Another National Round done and dusted. After driving all day from Bredbo to Geelong with a minor mishap about 10 minutes from home (thanks Pop for helping us out, yet again. I keep telling Ian I need a new car) Our second stop, after filling up with petrol in Cooma, was to pick up Brock and the van in Berridale.
We arrived at camp and just happened to be camping next to some other mountain biking mates. We set up camp for the next 4 days with Glen and Phil Piazza and Genaro and Danielle Acunzo. We really couldn't have asked for better camping mates, we all got on like a house on fire (only there was no fire because it rained for 3 days!) Phil races U17's and Danielle races U17 women. Also camping in our park were Peter and Mitch Kristiansen and Anna and Jesse Went. Mitch and Jesse are both from Canberra and race the CORC rounds. Mitch is racing the National series U15's also and Jesse is racing in the U19's.
We arrive at the track on Friday morning to get in a good day's practice. Everything went well apart from the fact that the boys decided that the track was way too peddaly and should really be classed as an XC track, not a downhill track! Anyway, after realising it's the same for everyone and there's no use whingeing about it, it's what they've got to work with, practice went along great. Andrew said the track was fun, Thomas just did run after run. Shuttles were really fast and turn around saw them doing a run about every 15 minutes.
Friday night back at camp, after a bbq feed, it rained, and rained, and rained. It actually rained all night, I know because I was awake for most of it. Saturday morning, it was still raining. Practice on Saturday started at 12:30pm so we went to the supermarket to get some food, the hardware store to get a rain coat for Mum and silicone spray for the bikes, and headed out to the track. It was still raining. Arrive at the track and the place was like a bog hole. There was that much mud to walk through that your feet would get lost. You had to really try hard to stay on your feet. We decided to pack in practice at about 4pm and headed back to the park to do some washing. Everything was covered in mud. We were lucky enough to have to drive right past a car wash on the way back to our camp so we could stop off there every day and wash off the bikes (and clothes and shoes).
A great dinner cooked by Glen on Saturday night and we sat in our camp kitchen to watch some of the days video footage and photo's taken by Ian. Lots of laughs had by all.
Back to the track early Sunday morning for a few practice runs before race. There was only a few showers last night so we were all hoping the track would have dried out a bit. Lucky for us the weather held out on race day with no rain and the track was drying up nicely. It was actually quite amazing how quickly the track did dry up by the end of the day although us spectators did have to battle through the mud for most of the day.
After much stress and worrying (from us parents), it was race time. Lots of good lucks and stay safes and they all headed up the hill. First to race was Jesse who did his run and qualified for the U19's finals. Next was Danielle in the U17's women. Danielle was looking really good in her race run but had a bit of a mis hap but still managed to secure a podium with 3rd place. You go girl! Then it was the U17's with Phil and Brock. Phil also had a mis hap and finished 13th. Brock had a great run and came in 10th. There were 37 starters in the U17's and competition is pretty stiff.
Next down were the U15's. Standing at the finish line and the lack of commentary saw us still waiting for the last of the U17's to come down but out of the blue, here comes Thomas over the last jump. He was just about to finish his race run and we didn't even know he was on the track! He overtook one of the U17's riders just before the finish line and the timing took ages to put up his time. Eventually his time came up as 2:49.71. Next we saw Mitch come down and he was placed in 2nd for a while. Then here comes Andrew, posts a time of 3:18.17 which at that time saw him in 3rd position. At this stage in the race, Thomas was first, Mitch second and Andrew third although there were still a few riders to come so we weren't getting too excited. As it turned out, the last 2 riders posted times that knocked Mitch back to 4th and Andrew back to 5th. But still, 11 year old Andrew, in his first National event, came 5th out of 15 riders. Pretty bloody good effort.
Wow, we actually have a few weeks off now until the National Champs at Stromlo on the January long weekend. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy and prosperous New Year. Remember, if you're ever passing through Bredbo, feel free to call in and have a cuppa or a beer, we're always happy to have visitors.
Check out our latest You tube Post of the track.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGGlTatptdc
No comments:
Post a Comment