Club Races
Elliott Blasts Past Opposition
Stawell Racecourse Handicap
Sunday 6th June 2010
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Daryl
Elliott |
Horsham cyclist Daryl Elliott clinched
victory right on the line to take out the Grampians
Vets gruelling 55km Stawell Racecourse handicap last
Sunday.
Elliott, along with Crystal Wemyss,
were the powerhouse of the 7 minute bunch, with the
slightly out of form Peter Parnaby and Tony Lloyd providing
solid support.
At the Pomonal turn, they had caught
up to the 10 minute riders, Meg Parnaby, Damian Rabl
and Tony Rathgeber, who had found the strong southerly
wind difficult to counter. These bunches combined and
headed back to Lake Fyans, dodging a stray emu in the
process, then across to Mokepilly, where they managed
to overshoot the U turn and lost a good 20 seconds
regrouping.
The journey back towards Lake Fyans
and the Stawell Pomonal road was straight into the
wind, and tested the riders to the full, with not all
surviving.
At this point the 3 and a half minute
riders Gerard O'Brien, Alan Barnett, Drew Heard and
Dean Hayward were still about two minutes behind, with
the scratch riders Danny Monaghan, Shane Clark, Peter
Wemyss and Sean Prins slowly closing in on them.
Once
onto the Pomonal road heading back to Stawell, the
wind was from the side, and speeds lifted. At this
point Crystal Wemyss was setting the pace for the 7
minute riders, until about 10 kilometres to go, when
her cold suddenly caught up with her and she was forced
to slow down, leaving Elliott, Lloyd and Peter Parnaby
to continue the charge.
The 3 minute riders were still
about half a kilometre behind, but were running out
of puff, while at about this point the scratch riders
split in two as well, ending their chances.
Rounding
the final bend with a 200m sprint to go, Lloyd was
leading, but Peter Parnaby made a bid for the line
and almost made it, but could not hold off the powerful
finish of Elliott, who hit the line first to win by
a wheel.
Danny Monaghan took out fastest time
of 1 hour, 28 minutes.
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