As Thomas was too young to enter the Oceania U19's, both the boys decided they would like to enter the Oceania's support race. U17's was the youngest division in the support races but as long as they're racing, the don't really care what division it is. With Thomas moving up to the U17's for the State Series this year, he thought it would be good practice.
Dad and the boys headed to Thredbo on Friday for practice (not like they haven't been there enough this year already!). Arriving in Thredbo the boys found out the U17 National Champ, Connor Fearon, was there also racing the U17 support race along with 2nd place U17 National Champ, David McMillan. Oh well, Thomas was looking forward to seeing how he would go against the boys.
Practice all day Saturday and both the boys had the track pretty well dialed. Just looking forward to race on Sunday. It was pretty good to be able to watch some of the elites and U19's practice also.
Race day Sunday arrived and both the boys were pretty relaxed until Andrew's main pivot bolt snapped on his last practice run, just before having to head to the top for race run!! Oh crap! Andrew headed down to the workshop to get a new one, which was fitted and then had to be cut off as well. The whole time, the dude on the microphone was saying all U17 riders should be on their way to the top. I think Mum was stressing more than anyone though. If something is going to happen, guaranteed it will happen just before race run. Anyway, bike sorted and Andrew was on his way to the top on the chairlift.
Race time came around and first down was Connor in a very fast time, next was David with a time not quite as quick as Connor, then came Thomas out of the trees. Watching his time on the board, we knew it was going to be a really fast time. Three more riders and then Andrew came flying out of the trees, also pinning it. Final result: 1st Connor 6:25.50, 2nd Thomas 6:29.82, 3rd David 6:38.07, 6th Andrew 7:15.81. Thomas was pretty happy to be only 4 seconds behind the U17 National Champ. Look out Connor. Andrew was also very happy with his time and placing 6th out of 11 riders in U17 division!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
CORC Round Isaacs - 15 March 2009
The final round of the 2008/09 CORC DH Series was held at Isaacs last Sunday on a brand new track. This is the third time the boys have raced Isaacs and each time has been on a different track. This track was apparently brand new and probably the most technical out of any of the other Isaac tracks. The rocky section was "hectic"!
After attending our next door neighbours wedding on Saturday and Mum and Dad spending the morning in the kitchen cooking heaps of nibblies for the wedding, we couldn't get to Isaacs for any practice on Saturday.
Much to Mum & Dad's disgust, Sunday morning rolled around and we had to get out of bed and ready for the day ahead (not good after attending a wedding). We had a house guest sleep over on Sat night, Thomas' new mate Rob (next door neighbour's nephew) who lives in the Blue Mountains. Rob is also into mtbing and just happened to bring his bike and all his gear just in case he was allowed to race. Just happened he was.
Headed out at about 8:30am, the boys got a few practice runs in but mostly sectioned as the push up was absolute torture. This is when they realised the rock section was bloody tough. You were lucky if you got through the day without going over bars at least once.
Race time came around and after one run each, Thomas was coming 2nd in U15's and Andrew (we thought) was coming 1st in U13's. Thomas had a crap first run and reckoned he could pick up the 4 seconds he needed in his second run. He did that and won the U15's by 2 seconds. This was Thomas' first race on his new machine and still getting used to it, obviously very quickly.
Andrew had a really bad 2nd run, getting held up by 2 kids in the rock section, losing his balance when taking off again and stacking (nearly running over Judy Goggin in the meantime). Anyway, he got to the bottom and couldn't be bothered having a re-run as he didn't want to push up again. Results came in and Andrew had actually came 2nd. He thought the kid who beat him was racing 15's but soon found out he was in 13's. Andrew wasn't really worried as this being the last round, he had already won the Series anyway.
Final result for 2008/09 CORC Downhill Series: Thomas Crimmins 1st U15's, Andrew Crimmins 1st U13's. Go Team Crimmins!!!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
National Series Round 5 Glenorchy Tasmania
Once again Team Crimmins took to the skies. On Thursday Feb 26th Thomas and Dad boarded Qantas at Canberra airport bound for Hobart.
Arriving around 3pm and picking up our wheels, a hiace van, we then headed out to inspect the track. With expectations high due to all the talk amongst the mates and just looking around at the hills as we approached the track, we were certainly not disappointed. The finish stretch alone had massive table tops and step up jumps with huge burms.
It took around 2 hours to walk up and down the track and it revealed one of the most challenging but fun tracks seen yet, these guys have put heaps of work into this event.
We headed out to locate our accommodation only 5 mins down the road. Once again Team Crimmins star secretary (Mum) scored well booking us in at Elwick Cabins where all the Canberra crew and some of the other mountain bikers were staying. All settled in, out of the box comes the bike only to find Dad some how forgot to pack the front axle. Oh no!
Friday morning ring around revealed that "No body runs fox 40's in Tassie".
So for the next 2 hours it was a mad dash to every bike shop in Hobart with things looking very grim. I must commend Thomas for staying positive and not wigging it at dad in this very tense situation. We eventually found this great guy at a bike shop that was prepared to spend some time and he made us one up free of charge, big ups to him.
Back in the good books and back on track Thomas started doing runs, as always shuttles started out slow but picked up later. First impressions were right and the track proved to be very hard in some sections. Mid morning Thomas hit up the road gap and was also doing the big drop up near the top. Thomas managed to get in around 6 runs before closing time.
Back at camp we had a great all in BBQ and the youngsters got into their now regular trouble from the manager for making cuttie ruts around his nicely groomed park! No more riding on park grounds!!
Saturday morning as track was closed to junior riders we went into Hobart to check out the markets, very big but same old markets everywhere.
Back to track, afternoon practice went very well and Thomas was really starting to pick up the pace. He was feeling confident and getting the track dialed. Which was just as well because I had my eye on a couple of local lads in his group and they were flying. He managed to slip in around 7 runs. Only bad news for the day one of his good mates Phil broke his wrist "game over" for the trip.
Sunday; Up early and on track I managed to limit the practice runs to three, then the big wait to race run.
After the elites qualified Thomas led the U15's down in a time of 3:37.55, this proved once again too fast for the other riders with Thomas taking out 1st place by 28 seconds.
At the end of racing the presentations were held. First ones were for the race and then the overall series winners.
Thomas was awarded National U15 Mens Downhill Series Winner also being the only rider in all divisions to make a clean sweep and achieve maximum 400 points.
It was then on to the after party to celebrate, this was fish and chips with his mates down at Constitution Dock and later watching all the video footage with the gang back at camp!
Next morning it was up and pull the bike down and back in the box for the flight home at 10am.
Next on the agenda "Thomas' new ride".
Arriving around 3pm and picking up our wheels, a hiace van, we then headed out to inspect the track. With expectations high due to all the talk amongst the mates and just looking around at the hills as we approached the track, we were certainly not disappointed. The finish stretch alone had massive table tops and step up jumps with huge burms.
It took around 2 hours to walk up and down the track and it revealed one of the most challenging but fun tracks seen yet, these guys have put heaps of work into this event.
We headed out to locate our accommodation only 5 mins down the road. Once again Team Crimmins star secretary (Mum) scored well booking us in at Elwick Cabins where all the Canberra crew and some of the other mountain bikers were staying. All settled in, out of the box comes the bike only to find Dad some how forgot to pack the front axle. Oh no!
Friday morning ring around revealed that "No body runs fox 40's in Tassie".
So for the next 2 hours it was a mad dash to every bike shop in Hobart with things looking very grim. I must commend Thomas for staying positive and not wigging it at dad in this very tense situation. We eventually found this great guy at a bike shop that was prepared to spend some time and he made us one up free of charge, big ups to him.
Back in the good books and back on track Thomas started doing runs, as always shuttles started out slow but picked up later. First impressions were right and the track proved to be very hard in some sections. Mid morning Thomas hit up the road gap and was also doing the big drop up near the top. Thomas managed to get in around 6 runs before closing time.
Back at camp we had a great all in BBQ and the youngsters got into their now regular trouble from the manager for making cuttie ruts around his nicely groomed park! No more riding on park grounds!!
Saturday morning as track was closed to junior riders we went into Hobart to check out the markets, very big but same old markets everywhere.
Back to track, afternoon practice went very well and Thomas was really starting to pick up the pace. He was feeling confident and getting the track dialed. Which was just as well because I had my eye on a couple of local lads in his group and they were flying. He managed to slip in around 7 runs. Only bad news for the day one of his good mates Phil broke his wrist "game over" for the trip.
Sunday; Up early and on track I managed to limit the practice runs to three, then the big wait to race run.
After the elites qualified Thomas led the U15's down in a time of 3:37.55, this proved once again too fast for the other riders with Thomas taking out 1st place by 28 seconds.
At the end of racing the presentations were held. First ones were for the race and then the overall series winners.
Thomas was awarded National U15 Mens Downhill Series Winner also being the only rider in all divisions to make a clean sweep and achieve maximum 400 points.
It was then on to the after party to celebrate, this was fish and chips with his mates down at Constitution Dock and later watching all the video footage with the gang back at camp!
Next morning it was up and pull the bike down and back in the box for the flight home at 10am.
Next on the agenda "Thomas' new ride".
CORC round "Majura" 15th Feb 09'
With the 08/09 CORC downhill series drawing to a close we once again headed out to the pine forest of Majura on Sunday morning for the second last round.
The boys were greeted with the news that this was a totaly new track,and after talking it up with there mates headed off into the scrub to start a couple of hours practice, all push ups as there are no shuttles at Majura
The track turned out to be fairly rocky and steep up top,turning into a series of mad switch backs in the middle section then to a fast single track finish line. As always it is a case of look out for the pine trees!!
With Thomas and Andrew in good form and both boys leading there age groups in the current series they were hoping to do well.There was a fairly good turnout with a total of 91 riders spread across 11 divisions.
After the morning "sectioning" the Race time was near, so a quick snack and the 15min push up. Dad doing his bit on the half way marshell point was very busy with some new riders to the sport
At the end of the day after 2 runs and all was said and done the race results were posted in front of many expectant faces
Andrews 2 runs; very close times 1:20.30 and 1:20.05 1st place by .78 of a second
Thomas 2 runs; Also close times 1:11.35 and 1:10.44 1st place by 6 seconds
Well done Boys!! Thomas's time placed him 13th overall.
Next stop Tassie
The boys were greeted with the news that this was a totaly new track,and after talking it up with there mates headed off into the scrub to start a couple of hours practice, all push ups as there are no shuttles at Majura
The track turned out to be fairly rocky and steep up top,turning into a series of mad switch backs in the middle section then to a fast single track finish line. As always it is a case of look out for the pine trees!!
With Thomas and Andrew in good form and both boys leading there age groups in the current series they were hoping to do well.There was a fairly good turnout with a total of 91 riders spread across 11 divisions.
After the morning "sectioning" the Race time was near, so a quick snack and the 15min push up. Dad doing his bit on the half way marshell point was very busy with some new riders to the sport
At the end of the day after 2 runs and all was said and done the race results were posted in front of many expectant faces
Andrews 2 runs; very close times 1:20.30 and 1:20.05 1st place by .78 of a second
Thomas 2 runs; Also close times 1:11.35 and 1:10.44 1st place by 6 seconds
Well done Boys!! Thomas's time placed him 13th overall.
Next stop Tassie
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