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Club Races
Shauna Goes Solo
Quarry Road Handicap, Monday
9th June 2008
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Shauna
Heard |
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Horsham cyclist Shauna Heard scored
a well deserved win in the Grampians Vets
47km Quarry Road Handicap, when she broke away to ride
solo for the final 15km of the race.
A dedicated training
regime has seen Heard go from strength to strength
in recent times.
Although threatening rain and cool
conditions kept the field to 13 riders, the rain held
off, and the cyclists only had lightish winds to content
with, conditions that suited the limit markers Shauna
Heard and Meg Parnaby.
Riding off 13 minutes, these
two were always going to be a difficult challenge for
the chasing bunches. After working well together for
the first half of the race, Heard was showing out the
stronger of the two, and at the start of the Sandbar
Road section forged on ahead, only to be caught again
by Parnaby some kilometres down the road.
Heard then
broke away again on the tough Sandbar Hill, and headed
for home.
Meanwhile, 6 minute riders Sean Prins,
Peter Mayo, and Susie Ellis were working hard to pull
in the lead riders, but were not making much of an
impression. Instead they found they had to worry about
the 1 minute 30sec riders Tony Lloyd, Leon Gibson,
Peter Parnaby and Danny Monaghan, who were closing
fast.
These two groups merged briefly on
the first of the Mount Drummond Road hills, before
Lloyd, Peter Parnaby, and Gibson broke away in pursuit
of the two limit riders, who were still not in sight.
Further
back, scratch riders Drew Heard, Alan Barnett, Frank
Kean and Gerard O’Brien
were doing their best to get into the race, but they
too were not making much ground on the rest of the
field.
After making good time over the remaining
hills, the 3 second scratch riders Lloyd, Gibson, and
Peter Parnaby had the limit riders in sight, but it
was too late. Shauna Heard had too big a lead, and
crossed the line well clear of Meg Parnaby, who took
second place. Peter Parnaby won the sprint for third
from Tony Lloyd.
Gerard O’Brien took out fastest
race time of 1 hour, 28 minutes.
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