This Saturday saw an exciting double-header of riding/racing on the Northern Tablelands.

On a glorious New England spring morning, first up was the Walcha Mountain Festival Challenge Ride, which saw a terrific turnout of riders from across the region including 14 ACC riders. It was an early 8am start, and with a tough 75km parcours, the ride was definitely a challenge for all abilities. The event is not a race, but with a large Tamworth turnout local bragging rights were at stake, and a fast pace from the go saw the main peleton of riders quickly thinned down to a solid group of ~25 riders. The pace remained high all the way through to Kentucky, where the rolling terrain then encouraged some early attacks. A group of 4 ACC riders punched clear on one of these rises, and with Houlty, Hammy, Ollie, and the Chairman driving the pace, they woulldn’t be seen again until the finish line. Behind them the main bunch remained intact until Walcha Road, where the brutal 2km climb saw the peleton explode as riders were scattered across the hillside, and they would come rolling home in small groups with big smiles at the end of a terrific days riding. Chapeau to Houlty who was first to finish the ride, and to all ACC riders who took part and supported this great event!

Next up was the local ACC Saturday race, with a 20km ITT on the menu. By the afternoon the wind had picked up making for challenging conditions, but in spite of this a number of riders took on the race of truth, amazingly including 5 riders who had completed the Walcha ride only a few hours before. In particular kudos goes to Brent Weston, who put in a super-strong ride at Walcha, and then backed up by riding the TT on a single speed fixie with 48*16 gearing…great work Brent!!

In the TT race, Ollie (who was also backing up from Walcha) continued his stella form with a storming ride on his road bike to take out a comfortable win…great effort Ollie! With fresh legs Pat Ferris put in a great ride to record his best ever TT result coming in 2nd, while tired keg-legs saw Phil Thomas fade to 3rd after hitting the turn in 2nd as he paid the price for his efforts at Walcha earlier in the day, aswell as massively overshooting the turn!

Another notable battle was the growing rivallry between 2019 RROTY champ Richard Wilko and Andrew May – with it all to play for at the turn they both pushed hard on the return leg, and as the dust settled the timer couldn’t split them as they both recorded 35:13 dead…nice work guys.

One last notable incident to report involved PC’s car…as you can see from the GoPro footage at the turn the Captain and the Eagle were busy checking out some recent damage to the front end which even miracle-mechanic Johnny couldn’t fix..whats the story PC?!

Thanks to Andrew May for doing the signs, Col & Pete Wilko for running the race and timings, and Johnny & PC for manning the turn.

Next week we return to Dangarsleigh for the Club TT Championship; please come along to support the event, and if you’re not racing and are able to help out can you let Wilf or Andy Robb know. Also, don’t forget to sign up for next Sunday’s Tour de North West!

Rider	Place	Equiment	Distance	Start Time	Out	Back	Finish Time	Avg KMH
MARSHALL Oliver	1	Road	20	10:00:00	0:16:54	0:14:47	0:31:41	37.87
FERRIS Pat	2	Road	20	8:00:00	0:17:47	0:15:33	0:33:20	36.00
THOMAS Phil	3	Specialist	20	9:00:00	0:18:09	0:15:23	0:33:32	35.79
THOMAS Alex	4	Specialist	20	7:00:00	0:17:45	0:15:49	0:33:34	35.75
MILLER Codie	5	Road	20	6:00:00	0:17:57	0:16:24	0:34:21	34.93
MAY Andrew	6	Specialist	20	3:00:00	0:18:35	0:16:38	0:35:13	34.07
WILKINSON Richard	6	Specialist	20	4:00:00	0:18:42	0:16:31	0:35:13	34.07
WESTON Brent	8	Road *	20	5:00:00	0:18:41	0:17:22	0:36:03	33.29
WAUCH Jo	9	Specialist	20	2:00:00	0:19:23	0:17:28	0:36:51	32.56
JENNER Dave	10	Road	20	1:00:00	0:24:29	0:21:42	0:46:11	25.98
		* Single Speed