ARMIDALE fell short to a strong Coffs Harbour team in yesterday’s Armidale Autumn Festival criterium in the CBD.

A large and enthusiastic crowd gathered in the city to see some of NSW’s best riders on display, with Coffs Harbour taking out the A-grade event from the Geoff Straub-led Armidale.

The individual winner was Tamworth’s Sam Spokes, who just pipped Coffs Harbours Dan Alcock and Straub to take honours.

Spokes won despite a crash with about 15 minutes to go, but due to the criterium format he was able to rejoin the leaders one lap later.

Spokes told The Express the crash helped spur him on the victory.

“After the crash I was feeling pretty good and the adrenalin really kicked in so I knew if I just put my trust in my sprint that I could get there - it’s great to get the win,” he said.

Crowd favourite Straub was unlucky to finish third, after racing on a borrowed bike.

He led the field with less than two minutes to go in the 50-minute-plus-two-lap race.

Spoke overtook the Armidale rider on the last corner but Straub said he was still pleased with his third and his team’s second place.

“They came up on the inside on the last corner and as there was already a crash there I decided to take it a bit steady because I was on a borrowed bike,” he said.

“But I’m happy with third because today was a team event so I was just doing my best for the team.”

The winning Coffs Harbour team was Dan Alcock, Nathan Chiswell, Chris Jans, Reece Edwards and Aaron O’Grady.

In the other divisions, Nick Woods just beat Ben Fox and Jake Campbell home in B-grade, while Nathan Hardaker won C-grade from Codie Miller and Darren Traill.

D-grade was taken out by Alex Beedie from John Ingram and Alan Miller.

The junior events were held earlier in the day with Gil Burgess taking the Under 17s from Brady Ingram and Nick Suter.

The Under 15s race was won by Sam Jenna from Kyle O’Hara and Emily Nichols. Angus Wheatley claimed Under 13s honours from Jack Parker, while Reece Burton beat Hillary Murray home in the Under 11s.