Armidale Cycling Club

To celebrate the end of the 2010 Tour de France, Armidale CC staged its own mini tour on Dangarsleigh Road on Saturday 24 July. Although not nearly as strenuous as the French race, many riders found the three stages in one day quite a challenge.

First up was a 5km time trial, won convincingly by Mick Hoult with a time of 7:39. John Scott-Hamilton was second fastest with a time of 7:58, but was relegated to last place due to an infringement at the turn around. This meant that Brent Weston was second on the stage with a time of 8:02 from Pat McMillan on 8:03.

B grade was won by visiting rider Tom Apthorpe of Inverell with a time of 8:23, with Bill Mara second (8:28) and Mark Haydon third (8:33). Mick Sozou won C grade with a time of 8:58, narrowly ahead of Dave Rubie (8:59) and Dean Bourke (9:01).

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With our mini tour coming up this weekend, one rider to watch will be Sam Jenner, who has been competing in a number of events of this type over the last few weeks.

Since his win in the Tamworth Junior Tour in June, Sam has competed in the Canberra Junior Tour, followed by the Queensland Junior time trial, road race and criterium championships. Up against a number of second year under 15’s Sam performed very well in these events, finishing mid-field against excellent competition.

Last weekend Sam and the family traveled to Sydney where he won a bronze medal in the NSW country road race championship. On the Sunday he was again successful in the Southern Cross open, with a 4th place in the road race and 2nd in the criterium.

All this will undoubtedly stand him in good stead for the Inverell Junior Tour coming up on the last weekend in July.

Another rider who has been working hard is Mitch Bullen, who represented NSW at a track cycling Grand Prix in Adelaide. His best result was a 4th place in the keiran.

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The Coffs Harbour club will be holding their road carnival on the weekend of 28-29 August, with a criterium on Saturday and road race on Sunday.

Please look at the Coffs web site for more details.

We will be holding a mini tour on Saturday 19 July, with racing starting at 1pm sharp on Dangarsleigh Road, with sign-on from 12.30pm.

The format will be a 5km time trial for all grades, followed by a 30km road race for A and B grades and 20km for C grade. The final event will be a criterium at the Traffic Education Centre.

Juniors not entering the mini tour should contact Andrew Swan on 0402 209 990 so that we can plan what to do as an alternative to the usual junior racing.

Juniors were back in action after a break for a couple of weeks. They started off with their customary 1 lap time trial, with Brent Weston recording fastest time of 1:50, closely followed by Kyle O’Hara at 1:51 (an impressive effort for someone who hasn’t touched a bike in a couple of months.). Other times were Adam Bourke (2:07), Karlee McMillan (2:12) and Freya Weston (2:16).

Following this was a 5 lap handicap won by Karlee from Freya, with Brent in third place. They finished with an Italian Pursuit which was a very close affair until the final lap when the team anchored by Brent got the edge on Dean Bourke’s team.

Brent then backed up and rode in A grade with the seniors in a 30km scratch race on Dangarsleigh Road . A grade was a fast race with the inevitable attack coming from Mick Hoult about 5km from the finish. There were several unsuccessful counter moves to try and get across to him, before the bridge was finally made in the last kilometer. This set the finish up for a bunch sprint which was won by John Scott-Hamilton from Mick Hoult, with Pat McMillan third.

In B grade Peter Wilkinson tested out his fellow competitors by continually increasing the pressure on the hills, eventually whittling the leading group down to himself, Mark Haydon and Bill Mara. After struggling to hang on at times Haydo was able to win the race just ahead of Billy who was finishing fast. Wilko proved he is getting his legs back by winning the sprint for third place.

In C grade Phil Bookalil recorded his first win for the club, while Jackie Weston capped off a good day for the family with a second place. It was also good to see former Armidale rider Georgie Harwood in third place.