It’s a race with a long history and many tales of agony and triumph.
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As riders gear up for the 58th Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic, we take a look back at past winners of the toughest one day race in Australia.
With 60 entrants, only 30 competed in the inaugural race, according to winner Alan Grindal.
“We were told that the course went over the Gilbralter Range and the road from Mann River to Glen Innes was gravel.
“What we were not told was that there were lots of hills to climb before the mountain and there were rocks and boulders some as big as your fist on the gravel road,” Grindal wrote in a 2010 Inverell Times article.
Grindal was the first to secure his lead with a break away at Wire Gully, a tactic that has been used by many winners since.
“An estimated crowd of 3000 were in Otho Street to welcome the riders and I have never experienced a greater thrill as I rode to the finishing line surrounded by so many spectators,” he wrote.
It was a feeling fellow winner David Pell echoed after his 2008 win.
The past 10 years of the gruelling 228km event have maintained the excitement of the first.
There was a controversial end to the 2009 event, after a leading pack of riders inadvertently followed a police car the wrong way. For a brief moment it seemed as though Ethan Kimmince was the first local to have won the race since the 1979 transition from a handicap event to an ‘open’ event.
But it was not to be. Kimmince was placed sixth, after the official winner, Malcolm Rudolph.
Peter Herzig and Michael Cupitt showed the importance of a strong team in 2012, when they approached the finish line together, 40 seconds ahead of the peleton. Cuppitt pushed Herzig forward to take the final win.
Sean Lake left his mark in 2014 and 2015, as the first back to back winner of the race.
Last year it was Neil Van Der Ploeg’s turn to make Grafton to Inverell history, smashing the record to finish in just five hours, 46 minutes, 26 seconds. It was one of the race’s closest finishes, a full 12 minutes faster than 2016.
There are still milestones to be made, and this year locals will be pinning their hopes on Inverell A Grade riders Chris Hamilton and Ryan Thomas.