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Club Races
Rathgeber Wins Stawell Racecourse
Stawell Racecourse Handicap
Sunday 17th October 2010
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Tony
Rathgeber |
A tiny field of six riders fronted
for the Stawell Race Course 55km handicap last Sunday,
partly due to riders participating in the Round the
Bay in a Day.
Cool but good racing conditions prevailed,
as Meg Parnaby and Peter Mayo set off into the gentle
westerly wind, 13 minutes ahead of scratch.
At the
Pomonal turn, about one third of the way through the
race, 5 minute riders Alan Barnett and Tony Rathgeber
had reduced their 8 minute deficit to 4 minutes, while
scratch riders Danny Monaghan and Dean Hayward were
2 and a half minutes further behind at the same point.
Twelve
kilometres later, having doubled back towards Stawell
before turning across past Lake Fyans, the 5 minute
riders had gained another 2 minutes on the limit riders
at the Mokepilly turn, to trail by only 2 minutes,
while the scratch riders had lopped off a further 30
seconds to be 2 minutes behind the 5 minute riders.
About
12 kilometres from home, the five minute riders had
caught the limit riders, and for some time worked together,
until Meg Parnaby, suffering the effects of a gruelling
70km Camperdown to Warrnambool the day before, dropped
off. At this point, scratch was only 45 seconds behind
the tiring leading riders, and with the leaders starting
to disintegrate on the Bungles Cave hill, the field
came together soon afterwards, about 5 kilometres from
home.
Hayward did the work early in the
sprint to the line, but a well positioned Tony Rathgeber
pounced to take out the race from Danny Monaghan and
Peter Mayo. Monaghan also recorded the fastest race
time.
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