With a minimum of $1000 prize money up for grabs the event attracted riders from Newcastle, Port Macquarie and Sydney to compete against Taree and Forster cyclists.

Division 1 attracted some excellent cyclists, including Brendan Brooks who is recognised as one of the best in Australia and races professionally for the Shortis Cycle Team based on the Gold Coast.

Division 2 consisted of a large field of 28 riders with Manning Valley riders hoping to dominate the event.

Josh Blick from the Manning Valley Cycle Club attempted to take control of Division 1 from the first lap which drew an immediate response from Brooks who didn’t want Blick to gain any sort of lead. With Brooks and Blick working together a 500m gap to the chase peleton quickly resulted.

As the gap widened it became obvious that one of these two riders would take the win with most of the spectators wondering how long the 15-year-old Taree junior could stay with Brooks.

There was also prize money available for an intermediate sprint at the 20 minute mark of the race and there was enormous interest as to how serious the two-man sprint to the line would be. The spectators were not disappointed when both Brooks and Blick decided to test each other out and raced side by side for 200m. They hit the line together with Blick judged the winner by the closest of margins.

The two lead riders now had an unassailable lead on the remaining field with the crowd preparing for an exciting finish but in an anti climax Blick suffered a puncture with 10 minutes remaining and had to be satisfied with fourth place.

Final placings for division 1 were: first, B Brooks; second, N Wood (HDCC); third, D Witherdin (HDCC); fourth J Blick (MVCC); and fifth, Tai Piper (MVCC).

At the end of the race Brooks was full of praise for the young rider who is now proving himself as one of NSW’s leading junior cyclists.