Club Races
Lloyd Breaks Long Drought!
Natimuk Noradjuha circuit, Horsham - Sunday14th October 2007

In breaking news, local cyclist Tony Lloyd is credited with breaking the the states long drought, when he climbed to the very top of Mt William over the weekend, piercing the sky and causing flash flooding across the state. State emergency workers were called out to rescue people from the tops of houses as torential rain blasted the wimmera for 12 hours straight.... well ... er .... just kidding. Read on for the real story!

	Tony Lloyd

A good turnout (at least compared to recent races) of riders fronted up for the start of the 51km Noradjuha/Natumuk handicap at Horsham. Overcast conditions and a solid westerly wind meant the 17 riders faced a head wind out to Natimuk and tail wind home.

Limit riders Roger Williams and David Cariss left together off 17 minutes  They were caught before Quantong by the 13 minute group of Kerryn Prouse, Meg Parnaby and Danny Monaghan (who is still nursing a troublesome back). The 8 minute group of Tom Eldridge, Tania Walter and Michael Jensen caught this combined group just before Noradjuha. Turning left at Noradjuha the tempo of this large group lifted to 38kph thanks to a welcome tailwind.

The 4 minute riders Peter Parnaby, Daryl Elliott, Tony Lloyd and Stuart King were not wasting a second of the tail wind home, getting along at about 43kph. This group had the large leading bunch well in its sites at Noradjuha, and caught them shortly after at the first of the hills.

Timing the catch for the first hill, they sailed passed the combined 17, 13 and 8 minute groups, with Peter Parnaby taking the opportunity to hit the hill hard, causing a major gravity crisis amongst many of the riders. Elliott, Lloyd and Walter were the only ones to survive the onslaught.

There was good reason for Parnaby to keep the pressure on as the scratch riders were only a few hundred metres behind, and this was reduced to 120 metres by the time they crossed the bridge and turned for home.

Meanwhile scratch rider Ian Blackie had worked hard to pull back 2 minutes from the second scratch riders and catch them at Natimuk. This was a great effort considering second scratch was made up of strong riders Richard Clark, Alan Barnett, Drew Heard and Tim Schneider. Blackie then led the charge on the 4 minute riders who were still setting a scorching pace.

On the way home the scratch group collected Monaghan for a short while and King who was able to stay with them. In the final 7 kms of the race this powerful group were able to close the gap between them and the 4 minute riders from 100m to only 30m making it a very exciting finish.

click to enlarge

Left to right - Peter Parnaby, Tony Lloyd and Daryl Elliott

The hard work paid off for Tony Lloyd who crossed the line first, taking out his first win for several years. Co-riders Peter Parnaby and Daryl Elliott came in second and third. A short moment later the chasing bunch crossed the line with Blackie sprinting off the front to record the fastest time of 1:25:32.

The cyclists would like to thank Gayle Barnett for timekeeping and Cathy Jensen for the delicious cakes.