Eight Armidale riders traveled to Inverell on Saturday to compete in the Ashford Road Race, including Wilfried Keller, Chicka Russell, Roger Munday, Phil Thomas, Andrew Swan, John Scott-Hamilton, Mick Hoult and Geoff Straub. The race was a 70km out and back handicap with the infamous “9 mile” hill on the return.
Most successful for Armidale was Mick Hoult, who started in a very large block group which gathered up the next two groups shortly after the turn around to form a large bunch of more than 20 riders. They worked well until 15km from the finish when a split in the bunch appeared and a number of riders were slowly gapped. Mick stayed with the leaders and eventually finished in 5th place behind Mitch Carrington (Tamworth), Dallas Parker (Grafton), and Kieran Lewis (Tamworth).
Geoff Straub rode well off scratch, doing most of the work in his group to be pipped on the line for fastest time. Race times and placings are available on the Inverell site.
Meanwhile back at home riders contested a handicap criterium in three groups. The race came together in the final stages and it was the scratch riders who dominated the finish, with Brent Weston first from Col Maciver and Pat McMillan.