Club Races
Lloyd Breaks Away for Win
Glenorchy/Wal Wal, Sunday
13th July 2008
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Tony
Lloyd |
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Grampians Vets Cyclists could be
excused for wondering if they belonged to an Iceberg
Club in recent weeks, and Sunday morning’s racing
was to be no exception as riders tackled the 48 km
Glenorchy/Wal Wal circuit.
A strengthening northerly
wind added to the riders’ discomfort as limit
markers Shauna Heard, Meg Paranby and Les Power pedaled
off towards Glenorchy, with Chris Scott, Tom Eldridge
and Peter Mayo heading off in pursuit six and half
minutes later.
Hot on their heels was the second
scratch bunch of Leon Gibson, Tony Lloyd, Dean Hayward
and Allan Barnett, and this group was able to join
the bunch ahead shortly after Wal Wal, and then to
reel in the limit riders shortly after passing through
Glenorchy.
Meanwhile, scratch markers Gerard
O’Brien,
Drew Heard, Daryl Elliot and Peter Parnaby worked hard
to reduce the margin to the combined bunches ahead,
but were unable to close the gap over the concluding
stages.
Approaching the final kilometres several
riders attempted to break away from the lead bunch,
but then Tony Lloyd managed to break free with two
kilometres to ride, and held on for a good win ahead
of Gibson and Hayward.
Gerard O’Brien led home
the scratch bunch to take out fastest time of 1 hour
16 minutes 48 seconds.
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Click
to enlarge |
Left to right - Leon Gibson, Dean
Hayward and Tony Lloyd |
Unfortunately this course is
to be discontinued, due to the addition of 3 sets of
3 very nasty small “alert” bumps
either side of the railway line at Wal Wal. When hit
at 40kph, these are not kind on bike wheels, and one
rider lost his drink bottle when it was vibrated out
of the holder.
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