The largest turn-out since records began* was recorded on Saturday for the second Armidale Cycling Club handicap race of the season. 36 riders, including 7 women and 6 juniors, rolled up to the Long Swamp course for the 2-lap 30km contest in weather than was once again perfect for racing.

More records were broken on the road as well with a new record time set by Scratch rider Mick Harris for the second week in a row. Last week it was Boorolong, this week Mick smashed the Long Swamp course record, averaging 40.93kph and taking 41s off Harrison Munday’s previous record which had stood since February 2015. It wasn’t just Mick keeping the statisticians busy on a day when course PBs were recorded for Pete Harris, Andy Robb, Pat McMillan, Clint Bourke, Dave Harris, Holly Harris, Jason Simmonds, Alex Thomas, Phil Hess and Harry Wooster.

Jacqui King got matters underway with new recruit Megan Wooster for company. They were both caught towards the end of Lap 1 by Michael Wooster who went under 28mins for his first lap having started with Peter Wilkinson, Jo Wauch and Olive Tutt at four minutes. All six of these riders managed to turn just ahead of a large eight-minute group that included more new starters in the form of Mitchell Jones and Paul Whitford, both in the thick of things and mixing it well.

The next group had pulled their initial deficit of 2 minutes back to just 45s as they rounded the half-way point with Bill Mara, Clint Bourke, Hayden Freeman and Alex Thomas looking particularly strong.

By this time, the Scratch pair of Mick Harris and Peter Harris had caught the Block quartet of Holly, Kirky, Jason and Rob and charged up Dump Hill enjoying the tail wind. There was a still a 51s gap on the bigger bunch ahead however and it took until the final turn at three-quarter distance for that to be closed down. Mick and co hit this bunch hard at the base of Imbota and only a few survived the journey from that point on. 

Meanwhile up ahead Michael Wooster seemed to have the race in the bag. He still had plenty of daylight on the bunch as he hit the bottom of Dump Hill for the final time but he hadn’t reckoned on the raw power of the chasing pack. They rapidly chewed him up and charged on with Clint, Dave and Holly Harris giving it their all to hang on. In the end though they couldn’t hold the seemingly unstoppable Mick Harris who blitzed the home straight to finish 2s ahead of another impressive ride from Pete Harris with Clint performing out of his skin to grab third place a further 2s back.

Many thanks to Dave Jenner for setting out the course on sign duty and special thanks to Col this week who had the challenging task of handicapping a massive field in just 5 minutes and once again came up trumps with a really close race that resulted in a well-deserved win for Mick Harris and a new course record in the process.

Next week we’re off to Dangarsleigh for the first scratch race of the season and perhaps another new course record there too?

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*Since capturing race results in February 2014.Previous highest attendance was 31 which has occured 3 times:

2018-03-31 – Boorolong – 30km
2017-04-01 – Dangarsleigh – 30km
2014-02-15 – Dangarsleigh – 30km