Wednesday, May 19, 2010

NSW/ACT State Rnd 3 - Stromlo 16 May 2010




Round 3 of the State Series was held on the 2009 World Cup track at Stromlo in Canberra on 15/16 May 2010. Lucky for us it was another one close to home so we just traveled in each day. Thomas got a lift to Stromlo with Dad on Friday and Jenny was kind enough to do shuttles for him and Rob for the afternoon, getting a lift home with Mum after work.

Up early on Saturday morning as Mum had the job of Volunteer Marshal Co-ordinator for the weekend and the boys wanted to get in some good practice. We set up camp in the Morewood tent and headed off to sign in and get practice under way. Practice went well and no major mis-haps which is always a good thing. Off home to clean bikes and get ready for the next day.

Another early start on Sunday as usual, leaving home about 7:30. A few practice runs and Thomas headed to the start for his seeding run. All went well and Thomas Seeded 2nd behind Deano (although the results said he seeded 4th but that was corrected after race) out of 42 Under 19 riders.

After a bit of chilling in the tent, Andrew headed to the top for his race run. Mum was standing near the finish line to watch the race runs and could see Andrew in the distance pinning it down the hill. Holding her breath he would make it down safe as he comes pedalling his heart out over the finish line in a time of 2:56.64. After all 15 riders came through, Andrew had won by nearly 10 seconds and was the only U15 rider to go under 3 mins. Good work Andrew.

Again it was Thomas' turn to head back up this time for his race run. As riders crossed the finish line, we waited until Thomas was on track and watched him make his way down the hill. Thomas' main rival, David had already crossed the finish line so we watched and held our breath as Thomas came over the last jump, landing it nicely and crossing the finish line in a 2:47.82, eventually winning by only about half a second. Pheww, Great riding Thomas. That one XC training ride you did really paid off, lol.

At the end of the day, Thomas would have placed 4th in Elite and Andrew's time would have seen him 4th in U17's and 10th in Elite. Both boys improved their times by 3 seconds from the National Round there in March. Great weekend, great result.