Thredbo Interschools 2009

The 2009 NSW Interschools Championships were held at Thredbo on the Weekend of 20-22 February 2009. Interschools is generally for kids from Year 7 up to Year 12 but as Andrew is such a pinner, he decided he'd like to take it up to the big boys so we entered both the boys into Division 3 (Years 7 & 8). Interschools this year was made up of 4X, DH and Cross Country (go the lycra boys).

As Andrew was the only rider from Bredbo PS, they ended up putting him in the Monaro High School team with Thomas, Cookie and Harrison.

The 4X was on Friday evening, and just as last year, it started raining just before start. Thomas got through all his heats and ended up in the final, which was no great shock as he was riding the track like a pro. We didn't hold out much hope of Thomas taking the win because his main competitor in the final races 4X and BMX which was a huge advantage for him as he has had a lot of gate practice. Thomas has only ever raced 4X once before and never raced BMX. Thomas wasn't overly fast out of the gates all night but you should have seen him blast out of the gate in the final. Jared Graves would have been proud of him!!! He took the lead from the start and along with his amazing jumping ability and good pedaling, he took out the Win. It was truly amazing to watch.

Afterwards I asked Thomas how he came out of the gates so fast and he said he looked at the other riders and they were really leaning back on their bikes so he decided to give that a go. Not bad having a go at something new IN THE FINAL???

Andrew got through 2 heats of the 4X and did himself extremely proud especially as he was on his DH bike.

The DH was on Saturday afternoon and Mum decided she would do the right thing and put her hand up to be a marshall on the track for race run. Practice was held in the morning and race started about 1pm. The organisers decided to let the slower riders go first and the fastest rider last. It seemed like a good idea at the time however, it ended up with quite a number of kids getting held up by slower riders. Just happened that Thomas was one of them. Anyway, Thomas still ended up 2nd out of 55 riders. That's Interschools!

As for Andrew Pinner Crimmins, in Year 6, 11 years old, would you believe he came 4th out of those same 55 riders. Yeah Andrew!

Sunday was Cross Country day with Div 3 up first. Thomas ended up 2nd and Andrew came 10th out of 35 riders. Not bad when you think the boys were up against some of those posh private schools from Sydney with all their flash bikes and their lycra. Andrew was on a borrowed bike (thanks Harro).

With the results of the 4 Monaro High riders added together in the teams results, the boys helped the Team take out 1st place 4x, 1st place DH and 2nd place XC. Damn fine effort for all the boys.

National Round 4 - Mt Buller

We've been a bit slack with the blog updates lately but I've finally found some time to do a quick update. The boys headed off to Mt Buller with the Harro's on Thursday after the Champs. Andrew went along for the ride, not sure if he was allowed to race or not but took his bike just in case Dad caved in. Dad was a bit concerned about how hard the track was so wanted to have a look before allowing the younger Crimmins pinner to have a crack.

Well, after having a look at the track, Dad decided that Andrew could race and he was one very happy team member!

Practice all day Friday with nice easy chairlifts to the top for shuttles. Back to the lodge and the boys met a few other riders also staying there so there was lots of hanging out and talking it up.

Saturday practice went well and all was on track for race day on Sunday. Thomas said as parts of the track were getting more blown out, rocks just appeared out of nowhere making the track constantly change.
Race day arrived and after limited practice runs (don't want to wear our before race) it was time to head to the top for start.

As series leader, Thomas came down the hill first in the U15's. He looked to be going well and came in in a time of 4:02.69. After a few more riders, Andrew was on track but as time was passing, Dad knew something was wrong. As it happens, Andrew had a couple of stacks in race run but fortunately did not get hurt (except his pride). Andrew's time ended up at 5:28.76. Thomas' time was good enough to see him place first out of 14 riders in U15's but was only 5 seconds ahead of the second place getter (a local boy). This is the closest anyone has come to Thomas' time in all 4 rounds but a win's a win! Well Done Thomas.

Andrew's ended up 11th and his new sponsor, The Sacred Ride, Jindabyne have told Andrew there won't be any more crashing in race run which Andrew quite happily agreed with.