Entries to the New England Mountain Bikers’ 12 Hour in the Piney event were up 20 per cent after a date change.
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Last year’s annual race was held in April with 220 riders taking part while this year around 270 people put the wheels in motion for one of the most social events on the mountain biking calendar.
NEMTB president Peter Hosking said the date change, combined with other variations to the race, rejuvenated the event.
“New time of the year, we changed it quite dramatically to try and get out of the normal race season we have at the beginning of the year,” he said.
“We changed the format, we made it a little less technical and majority of the feedback was that was a positive move so we are hoping that will increase numbers again once the word gets out.
“We have a lot of people at the pointy end but a lot of people were there to have fun with friends and family.”
The 12 Hour is aimed at everyone from casual cyclists through to the country’s best.
“Some of these people buy a licence for the one race a year,” Hosking said.
“We think it is important that we have our pointy competition happening out at Sport UNE on those technical trails on a national level and we really want to have something that has a nice, social feel to it as well.”
While it was social, there were still results handed out.
In terms of Armidale riders, Jacqueline King and Jacqui Munday finished first in the female pairs. Katherine Hosking, Emily Wooster, Isabella Hosking and Olive Tutt won the female team of fours while the team of Holly Harris, Michael Harris, Pat Ferris and Carl Hooton claimed the mixed fours.
Results:
Female Open Solo 1st - Meghan Gillmer
Male Open Solo 1st - Michael Sherwood from Tamworth
Female +40 Solo 1st - Katherine Wood from Linden NSW
Male Solo 40+ Alwyn Miller Walcha
Female Pairs 1st Jacqueline King and Jacqui Munday - Armidale NSW
Mixed Pairs 1st Jodie Mayled and Brad Newman - Inverell
Male Pairs 1st Stuart Eddy and Chris Fuchs (Wamberal and Kincumber NSW)
Female Team of 4 - Katherine Hosking, Emily Wooster, Isabella Hosking and Olive Tutt - (Armidale and Uralla)
Mixed Team of 4 - Holly Harris, Michael Harris, Pat Ferris and Carl Hooton (Armidale)
Male Team of 4 - Steve Roberts, Chris Shaw, Ben Clark and Mark Willis - Tamworth
Male Team of 4 +40 - Peter Mitchell, James Webber, Timothy Parkes - Coff Harbour
