GLEN Innes is hosting the start of the women’s and junior men’s under 19 sections of this year’s McDonald’s 48th Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic next month.

With great support from the Glen Innes Severn Shire Council, the women’s race, known as the Celtic Country Classic de Femme, will now hit the streets in Glen Innes on September 20 and cover a distance of 95km to Inverell via Elsmore.

The Valmet Komatsu Forest junior men’s under 19s cover the same course and is a new category in the Grafton to Inverell Classic.

The women’s race will begin in Grey St at 10.15am with the juniors kicking off 30 minutes later.

After just 10km in the saddle, riders are scheduled to tackle the demanding Waterloo Range climb lasting around 2km at a gradient of eight per cent.

This is also the first opportunity for cyclists to collect points in the Steiger Electronics Queen of the Mountain (QOM) and King of the Mountain (KOM) competitions

From there a fast section to the Swanbrook Creek sees the field average around 40 km/h over the next 30km.

After 48km of racing, the second QOM and KOM points will be atop the Wire Gully climb.

This is a perfect place for the climbers to break up the field over the nearly six per cent ascent.

A further 15km, and with Inverell in sight, the race will take a left-hand turn onto a fast descent into the Elsmore Valley where they’ll follow the McIntyre River eastwards to the little village of Elsmore.

Here the riders will attack the last major hurdle of the race over the Dodds Hill climb.

The race then returns to the Gwydir Highway with 20km to the finish.

This is also the Dejon Sapphire Centre sprint where a local sapphire is up for grabs for all divisions.

A “hot spot sprint” will be the other chance for the points in the Smooth Beauty Sprint Queen competition for the women and Sprint King for the juniors.

Organisers believe this is an exciting change for the women’s race, which should see an aggressive event over the shorter distance compared to the 160km last year.

The addition of the under 19 men’s category is intended to give the up and coming riders a chance to experience some of the tough course that hosts the Grafton to Inverell 228km Classic, as well as being able to finish in front of what should be a huge crowd in Inverell.

A prize list of $2500 is on offer for the Celtic Country Classic de Femme with the winner to collect $1000 for her efforts.