Inverell MTB Copeton 6hr

Tamworth local at Pairs team rider Ann bombs through one of the many rocky sections. All photos by: CrummyMTB

We'd never heard of Copeton but when it came up on the list as one of our "local" events we were keen to get along and have a look. Copeton 6hr has been a long standing event for the Inverell mountain bike community for close to ten years and for good reason. The location is on the edge of the great Copeton Dam and the event hub this year was based out of the Reflections Holiday Park. The park is a solid two hour drive north of Tamworth and included a section of dirt road.

Riding this week in the annual Ride for the Chopper and getting some kms under the belt.

We joined a number of TAMMTB, NEMTB and Inverell riders, who had sorted themselves across a variety of teams and solo categories. A quick reccy before any official business and we found a number of short but rocky descents and plenty of wide hard-packed trail, sprinkled with patches of sand. The rock and hard-pack were particularly grippy, with no surprises about the short sections of sand.

The trails and granite rocks of Copeton.

The race got underway with quick start by some of the teams, we followed but just not too enthusiastically, finding a Inverell team riding spinning along at a reasonable pace. Tamworth endurance rider Mick Sherwood wound his way onto our wheel and we settled into a nice train. While the teams swapped riders a pleasant wave and a call of our race number was all that was needed from solo riders. Back out on the trail Mick had joined us again and we were discussing and trialing a few line choices. Not that line choices were bad either way, a couple of sections could have you off the bike if you weren't careful or they could have you putting in more effort for little reward. We had worked through a couple of laps that most B-lines may only cost a few seconds.

Inverell hosted and had a number of riders in attendance.

Mick was still following us onto our fourth lap, we were sitting pretty high in the overall standing with just a few teams in front and a few swapping lap times similar. It just took an error on a fence crossing to bring us to a crashing halt, catching the bottom of our pedal in some of the wire. On inspection nothing was broken, a cork in the thigh from the headset but when we looked at our bike we were missing a pivot linkage bolt. This missing bolt brought our ride to an end and Mick had to complete the remaining in his usual solo style as we made our way back to transition to call it a day.

Mick went on to take the solo win, only a number of minutes down on some of the fast teams. We were stoked to have had a solid couple of laps out on the Copeton trail, then getting to hang about the transition area and out on the trail watching the race unfold. We look forward to the next opportunity to ride this unique location, thanks to our TAMMTB friends for all their support!

Great support by the regions clubs TAMMTB, NEMTB and Inverell.

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