies.

Ollie goes in with strong form behind her after winning the Goulburn event and finishing second at Wagga.

For both Partlin and Luke Deasey, this is their first year on the tour circuit, although Deasey’s has been a bit disrupted by injury.

He’s  only been back on the bike for three weeks after breaking his arm playing hockey against the New Zealand touring side at the start of the season.

The tour will commence with an individual time trial this morning.

That will be followed by a criterium this afternoon, and conclude with a road race tomorrow, which will range from 4km up to around 40km, with the overall winner determined by the lowest cumulative time.