Armidale Cycling Club

More information on the Coffs weekend (28-29 August) is available here.

Armidale and Tamworth CCs will be holding an interclub road race weekend on 21-22 August.

The first leg will take place in Armidale on Saturday with sign-on from 1pm for a 2pm start on Long Swamp Road.

Day 2 will be in Tamworth, starting from the Loomberah Hall at 10am.

The entry fee will be $10 per race for seniors, and $5 per race for juniors.

The race format is yet to be decided but will include something for everyone, including juniors.

Numbers were up on the weekend for a 30km scratch race held in ideal conditions, with ten riders in each of the three grades.

A grade was a race with a number of attacks, mostly initiated by Andrew Kirk. The decisive move however came from Col Maciver, who with the tempo steadily increasing up the hill from the monument on the return trip, launched a blistering attack over the top of Knobs Hill taking two riders with him, including former Armidale club member Gil Burgess.

The trio worked well together and for a while looked as though they would make it to the finish alone. But Andrew Kirk and John Scott-Hamilton weren’t giving up easily, and after a big effort bridged across to the leaders at the winery. The group of five then stayed together until just before the finish when Gil the Inverell turncoat made his move, too early as it turned out. John Scott-Hamilton overtook him for the win, closely followed by Kirkie in second with Col just pipping Gil on the line for third.

A strong field in B grade also put on an attacking display, driven mainly by Nick Myhill, with Lachie McPhie riding strongly to cover many of the breaks. In the end the race come down to a bunch finish featuring most of the field. First and second places were filled by two rapidly improving riders, Mark Haydon and Roger Munday, with Dave Jenner third.

C grade produced a similar finish, with Mick Sozou first ahead of Dave Boundy and Sam Jenner. Like Haydo and Roger, these riders are also improving rapidly and looking to move up in the grades.

In other news exclusive to this site, Armidale riders have again been performing well in State races.

Col Maciver placed second in the NSW Individual Time Trial championships held at Calga on July 25. Held on a new course which was more suited to power riders, Col was unable to find his rhythm , but still did well to win the silver medal.

Last weekend (31 July - 1 August) Sam Jenner, Brent Weston and Chris Jones competed in the Heinrich Haussler Inverell Junior Tour.

Sam rode extremely well in the U15B’s winning the opening time trial, and then finishing 5th in the stage 2 road race to end day 1 in third place. He was able to work his way back to finish in second place overall with a win in the third stage road race and a second in the final criterium. In the end he was only 11 seconds down on the winner, after missing valuable bonus seconds in stage 2.

Brent competed in the U17B’s and rode consistently to finish in sixth place overall. Chris was in the U19’s against some top quality riders, and had to dig deep to finish in 5th place.

Well done to all these riders, representing the club with great spirit.

While many local sporting events were canceled last weekend, ACC’s 40km handicap went ahead on Dangarsleigh Road (not that you’d read about it anywhere but here). And although a number of riders thought better of venturing outside, the road was sufficiently dry by early afternoon that a few hardy souls took to the start (it turned out to be safer than staying inside with one nameless person injuring himself doing intervals on the home trainer - fortunately Haydo was back on the bike by Thursday).

The course was marked out with two out and back laps to the 10km mark. Phil Bookalil and Wilfried Keller started off go, with Phil setting a cracking place and Wilfried doing his best to hang on. Next to leave were Lachie McPhie and Cameron Scott off 7:30, followed by Phil Thomas and Andrew Swan at 8:30. John Scott-Hamilton and Andrew Kirk started at 10:00, but their chances went out the window when Kirkie got a flat tire and lost two minutes while John fixed it. Unfortunately it went flat again straight away, and Kirkie had to borrow the neutral service vehicle to go home and get a spare bike.

Meanwhile it had started raining again, and at the end of the first lap Wilfried hopped off and asked for $1.50 back. Chief Commissaire and Treasurer Ken McDonald wasn’t having any of that though. Phil B continued on strongly, while behind him the next two groups had combined and were making steady progress overhauling him. They eventually made the catch just after the final turnaround, and on the homeward leg Phil T and Swan steadily put time into the rest of the field.

Phil T was too strong in the finish and took the win, while Phil B finished an excellent ride with a third place. If only Phil H hadn’t been away it could have been a clean sweep for the Phil’s. Kirkie and John eventually made it back in, with the former attempting to claim a lap out for a mechanical.