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Club Races
Limit by
a Whisker
Polkemmet Handicap
Sunday 30th May 2010
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Damian
Rabl |
Grampians Veteran cyclists headed
to the open undulating country north west of Horsham
for the 54km Polkemmet Road handicap last Sunday.
Normally
a windy course, it lived up to expectations with a
stiff southerly adding an extra degree of difficulty
to an already tough course.
Limit markers Meg Parnaby,
Damian Rabl, John McIntyre and domestique Peter Parnaby
set off with a ten and a half minute lead over the
scratch riders, and worked smoothly to keep the chasing
riders clear until the closing stages of the race.
Four minute
riders Gerard O’Brien, Alan Barnett, Daryl Elliott
and Daryl Hobbs worked hard to make up ground on the
limit riders, with the high pace taking its toll on
Barnett and Elliott three quarters of the way through
the race, leaving O’Brien and Hobbs to continue
the chase on their own.
With about 15 kilometres to
go, O’Brien and Hobbs had the limit markers in
their sights, but were still about 500 metres behind.
With 9 kilometres to go, they had cut the distance
to about 300 metres, and it looked like it could go
to either bunch.
Over the closing stages, some strong
turns by Peter Parnaby and Damian Rabl managed to keep
the limit riders clear, with Rabl taking out the sprint
from Meg Parnaby. Hobbs came in third, just missing
the limit riders by 100 metres.
The scratch riders
Danny Monaghan, Dean Hayward, Drew Heard and Sean Prins
found their 4 minute deficit over the bunch in front
too much to make up, and finished about a minute later,
with Prins taking out the sprint for fastest time.
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