The brakes have been applied to the Tamworth Cycling Festival for this year but the Tamworth Cycle Club remains hopeful the annual Gunnedah to Tamworth race won't fall to the same coronavirus-precipitated fate.
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With almost five months of racing wiped out, cycling bodies have been scrambling to come up with a 'Plan B' ahead of an anticipated return in August.
The Gunnedah to Tamworth was originally scheduled for June 14 backing onto the Coonabarabran to Gunnedah, but has been pushed back to September 13 under the proposed NSW racing calendar released recently by Cycling NSW, with the time-honoured Keegan Downes Memorial Handicap the day before (September 12).
But there is no room for the cycling festival which was set to be held on August 22 and 23.
TCC president Daniel Nash said it was disappointing to have to cancel the two-day event, which incorporates a hill climb, criterium and road race and is only a relatively new addition to the club's calendar, but the circumstances didn't leave them with a lot of options.
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"With the Coonabarabran to Gunnedah normally on the same weekend as the Gunnedah to Tamworth it was a pretty obvious choice to make sure people could have two races in the one sort of area on the one weekend," he said.
The graded scratch race is this year also set to incorporate the NSW Open Club Road Race Championships, which should add some extra appeal, although Nash expects there to be good interest anyway.
"I think the fact that it's a 100km race and there's two on the same weekend, off the back of Coonabarabran to Gunnedah, that should draw a lot of interest," he said.
