2013 Tamworth 4 Hour

Post date: Aug 12, 2013 1:30:01 AM

Some of the NEMTB crew; Peter Hosking, Steve Rumble and Jack Felthan - Positions reversed a short while later!!!

A NEMTB crew headed down to Tamworth for their first 4 Hour. The event was run by Centaur 100% Out Door Events, Tamworth Off Road Cyclists and sponsored by Armidale’s Bicycle Central on Marsh (BCM), the new bike shop in Armidale that also sponsored the NEMTB Awards Night held at the Bowlo a couple of weeks ago. BCM brought along a number of demo bikes and lots of spot prizes. In addition to the 29ers there was a new 27.5 inch bike that obtained a fair bit of interest. To back up all this there was some commercial catering, coffee and Dave Harris on the mic, adding his usual entertaining commentary.

The course was a 6.5km loop with an interesting climb, technical A Line sections, smooth flowy single track and just a couple of switch backs.

So as this was a social event the start was rather mundane with Mick Harris, Sean Bekkers and Greg Manttan smashing the first climb leaving the main field behind to socialise. Mick Harris managed to keep Sean’s “social” challenges at bay and tagged through at the transition area to his team mate and sister Holly Harris.

Greg managed to get social with one of the local prickly pears and lost some ground repairing his holey tyre, luckily it was so social and Greg could see the humorous side of a flat tyre and losing 5 minutes.

Steve Rumble managed to get a little too social with a technical A Line and managed to damage his good shoulder on lap two. Hope to see you back on the Cruz very soon.

A bit further back Katherine and Peter Hosking were jostling for a couple of laps with another father/child team, Jack and Chris Feltham. This only lasted for four laps before Jack dished out some hurt on Peter and opened up an impressive gap. With stern orders from Jack, Chris was very clearly given instructions to ensure the gap was not reduced on his subsequent lap. Jack Feltham will be another junior to watch, if you haven’t already seen his pace. It’s great to see the club “pace setters” demographic changing to people under the age of 20 from the previous ~40 odd.

The weather was a little warm at 22C until some well received clouds rolled in to provide some appreciated cooling effect.

Fast n Furious, Barbs and Bella Hosking, managed a very competitive, but social, 9 laps. While the team of Lisa Harris, Emily and Michael Wooster managed 10 laps, which included Lisa having a few deflating moments with her rear tyre.

All-in-all a great track and great social event.

For more information on the Social Ride Stats - http://racesplitter.com/races/8C0A8C054