Club Races
Heard Charges to Victory
Noradjuha/Nurrabiel, Sunday 3rd August 2008

	Drew Heard

Mild temperatures and a gentle northerly wind were a welcome change from the icy mornings of recent weeks, as the riders headed off on the 60km Noradjuha Nurrabiel circuit.

With a start of 13 minutes 30 seconds, limit riders Meg Parnaby, Tom Eldridge and Peter Mayo set off hard to make the most of the tale wind start, but barely got 2km down the road before Mayo punctured.

Mayo quickly changed his tube, but in his hast broke the valve off the new tube, and had to retire.

Second scratch riders Tony Lloyd, Drew Heard, Harvey Lang and Stuart King worked well to haul in the weakened limit bunch with 15 kilometres to go, picking up Parnaby and Eldridge as they went past.

This group continued to keep the pace high to hold off the scratch riders, and with 10km to go still held a good 2 minute 30 second lead.

Scratch riders Leon Gibson, Chris Scott, Alan Barnett, Daryl Elliott and Gerard O’Brien found the 5 minute 30 second gap to second scratch a bit too much to bridge, but managed to get it down to less than 2 minutes by the finish.

Over the last few kilometres, the second scratch riders slowed, as riders tried to recover for the sprint. Tony Lloyd led the sprint out early, but didn’t have the legs to keep it going, and was overtaken by Drew Heard, who blasted his way clear to win easily from Harvey Lang, with Lloyd coming in third.

Click to enlarge

Left to Right - Chris Scott (fastest time) Harvey Lang (2nd) Drew Heard (1st) and Tony Lloyd (3rd)

Chris Scott won the scratch riders sprint for fastest time, recording 1 hour 33 minutes, 45 seconds.