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Club Races
First Win for Rathgeber
Concongella - Sunday
31st May 2009
Clear skies
and sunshine soon warmed a cool start into ideal
racing conditions for the 46km interclub between
Grampians Vets and Ballarat Eureka Vets last Sunday.
A good
turnout of 26 riders set out from Concongella, with
the first part of the race heading into the light
south-east to north-easterly winds.
Limit riders
Karen James, Meg Parnaby and Trevor McDonald had
their 1 minute 30 second advantage swallowed up after
only 15km by 13 minutes riders Ron Larkin, Sue Parker
and Tony Rathgeber. This combined group then worked
well to hold off the chasing bunches until the final
stages of the race.
Further
back, the 10 minute riders Brett Caddy, Les Power,
Peter Mayo and Tania Walter were reeled in by the
6 minute 15 second riders Tony Lloyd, Rob Parker,
Peter James and Peter Parnaby, soon after the half
way mark. After having to slow for a tractor blocking
the road, this bunch set off after the leading riders
which at this stage were still well out of sight.
However,
half a kilometer behind, the four minute bunch was
making its presence felt, with Leon Gibson, Alan
Barnett, Daryl Elliott, Gerard O’Brien and
Sean Prins doing some big turns.
With 6
kilometers to go the limit bunches still held a 300
meter lead, but the combined 10 and 6 minute riders
were gaining fast. A further 300 meters behind the
4 minute riders were still making some ground, while
behind them the scratch riders Tony Mirabella, Adam
Smith, and Ken Heres had just caught the 2 minute
riders Danny Monaghan, Chris Scott, Dean Hayward
and Drew Heard.
Up the
final hill the lead bunch splintered, with Tony Rathgeber
and Ron Larkin edging away. Hot on their heels were
the combined 10 and 6 minute riders, who swept past
the remnants of the lead bunch, but just failed by
30 meters to catch Rathgeber and Larkin, who took
out first and second placings. Peter
Mayo was third in front of Brett Caddy and Tony Lloyd.
Fastest
race time went to Tony Mirabella with 1 hour 11 minutes
6 seconds.
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