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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.
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