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Club Races
Lloyd Breaks Long Drought!
Natimuk Noradjuha circuit,
Horsham - Sunday14th October 2007
In breaking news, local cyclist Tony
Lloyd is credited with breaking the the states long
drought, when he climbed to the very top of Mt William
over the weekend, piercing the sky and causing flash
flooding across the state. State emergency workers
were called out to rescue people from the tops of houses
as torential rain blasted the wimmera for 12 hours
straight.... well ... er .... just kidding. Read on
for the real story!
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Tony Lloyd |
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A good turnout (at least compared
to recent races) of riders fronted up for the start
of the 51km Noradjuha/Natumuk handicap at Horsham.
Overcast conditions and a solid westerly wind meant
the 17 riders faced a head wind out to Natimuk and
tail wind home.
Limit riders Roger Williams
and David Cariss left together off 17 minutes They
were caught before Quantong by the 13 minute group
of Kerryn Prouse, Meg Parnaby and Danny Monaghan
(who is still nursing a troublesome back). The 8
minute group of Tom Eldridge, Tania Walter and Michael
Jensen caught this combined group just before Noradjuha.
Turning left at Noradjuha the tempo of this large
group lifted to 38kph thanks to a welcome tailwind.
The 4 minute riders Peter Parnaby,
Daryl Elliott, Tony Lloyd and Stuart King were not
wasting a second of the tail wind home, getting along
at about 43kph. This group had the large leading bunch
well in its sites at Noradjuha, and caught them shortly
after at the first of the hills.
Timing the catch for
the first hill, they sailed passed the combined 17,
13 and 8 minute groups, with Peter Parnaby taking the
opportunity to hit the hill hard, causing a major gravity
crisis amongst many of the riders. Elliott, Lloyd and
Walter were the only ones to survive the onslaught.
There was good reason for Parnaby to keep the pressure
on as the scratch riders were only a few hundred metres
behind, and this was reduced to 120 metres by the time
they crossed the bridge and turned for home.
Meanwhile scratch rider Ian
Blackie had worked hard to pull back 2 minutes from
the second scratch riders and catch them at Natimuk.
This was a great effort considering second scratch
was made up of strong
riders Richard Clark, Alan Barnett, Drew Heard and
Tim Schneider. Blackie then led the charge on the 4
minute riders who were still setting a scorching pace.
On
the way home the scratch group collected Monaghan
for a short while and King who was able to stay with
them. In the final 7 kms of the race this powerful
group were able to close the gap between them and the
4 minute riders from 100m to only 30m making it a very
exciting finish.
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| Left to right - Peter
Parnaby, Tony Lloyd and Daryl Elliott |
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The hard work paid off for Tony Lloyd who crossed
the line first, taking out his first win for several
years. Co-riders Peter Parnaby and Daryl Elliott came
in second and third. A short moment later the chasing
bunch crossed the line with Blackie sprinting off the
front to record the fastest time of 1:25:32.
The cyclists would like to thank Gayle Barnett for
timekeeping and Cathy Jensen for the delicious cakes.
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