Brendan Langenbaker: Tamworthian set for massive cycling weekend

After completing the journey of more than 100km, a switch was flipped in the 26-year-old - and cycling has become an irresistible force in his life.

Read also:

He has "fallen in love" with a sport he only took up because his gym closed during the lockdown.

"I had to find some other way to keep fit, so I started riding," he said.

The Nundle ride turned him into a goal-setting cyclist, and he is now a Tamworth Cycle Club member.

He describes his association with cycling as "quite progressive" - "in the sense that I get up and just wanna ride my bike all day. And I want to train - train to be faster".

The service manager at Kensell Kia is in the midst of a transformative period - the emergence of cycling as a great passion powerfully coalescing with his status as a newlywed and a new home owner.

Langenbaker's rapid cycling progression will continue this weekend when he contests the Keegan Downes Memorial Sundowner Handicap Cycling Classic on Saturday.

On Sunday, he will contest the Gunnedah to Tamworth Graded Scratch Races. It is the first time he will attempt back-to-back races on consecutive days.

In the Sundowner - a 105km handicap race from Coonabaraban to Gunnedah - he will contest division 7. In the 100km Gunnedah to Tamworth, he will contest division five.

One of the favourites for the Sundowner is Tamworth-based Sam Hill, who set the fastest time in the race in 2016 but did not win. He won the Gunnedah to Tamworth that year, though, and triumphed in 2018 as well.

This year he will only contest to Sundowner, as his team Nero Continental has a National Road Series race on Sunday.

A scratch rider, he is unsure how he will perform in the Sundowner. "It could go in any direction," he said. "I honestly have no idea. It just depends on the wind and the dynamics of the bunch."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: