2010 National Championships - Adelaide 17/1/10

Here we are in sunny Adelaide for the 2010 National Champs. Mum & Dad arrived on Tuesday before race weekend after driving through heat wave conditions all day Monday and staying in Ouyen, some small country town in the middle of nowhere on Monday night. Cooler temps for Tuesday's 4 hour drive with a fair bit of rain along the way. Settled into our nice little cabin in Mitcham and then headed to town to get some supplies before heading to the airport to pick the boys up from their nice, easy 1.5 hour flight.

Headed to the track on Wednesday morning to walk the track and then start practice in the afternoon. Thursday all day practice then Friday and Saturday morning practice with the afternoons free although stayed to watch Group A seeding on Saturday arvo. All practice sessions went without a hitch, only a couple of flat tyres which are easy to fix. The track was pretty short so Mum & Dad walked it quite a few times and got lots of photo's and video's.

Early night on Saturday as we had to be at the track for practice at 7:30am on Sunday. Yuck! Got to the track at 7:30 with a few showers of rain on the way and also when we got to the track. Practice was late starting by nearly an hour, not real happy with that as all the riders were standing in the rain waiting for the track to open. No announcements made as to what was going on either. Not happy.

Finally on track and practiced till 9:30 with racing due to start at 10am. The U17's were the 2nd last division of Group B to come down for their race run with the U15's the last division.

Boys headed to the top of the hill, Mum headed to the bottom near finish line and Dad headed to the race village to watch on the big screen. There were 5 camera's on course so you could watch pretty much the whole race run on the big screen. Just happened that as it was "only Group B" there was no timing or commentary there so Dad decided to head to the bottom section also.

U17's on course. Thomas 3rd rider off as that's where he was ranked after the first National Round in Hobart. First 2 riders came down in really quick times, then we could see Thomas in the distance, coming out of the trees into the bottom open section, watching the time, we knew it would be close. Over the finish line and was in provisional 2nd place but with still another 40 riders to come, still watching the clock. All riders down and it was official, Thomas placed 2nd in U17 National Champs. Final results were Conor: 1:58.12, Thomas: 2:01.95, David: 2:04.66. Would have placed 5th in U19's. Very happy with that.

U15's up next with Andrew off first as he won in Hobart. He comes out of the trees, we look at the time and know he's having a really good run as his time is very fast. Next thing, round the corner, down the drop into the berm and comes off the bike in the berm. Oh no, takes at least 10 seconds to get back on the bike and then has an uphill to pedal before more downhill and into the bottom jumps. Andrew was absolutely devo. Final result: Max: 2:20.66, Joel: 2.21.01, Andrew 2:21.99. There is no doubt that if Andrew didn't crash, he would have posted a bloody fast time but hey, that's racing. Funny thing is, Sam Hill (best rider in OZ) comes down in his race run in the Elite Men doing a screaming time and just metres from the finish line, he loses it in the loose gravel and comes off. Took him from 1st into 5th. As we said to Andrew, see, it can happen to the best of them! Haha.

Looking forward to Shepparton next weekend.

National Round 1 - Hobart 13/12/09

After much planning and organising, the day finally arrived for us to head to Hobart for Round 1 of the 2009/10 National Series to be held at Glenorchy MTB Park. Mum & Dad headed off in the car on the Wednesday to drive to Melbourne to catch the Spirit of Tasmania across Bass Strait. We contended with 3.5 mtr swells in our "luxurious" recliner chairs to arrive at Devonport to then drive 4 hrs to Hobart airport to pick the boys up off their 1.5hr flight from Canberra with 15mins to spare. Phewwww!! Thanks to the Smith's for hosting the boys on Wednesday night and ensuring their timely arrival at the airport and onto the flight bound for Hobart. Which as it happened was loaded up with Canberra mountain bikers.

We then headed from the airport straight to the track with the boys keen to walk the course to see what they had to contend with for the weekend. Discussions that night held the track as technical, fast with big jumps, possibly one of the hardest on the circuit this year.

Friday morning arrived with overcast skies and threatening rain. Shuttles were slow with the boys doing a bit of sectioning and M & D walking the track trying to get some shots. Our crew holding their own with Glen & Stu doing shuttles and Ian chief mechanic (as we seemed to have the only toolbox in the car park). Late in practice, Thomas turned up riding one handed and informed us he had stacked and injured his right wrist. Practice over for the day, dropped Mum & Andrew back at base camp and spent the next 5 hours at the hospital waiting for an X-Ray. X-Ray done and no major damage.

Saturday dawned after a night of rain and howling wind. Off to the track again for early practice, shuttles much faster than yesterday. All going well with boys hitting more lines each run. The boys and their mates were all getting more confident after each run and feeling good about their preparation. Andrew hitting all major A lines. Thanks to our new mate Peter for strapping Thomas' wrist pre-practice which kept him going for the day, although still pretty sore.


Sunday race day and another early start with group B having first practice. The boys punched out their usual 3 runs and were feeling as though they had the track pretty dialed even though it was getting pretty blown out. As U17's & U15's were due to race pretty early in the order, both boys headed up in the shuttle buses to wait for their runs. Clouds threatening to open up just before race runs commenced but luckily only a few drops in it.

Thomas, racing his first year in U17's at National level, came down mid field really holding his own against the older top riders, missing out on 2nd position by .24 of a second but holding out 3rd place by 11 seconds in a field of 32 riders. Bloody good effort to get on the podium.


Andrew is racing his first full National Series in U15's and at 12 years of age, is one of the younger riders in this field. Andrew was 4th on the start list and came out of the trees right on another riders tail, who it ends up he followed like that for the whole bottom part of the track. His race time blitzed the U15's field by a massive 13 seconds and secured his first place, and Series leader. Go Andrew!!!


The after party consisted of Pizza and drinks at community house with lots of laughs and chilling after a stressful few days.

Very happy with the weekend's effort, we packed up the ute and headed, no, not to do touristy things, but to Mt Wellington so the boys could do some 15min downhill runs with their mates. Yay.
Had lunch at Hobart wharf with mates and then headed off for the drive to Devonport to get on the boat. Luckily Mum had upgraded to a cabin for the trip home as it was not a pleasant sleep in those recliners. Arrived back at Melbourne at 6:30am all ready for the drive back home. It was a struggle but we made it home safe and a great weekend was had by all. Watch this space for more updates for the rest of the Series and Champs coming up next in mid January.

CORC Round 8 - Thredbo 6/12/09

The whole team went to Thredbo for the weekend for Round 8 of the CORC Series. Practice on Saturday and race day on Sunday. Thank you to the Maggs' for hosting us in their lodge for the Saturday night.

Practice went well on the Saturday, weather was lovely and got in lots of runs. Not so much about practicing as it is about riding with mates. Sunday race day arrived and Mum and Dad headed up the mountain to do some marshaling. Both boys were held up in their first race runs but you expect that in a Clubbie at Thredbo. After first race run, Thomas was comfortably sitting in 2nd position overall.

Final result for the day was Thomas finished 1st overall out of a field of 92 riders and Andrew finished 7th overall (and 1st in U15's). Another great weekend had by all.

CORC Round 7 - Kowen Forest 15/11/09

As Ian was at his annual fishing comp at Tuross, three quarters of Team Crimmins headed to Kowen Forest out the back of Qbn for Round 7 on the weekend of 14/15 Nov. After Lachie arrived at Bredbo, we headed off to pick up Matt and have some practice runs on Saturday morning to try and beat the heat. Practice went well and Andrew's knee held up really well as this was his first go at downhilling since getting his brace off 3 1/2 weeks earlier. Headed home for a swim to cool off.

Sunday morning we left home early to get in some practice runs before it got too hot. The push up at Kowen is up a very steep fire road in the full sun. Those poor kids did it tough all day. Practice done and everyone headed up to the start. Andrew was racing U15's and Thomas U17's. After first race run, Thomas was sitting in first place overall out of 94 riders. Pretty impressive. Andrew was sitting 2 seconds behind first place in U15's. Gotta be happy with that for his comeback race.

Second run saw both boys do a faster time than their first run but Thomas ended up 2nd in U17's and 4th overall. Andrew ended up 1st in U15's by 0.06sec. Well done team. Off to Thredbo next weekend for the opening. Can't wait!

CORC Round 6 - Majura 25/10/09

Another late posting but as they say 'better late than never'. Round 6 of the CORC Series was held on a new track at Majura. Thomas had his mate Cookie stay over for the weekend so he could race on Sunday. Cookie hasn't raced much over winter as he is a pro skier and has been skiing for the winter (snow is melting so it's back on the bike). Thomas and Cookie got picked up by some mates from Cooma on Saturday to head down for a bit of practice. Practice went well and got home after a big day.

Sunday morning up early and Ian cooked everyone brekkie, ready for a big day of racing. Andrew still in the leg brace and on crutches but had to come with us for the day as presso for the 08/09 Series were being held in between runs. Lucky for us, Glen came down with a key to the gate and let us in so Andrew didn't have to walk on crutches all the way to the race.

Another good day of racing with Dad marshaling, Mum helping with the bbq, Andrew's first race watching from the sidelines and Thomas racing. All good and Thomas ended up 1st in U17's, Cookie also did really well placing 5th in U15's. Good work Cookie!

Presentations were also held for the 2008/09 Series with Thomas taking out 1st in U15's and Andrew taking out 1st in U13/s. Well done boys. (Will post photo's up soon).
Edit: Andrew had his last appointment at the fracture clinic the following Thursday. His knee has healed and now he needs to build up his quad muscles and he'll be as good as new in no time. Dr says best thing to build up the muscle is cycling (who would have thought?) no rough stuff just yet though.

SERAS Country Energy Program - Athlete of the Year

The team headed to Batemans Bay on Friday 18 September to attend the SERAS (South East Region Academy of Sport)Annual Presentation at the Catalina Country Club. Thomas has held a Scholarship with SERAS' Country Energy Program for the last year. The annual award ceremony is held to recognise Athletes who have excelled in their chosen sport in each category.

We didn't know whether Thomas was going to receive the award as he was up against 30 other athletes who compete in all different individual sports. Awards were given to athletes in other programs and finally they got to the Country Energy Program and "The Award goes to............ Thomas Crimmins". We were all very happy and excited for Thomas to win this award in his first ever year on Scholarship. Go Son!

While we were at the South Coast, there just happened to be a Downhill race on at Nowra's infamouse Funnelweb track. We departed Aunty Trudy's place on Saturday morning to head to Nowra to meet up with Jenny, Robbie and Nelson, set up camp and put in some practice runs. We had a great camp spot right next to the track.

Kept awake most of Saturday night by the strong winds, Sunday finally arrived and the boys got into practice. Mid morning and Andrew turns up after yet another stack off his new bike (takes some getting used to these new bikes apparently). After inspection of his knee, it was decided that there was no way Andrew would be racing today, it had blown up like a balloon.

Racing over with and Thomas ended 2nd in Elite Men only 3 seconds behind the guy who got first and also set a new course record. Can't ask for much more than that. Well done.

Morewood's on display at World Champs

Team Crimmins attended the 2009 UCI MTB & Trials World Championships over the weekend of 4th to 6th September. Ian and the boys headed down with some friends on Friday while Mum went to work. Then the whole family headed to Stromlo for the rest of the weekend. A fantastic weekend was had by all. The atmosphere was amazing come race time.

The boys were lucky enough to have their bikes on display at Nicho's Morewood tent. Ian just finished building up Andrew's new Zuza on Thursday to take it to the Champs on Friday. Thomas' is the green Izimu and Andrew's new ride is the black Zuza. Will put Andrew's Zuza on Rotorburn's "Post Your Ride" soon.