Club Races
Mayo Hangs on For Win
Quarry Road - Sunday 20th April 2008

Two new Grampians Vets cyclists Peter Mayo and Shaun Prins made an impressive debut to Grampains Vets cycling, when they combined well to hold off all challengers in last Sunday’s 47km Quarry Road Handicap.

	Peter Mayo

Riding off 12 minutes 30 sec, limit markers Meg Parnaby and Les Power were first to leave followed 3 minutes later by Sean Prins and Peter Mayo in hot pursuit.

Prins and Mayo caught the 2 limit riders about half way, along the IIlawarra-Sandbar Road. They then worked as a foursome until Power found the pace up McCracken's Hill a little too much, then Parnaby had mechanical problems up a steep ascent along Mount Drummond Road.

This left the newcomers Prins and Mayo to tough out the final gut wrenching 5 kilometres together. Their biggest threat were 1minute 30 sec riders Gerard O'Brien, Jamie Bennett, Michael Kelly and Harvey Lang. They had caught the 3 minute 30 sec group of Tony Lloyd, Leon Gibson, Peter Blair and Tania Walter before the Sandbar Hill and were gathering momentum with the assistance of Gibson and Lloyd to help share the load.

Over the final hills, it looked like Prins and Mayo would fall victim to their pursuers, but they put in a mighty effort to hold them off, with Mayo edging ahead of Prins over the final 300m to take out first place, with Prins second only 100m ahead of Kelly, who lead in the second scratch bunch.

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Left to right - Mike Kelly, Peter Mayo and Sean Prins

The scratch riders Steve Monks, Frank Kean, and Alan Barnett chased hard all day, managing to close the gap to only 150m at the finish. Monks and Kean crossed the line together and were warded joint fastest time of 1hour, 11 minutes 20 seconds.

A few more photos of the day.

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