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Club Races
Monaghan Shakes off Winter ills
Natimuk Noradjuha Handicap, Sunday
15th June 2008
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Danny
Monaghan |
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Having shaken off his recent spell
of winter colds, Danny Monaghan was back in form this
week, sprinting to victory in the Grampians Vets 52km
Horsham handicap, held last Sunday.
After struggling on the hilly Quarry
Road circuit the week before, the mostly flat course
and almost calm conditions were ideal for Monaghan,
who helped propel the second scratch bunch of riders
to the lead two thirds of the way into race.
Limit riders Meg Parnaby, Tom Eldridge
and Les Power led off with a 9 min 30sec start, chased
by Daryl Elliott and Harvey Lang, riding off 4 min
45 sec. These two didn’t make much of an impression
on the limit riders, and were caught by the hard working
second scratch riders Monaghan, Tony Lloyd and Leon
Gibson soon after Natimuk.
This combined bunch of five then upped
the pace, and pulled away from the scratch riders Alan
Barnett, Gerard O’Brien, Drew Heard and Tim Schneider.
In the stretch between Natimuk and
Noradjuha, the second scratch riders took over 2 minutes
away from the limit riders, and at the Noradjuha turn
were only 40 seconds behind, a gap they soon bridged
shortly after. Picking up Meg Parnaby and Tom Eldridge
as they went past, this large bunch then headed for
home, with the scratch riders now effectively out of
the race.
In a hotly contested sprint to the
finish, Leon Gibson lead out with Harvey Lang and Danny
Monaghan close by. This quickly became a battle between
Gibson and Monaghan until Monaghan pulled away to cross
the line a clear winner, also taking the fastest time
for the day of 1 hour 27 minutes.
Gibson was second with Lang
third.
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| Tom, Meg & Les |
Daryl & Harvey |
Leon, Danny & Tony |
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| Drew, Alan, Gerard & Tim |
Les, Meg & Tom |
Drew, Alan, Gerard & Tim |
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| Daryl leads the combined middle
bunches ... |
.. and Daryl still leads |
Tony takes a turn |
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