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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