Tamworth Cycle Club’s winter road racing season commences on Saturday with a mini tour at Moore Creek.
TCC race coordinator Rob Wright said a new circuit had been added to the Moore Creek route to boost variety.
Wright also said TCC had increased member numbers “greatly” during the recently completed summer criterium season and the club was looking forward to providing “an opportunity for those that are new to road racing to get a taste for the various formats”.
“A great program of mini tours, handicap racing, scratch racing and some interclub racing is all planned for this winter,” he said.
Wright said the club would host the Gunnedah to Tamworth road race in June and the John Dewhurst Memorial later in the season – “with the [criterium] season building to a big weekend of racing in September with the recent announcement of the Tamworth Cycling Festival”.
The festival will include the traditional Nemingha to Nundle handicap road race.
Wright is excited to see what talented 16-year-old Steven Roberts can do during the road racing season.
Roberts is best known as a mountain biker but has impressed as a road racer after recently taking up the sport.
Wright said: “Young Steve Roberts exploded on to the road racing scene late in the [criterium] season with some great results in A-grade, and I personally look forward to watching him race and progress.”
Roberts, in Year 11 at Oxley High School, began road racing after heeding the advice of road cyclists, including former pro Sam Spokes.
He impressed at last month’s Autumn Festival Criterium in Armidale, in particular.
“I am enjoying it,” he said.
“It’s very different to mountain bikes. I’m having a lot of fun.”
On a mountain bike, Roberts finished 11th at the cross-country national championships at Armidale in February.
He will continue mountain biking.
