Club Races
O'Brien Wins Glenorchy Handicap
Glenorchy Roses Gap Road - Sunday 24th February 2008

Hard pressed by a rapidly gaining scratch bunch over the closing stages of the race, 6 minute rider Gerard O’Brien hung on to score a hard earned win in the Grampian Vets Cycling Club’s 48km handicap, held near Glenorchy last Sunday.

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	Gerard O'Brien

The easy flatness of the course was offset by a head wind for much of the homeward journey, with all bunches feeling the strain as they turned for home.

Scratch riders Ian Blackie, Steve Monks, Chris Scott and Richard Clarke set a blistering pace from the start, and had made up the 3 minutes on the next group of riders, Daryl Elliott, Michael Kelly, Alan Barnett and Harvey Lang, with about 18km to go. This combined bunch then set off after the 6 minute riders, Gerard O’Brien, Leon Gibson, Dan Heard and Michael Jensen.

However, despite loosing Jensen with about 12km to go, this group was not going to surrender easily. With about 8km to go, they still had about a 40 second lead, and soon after caught the 13 minute riders Meg Parnaby and Merv Thompson, who had reeled in limit rider Les Power.

Thompson joined in with the 6 minute riders, and put in a few big turns before fading gracefully out the back, giving some tired legs a very valuable extra boost before he departed.

The last few kilometers to the line were slightly downhill, which proved to be the saving grace for this bunch of riders. They managed to maintain speeds close to 40kph for much of the time, which helped slow the inevitable charge of the big bunch of riders behind.

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Dan Heard, Leon Gibson and Gerard O'Brien

With 1km to go, it was still touch and go as to who would get to the line first, but a valiant effort by O’Brien backed by the gritty strength of Gibson ensured they got there first, with O’Brien finding an extra ounce more to propel himself across the line first. Gibson was second with Dan Heard third.

The combined scratch and second scratch bunch was only 9 seconds behind, with Chris Scott recording the fastest time of 1 hour 13 minutes 20 seconds.