Club Races
Clark Takes Out Arapiles Classic
Mt Arapiles Classic
Monday 11th April 2010

Grampians Veteran Cyclists competed in the annual Mt. Arapiles Classic on Sunday.

The race, from Horsham, via Noradjuha, to the top of “The Rock”, was raced on the same day as the famed Paris-Roubaix Classic, also known as the Hell of the North. Because the Paris-Roubaix includes 60km of cobblestone roads, the much-coveted trophy is adorned with a piece of cobblestone.

Accordingly, the winner of Sundays classic was to be awarded a trophy adorned with a rock!

A strong, gusty Westerly wind and showers made for an unpleasant start to the race, as 15 ½ minute markers Damian Rabl, Meg Parnaby and Tom Eldridge set off, followed 3 minutes later by Steve Monks, Tony Rathgeber and Les Power.

Further back, new rider Shane Clark drove the 2 ½ minute bunch of Sean Prins, Dean Hayward and Drew Heard, and when they joined forces with Geoff Richards, Gerard O’Brien, Allan Barnett, Daryl Elliott and Peter Parnaby heading into Noradjuha, the combined bunch worked strongly into the wind, safely holding at bay the pursuing scratch markers Frank Kean, Peter Wemyss, Danny Monaghan and Tim Schneider, and rounding up the limit markers with 10km to ride.

As riders began the ascent of Arapiles, O’Brien and Clark broke clear of the field and went head to head until the final kilometer when Clark attacked and went on to a comfortable win, recording the fastest time in doing so. O’Brien took out second place, and was followed home by Heard, Monks and Barnett.