Dual Slalom & 4X - State Rnd 4

Another weekend of racing for Thomas. He decided that he'd like to give the Dual Slalom and 4X a go at Stromlo on the weekend of 2 & 3 August. Thomas's mate Shane and his Mum Jill picked up Thomas and Kerry on Saturday morning to head to Stromlo for the Dual Slalom. Not knowing quite what to expect, having only ever raced a Dual Slalom at Thredbo for Interschools, we were very suprised to see that the track was straight down a fire road. All Mum could see was gavel rash! Due to the lack of numbers, they decided to race the 13's, 15's and 17's together. Everyone had to do a timed qualifying run to see where they would run in the race. Thomas qualified fastest in his whole group so he got lane choice for all his races. After 4 race runs down the track, Thomas finished first in his group. They were then broken down into their correct age division and he had to race the final against the kid who was coming second in the 15's. Thomas pinned it down the track, cornering extremely well, nearly got taken out by the his competitor who was a bit out of control but luckily managed to avoid a collision and crossed the finish line first. Another Gold medal to add to the collection. YEAH THOMAS.

After an early rise Sunday morning to watch the closing stages of the world Dh series in Canada on the net, Mum, Dad and Andrew headed off to football in QBN, Thomas was picked up by the Cooma crew for a solid morning of 4x practice. Andrew scored a solid win against the Roos bagging a couple of tries and a goal Result 16-12 then we headed to Stromlo. Racing kicked off around 1pm. Thomas's first heat went well with a convincing second place. In the second heat about 10 mins later Thomas got the bad end of the "bear trap", stacked and got tangled up with another rider, still finished a gutsy third. Third heat 10mins later Thomas posted another third place to secure a place in the semi finals. It was at this stage it was noted that he was not looking or feeling too flash. We then noticed that he was absolutely buggered. We worked out that a combination of the flu, way overpracticing in the morning and a big day before all took its toll. It was decided that he should retire to save himself for the State Champs at AWABA next weekend. Put that one down to experience!