Club Races
Eldridge Triumphant
Rifle Butts Short Course, Sunday
6th July 2008
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Tom
Eldridge |
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Grey skies and an icy North Easterly
wind greeted Grampians Cyclists as they prepared to
tackle Horsham’s Rifle Butts short course, raced
over a 48km circuit on Sunday.
First away on 13
minutes was Les Power in company with new rider David
Chugg. The pair combined well out to Lower Norton and
over the undulating Nurabiel and Rifle Butts Roads.
However,
the duo began to struggle once they turned onto the
Henty Highway and were greeted by a strong head
wind. They were quickly swept up by the seven minute
group of Tom Eldridge, Shauna Heard and Chris Scott.
Meanwhile,
the scratch bunch of Gerard O’Brien,
Daryl Elliott, Drew Heard and Tony Lloyd teamed very
well together, and were able to chase down three minute
markers’ Alan Barnett, Stewart King, Peter Mayo
and Harvey Lang.
These two bunches joined
together shortly after turning onto the Henty Highway.
The combined group chased hard, but were never likely
to contest the finish, which was taken out by Eldridge
ahead of Shauna Heard with Chris Scott third.
The
chasing combined scratch and second scratch riders
finished several hundred metres in arrears. In the
sprint for fastest time, Elliott pipped O’Brien
on the line to take out the fastest time of the day
with 1 hour, 16 minutes and 35 seconds.
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