New England Mountain Bikers held their 6th race of the Winter Series recently. The event was held for the first time at Fat Tyre Farm (FTF) instead of the usual Armidale State Forest.
Two tracks were chosen to cater for all abilities. The first course was a 1km track that gave the participants a flavour of what FTF is all about, short steep grinds, flowy descents and a few log roll-overs. The second, longer course added some short steep pitches and rock gardens to test the technical skills to a total of 4.5km per lap. In summary, everyone raved about the more technical and vertically challenging courses.
Dave Harris punished the Open Men’s category, completing four laps in 1:15hr, Greg Manttan is showing a strong improvement finishing in 2nd at 1:16hr followed by Toby Brunckhorst (1:20hr), Peter Hosking (1:21hr) and James Harris (1:31hr). Barbara Hosking completed the three laps in the Open Women to finish in (2:07), followed by Nina Stone. Ben Brunckhorst came first in the U19 with a time that would have placed him second in the Open Men, followed by Sam Hutton (1:16hrs) and Edward Harland (1:32hr). Fiona Brunckhorst’s home course advantage paid off with a win in the U19 Women followed a few seconds later by Holly Harris (1:05hr). Mick Harris performed well with two long laps in a time of 0:48hr. Katherine Hosking finished her two long laps in the U12 in 1:11hr, followed by her sister Isabella (1:21hrs).
Race 7 in the Winter Series will be held on October 23 at Armidale State Forest. See www.nemtb.com.au for more information.
