Armidale’s Ben Livings took out overall victory in the 2017 Hutchinson & Harlow Invergowrie Road Race today with the home club making a clean sweep of the top 5 places. Inverell’s Callum Dolby just missed out on a top-5 despite a blistering finish but took some consolation with Fastest Time on the day of 1h:50m:32s averaging 39.3kph over the hilly 72.4km course.
There was no bunch sprint for the top placings as Jason Simmonds (2nd) couldn’t hold onto Livings who powered home to win by a comfortable margin of 11s, the pair the only survivors of the early 5-minute group. There was then a gap of 2 minutes before 10-minute riders Wilf Keller and Andy Robb crossed the line. One minute later Phil Thomas just held on for fifth place as the first of the Scratch riders came charging home, Dolby proving the strongest rider on the uphill finish topping off a strong ride with 6th and Fastest Time.
It was a day when the early groups rode well and made the most of their advantage. Although Scratch raced hard, they didn’t get much support and it was left to Aaron Watts, Dolby, Dave Munday and Pete Horwood to do most of the work once they turned off the main road at Rocky River. Without any major hills for the last 30km the only strategy for the front-runners was to hit the turns hard and save it for the final 1.2km climb up to the Invergowrie Store which they did.
Tom Simmonds and Jacqui King were both given discretionary awards by the Commissaire for their efforts on what was generally agreed to be a challenging but really good road circuit.
Congratulations to Ben Livings and all prizewinners on the day. Many thanks to all riders, especially those who travelled from Inverell, Tamworth and further afield and good luck to those racing in the G2I next weekend. Armidale Cycling Club is extremely grateful to all the volunteers and supporters behind the scenes who helped to make the race possible today. Wilf made a special effort to show Bullo how grateful he was during the prize-giving (see photo below results table).
Don’t forget the Tamworth’s Nemingha-Nundle return race in 2 weeks time if you haven’t already registered for that one.
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