This time Daniel Draheim would not be denied – not by his own failings, not by superior competition and certainly not by a tyre puncture.
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Less than three months after a tyre puncture cruelly ended his bid for glory at the Keegan Downes Memorial Sundowner Handicap Cycling Classic, after he had established a comfortable lead as the solo breakaway, the 45-year-old former Narrabri resident won the annual Nemingha to Nundle Handicap Road Race on Sunday morning.
It was his debut in the race, staged this year as part of the inaugural two-day Tamworth Cycling Festival.
He celebrated the biggest win of his career with his Darling Downs Cycling Club teammates (he recently left Narrabri to live in Toowoomba) and his family – wife Jody and children Sarah, 12, Ella, 9. The family then jumped in a car and headed home – job well done.
Draheim, who started in the third-last group, described the 100-kilometre race as the “perfect run”.
“Everything went to plan today, so it was really good,” he said, adding: “For the second half of the race we were the lead group, down to a bunch of seven. The group worked really well together.
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“I don’t have much of a sprint, so I made my move up the last hill with one kilometre to go. I held off the chase for the solo win.”
Glenn Kite (Muswellbrook Cycle Club) finished second and Richard Bush (Hunter District Cycling Club) finished third, seven seconds and 12 seconds adrift, respectively.
Kai Chapman (Hunter District Cycling Club) was the fastest male and Emily Watts (Sydney Uni Velo Club) was the fastest female.
Chapman won the division one section of the criterium held in Tamworth’s CBD on Saturday afternoon, with his Oliver’s Real Food Racing teammate, Tom Bolton, second and Glenn Mathiske (Manning Vale Cycle Club) third.
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At the hill climb event (Treloar Park to the top of Oxley Lookout) on Saturday morning, Steven Roberts (Tamworth Cycle Club) recorded the fastest time, covering the course in five minutes 32.26 seconds, followed by Fintan Conway (Hunter District Cycling Club) and Daniel Alcock (Coffs Harbour Cycle Club), who were 26.38sec and 31.68sec adrift, respectively.
Min McDonald, president of the festival’s organiser, Tamworth Cycle Club, described the festival as “absolutely terrific”.
She said the feedback had been “just so overwhelmingly positive”. “The [organising] committee are incredibly satisfied at our first attempt at this, and we can’t wait to build on it for next year,” she said, adding that the event would “deliver a really healthy profit” to pump into future festivals.
