Club Races
Eldridge Triumphant
Rifle Butts Short Course, Sunday 6th July 2008

	Tom Eldridge

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.