NSW/ACT State Round 1 - Thredbo 12 March 2011

Even before the National Series has finished, we are already into the State Series! Great. Anyway, the first round was held at Thredbo on the weekend of 12 & 13 March. As Thomas is still incapacitated, Andrew was the sole Team member racing this weekend, however Thomas did accompany us on the trip (but I'm sure after the first day he wished he hadn't as watching everyone else ride their bikes was killing him).

As Dad was on his way home from working in Murwillumbah, Mum and the boys headed to Thredbo on Saturday morning, set up the tent, settled into the lodge and Andrew had a good day of practice. Andrew decided to race in the Under 17 division for State this year as he said "I've accomplished everything I want to in the Under 15's". He has been U15 State Series winner and also U15 State Champ and at 13 years old feels he's been in the U15's for long enough. Racing up in the 17's isn't about winning for him, it's about having more competition, which in turn helps improve his racing.

Yet again on race day we awake to rain coming down on the lodge roof. What would race day be without rain and mud? Bloody fantastic I say. Anyway, the rain cleared but it left the track really slippery but at least not too muddy. Dad arrived mid morning so Mum headed up to Marshall on the track for race.

Race arrived and Andrew headed to the start but as usual, race never starts on time so he had a bit of a wait at the top. As he was waiting, the weather closed in and just before he was due to race, the wind and rain started. Mum was half way up the mountain thinking, "no, please don't start the U7's now" and it was probably a good thing they were running late so by the time they started, the rain had pretty much cleared.

Andrew was the first rider to come through in the U17's with Porky hot on his tail. He made it safely to the finish in a time of 6.58:59. With 36 riders in the U17's it seemed to take forever to get through them but finally they all finished and Andrew had placed 2nd. We were stoked with his podium finish and are now looking forward to the State Champs (NSW or Vic, not sure yet). Till next time, catch ya!!!

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - Adelaide 26 Feb 2011

For the second year in a row, the Aus National Champs were held at Eagle Mountain bike park not far from Adelaide City. Mum & Dad drove over and arrived by lunch time on Monday, settled in then picked the boys up from the airport Monday evening.

Practice started on Tuesday with open practice all day, same on Wednesday. The weather was pretty good early in the week with tops of around 26 degrees but it certainly warmed up by Thursday afternoon reaching 33/34 degrees. Both boys got in some really good practice on Tuesday and Wednesday with split practice starting on Thursday. This meant we didn't have to spend the whole day at the track so we headed to the 'beach' for a bit of a swim.

Friday morning back to the track for a few hours practice before we would head home for a few hours before the boys went back to the track to watch Group A Seeding runs. All was going well until the bus stopped on the way back to the top and Porky told me to meet Thomas in the parking bowl as he'd hurt his wrist. Oh no!

I got to the bowl with Rick, Porky's Dad, Thomas was getting off the bus. We headed straight to the St John's guys for a (sort of) diagnosis. Seems he may have broken something so off to the hospital for an x-ray. Couple of hours later and the diagnosis was a fractured radius. Doc put on a half cast and we headed back to the track to pick up Dad & Andrew. Thomas was still convinced he would be racing tomorrow. We would have to wait and see.

Saturday morning came round and Ian took off Thomas cast as he wanted to see how bad it was. One lap around the caravan park and there was no way Thomas would be racing today. Cast and strapping back on and off to the track. Absolutely Devo!!!

By Saturday Andrew had the track so dialed that he didn't need much practice so he did the usual 2 runs before having a bit of a rest. Andrew's race start time was around 11:15am so he headed to the top to get ready. For some reason Andrew was ranked number 1 in Under 15's so he was the first off in his category. Usually they go off last years Champs rankings (which was 3rd for Andrew) but for some reason this year they went off the Series rankings.

Anyway, Mum and Dad headed to the bottom part of the track (not far from where he crashed last year) to see Andrew cross the finish line and make sure he got down safe. We could see him coming through the trees and with crossed fingers we were hoping he would have a clean run to the finish. And so he did, finishing in a time of 2:16.36 which was a really good time comparing it to Group A Seeding runs on Friday afternoon. Watching Joel, the second U15 rider come through the trees, and watching the time, we knew it was going to be close and that it was. After Joel crossed the line Mum saw that they were both on the same minute and second. Oh no, it was down to the hundredth of a second. The timing screen went blank for what seemed like minutes (it was probably only seconds) but when it came back up, it had a number 2 next to Joel's name which meant that Andrew was still in the lead. After what happened last year, I can't believe Andrew put us through that stress.

All Under 15 riders over the line and Andrew had won by 0.5 of a second from Joel. This is the closest Joel has ever been to Andrew's time. What a relief. Andrew was officially 2011 Under 15 National Champion. Yay and big Congrats mate.

Andrew ended up telling us that he held back quite a bit in his race run as he didn't want to crash again but now realises that he nearly held back a bit too much and nearly lost it. All comes with experience really.

Roll on the Final round of the Series in Shepparton in a couple of weeks. Will be touch and go if Thomas can race, however if he can't race, there's a fair chance he won't win the Series so positive thoughts everyone. In the mean time Andrew will be racing the first round of the State Series in Thredbo.

National Series Round 3 - Mt Buller, Vic 6 Feb 2011

What would a National Round be without a bit of rain? Well, Buller really put it on for us this weekend. Not only did it rain, but blew gale force winds and even threw in a bit of snow for good measure - in the middle of Summer- what the? We managed a top of 5 degrees on Sunday for race.

Anyway, after driving through 38 degree heat on Thursday, we arrived at the Lodge and settled into our room. Thanks to Jeff Hughes for organising all the Canberra crew to stay in the Aeski Lodge, we had a great time. Lucky the Lodge was quite big, most of the time you wouldn't have known there were 42 of us staying there.

Thursday night saw a change in the weather with the rain and wind starting. Friday morning we headed to the top of the track to see what the go was. Low cloud meant you could barely see 2 metres in front of you and it was cold. Word at the top was to get in as many practice runs as you could today as the weather was expected to get worse for Saturday and the lifts could be closed. The boys managed to get a few runs in on the increasingly wet and slippery track.

Saturday morning the weather was even worse so with the lifts closed there was to be no practice on Saturday. With 42 of us in the Lodge, we managed to fill in most of the day but cabin fever started setting in by mid afternoon so some of us Mum's decided to walk to town in the rain. The boys who were too young or decided not to go to the pub thought it would be a good idea to take "Fluff's" toboggan's and go do some runs down the grass slopes. As a parent it's best not to know what they're up to sometimes. All good and no-one got hurt (at least badly enough for us to find out anyway).

With no practice on Saturday, Sunday's schedule was amended. For a change, Group A had the early practice start at 8am. Woo hoo, we got an extra 1/2 hr in bed (except Ian who went and set up the CORC tent so we could have a bit of shelter and storage space). Not much encouragement to get to the track with minus God know what temperature but we made it by start of practice so the boys could get in a couple of practice runs before race. With a few showers of rain the track was still quite wet and very slippery in parts.

Andrew was first of the boys to head to the start for his race run. Having done a total of 6 practice runs over the weekend (and nursing 9 stitches in his arm from a stack at Thredbo the previous Monday) he wasn't overly confident but thought if he could at least get to the bottom with a clean run, he might pull off a good result. With Mum and Dad watching the timer inside the Cafe, Andrew's time stopped on 4.02:21 which we knew from the previous seeding times that this was a good time. After all 9 riders in U15's crossed the line, Andrew had the win by just over 9 seconds. Andrew said after race that he didn't have a really good run, just trying to keep upright, but obviously a better run than anyone else. Well done Andrew, 3 from 3 so far.

Thomas' race time arrived so off he went to the start line. Thomas knew that this would be a tough race against close rival Dean Lucas as this is one of Dean's local tracks. Dean has come 2nd to Thomas at the first 2 rounds and we knew he would put it to Thomas for this round. Ahh well, with the track in the condition it was in after the rain and all, we knew that would open it up as Thomas loves the wet and rides really well in these conditions.

Thomas' time stopped on 3.42:15 which again we knew was a really good time from this mornings seeding runs. Next we saw Dean's time stop on 3.47:08. Thomas had Dean by nearly 5 seconds. We just then had to wait till the rest of the 26 riders finished as you never know who might come out of the woodworks. Anyway, all riders finished and Yes, Thomas has got the win. Sooooo stoked for him. His time would have seen him 4th in U19 and 6th in Elite. Not bad for a 15 year old.

Great result overall again. Next we are off to the Champs at the end of this month.
Catch Ya.

PS: Ya know what! One day I'm going on a holiday where I can sleep in and just do whatever I feel like for a whole week. Until then, we'll continue to do what we do :) but we love it.

National Series Round 2 - Mt Baw Baw, Vic 16 Jan 2011

Round 2 of the National Series was held at some small dodgy ski resort in Victoria, 2.5 hrs from Melbourne. After 9 hrs on the road (with stops and stocking up on groceries) we arrived to be told we couldn't enter the ski resort, we would have to lug all our gear from the car park. Not likely. There was no way we were going to make fifteen trips in the rain. Turns out it was pretty easy to move the bollard and drive right through, empty the gear and drive back out again, no harm done.

The weather on Thursday night was horrendous. The wind was howling and the rain was coming in sideways. Turns out it was just the same on Friday morning so practice was postponed until they did a re-assessment at 12:30. The boys ended up getting on the track at 1pm. It continued to rain all afternoon but the wind eased up a bit. The track ended up looking like a river but the boys loved it. After being stuck in the lodge all morning, Mum and Dad decided to walk the track even though it was raining. Trying to stay upright was an effort it was so slippery. The boys managed to get in some good (although wet and muddy) practice. Spent the evening drying off shoes, helmets and goggles in front of the fire (yes, we lit the slow combustion fire in the lodge in the middle of Summer).

Saturday was open practice from 8am till 1pm. The weather had fined up a lot although the track was still very wet. The boys got in some good practice runs and then we watched the U19's seeding runs. Bikes all clean and time to relax for the evening.

We woke Sunday morning to another fine day. The boys had practice from 8am till 10am so they only did a couple of practice runs to see what condition the track was in. Still a bit wet with a few puddles hanging around. The boys had start time of 10:47am for andrew and 10:53am for Thomas so they had a bit of a re-group and then headed to the start line. Mum and Dad decided to watch the race from the technical 'Jeep Track' section which is where most people seemed to be watching from. We couldn't hear any commentary from there but we'd find out the results later. Andrew came through looking very fast and smooth and made it through there safe. The rest of the U15's through and then it was Thomas' turn. Thomas also got safely through the Jeep Track section looking very fast and smooth. Once both boys were through safe, Mum headed up to see if she could find out some results. Next thing, over the speaker, "Andrew Crimmins has taken the win in the U15's". Yay, he's down safe and also took the win by a massive 11.31 seconds.

Thomas was currently sitting in the hot seat waiting for the rest of the U17's to come over the line. Finally all riders over the line and over the loud speaker was that Thomas had also taken the win by nearly 4 seconds again. Pretty consistent time gaps for the first 2 rounds between 1st, 2nd & 3rd.

Overall, another successful National trip and now looking forward to Mt Buller in early Feb.

National Series Round 1 - Glenorchy, Tas 12 Dec 2010

After round 1 at Illinbah was cancelled due to flooding, the Tassie round ended up being Round 1 instead of 2. The travel arrangements were the same as last year, Mum & Dad heading out on Wednesday to drive to Melbourne to catch the ferry over and the boys flying over on Thursday. All went to plan and even managed to get the boys a lift from the airport to the cabin with the Piazza's.

After the boys arrived, we all headed to the track for the usual track walk. Not exactly the summer weather we were hoping for but wasn't too bad. After the walk was done, we headed back to the cabin for some dinner and relaxing.

Not a real early start on Friday morning as practice didn't start until 10am. So cruisy morning with brekky and then to the shops for the usual days food supplies. Got to the track and found ourselves a good spot in amongst some bushy trees for a bit of wind protection and set up the Towers' shade tent which came in very handy over the next 3 days as it rained on and off every day. Practice went well so back to base camp, dinner, showers and bed ready for an early start on Saturday.

Saturday practice for Group B (our group) was from 8am till 1pm so we were at the track pretty early so the boys could get in some good practice. Another successful practice session over so we headed up the track to watch the Elite's and U19's seeding runs in the extremely fast roots section. After watching that, there is no way I would be watching my boys from there!

Thomas decided that he wanted some pasta (fuel food) for dinner Saturday night so we headed into Hobart City and found a cool little pizza/pasta shop and got some really good food. Into bed early ready for another early start on race day Sunday. Will be glad when the boys are in Group A as they get all the late practices.

Mum lay awake overnight listening to the wind and the rain praying that it would fine up by daybreak. At one stage, we thought the cabin was going to lift up and blow into the greyhound track. Day came and the weather didn't seem quite so bad. Got to the track and all the boys came down after their first practice run with mud all over them and their bikes. I can't actually remember the last time the boys had a race that it didn't rain.

Anyway, after a couple of time delays due to injuries, race time finally arrived. It wasn't long until Andrew's race as there was only a couple of small categories before him. Watching the timing clock and we saw that Andrew's number was on the screen so he was on track. All we could do was just watch the clock until we thought he would be coming out of the trees. Out he flies in what seemed to be a pretty good time so at least we knew he hadn't had an off and was obviously having a good run. Straight to the "hot seat" and waited for the rest of the U15's to cross the finish line. After all 12 U15 riders had come through, Andrew had taken the win by nearly 10 seconds. Good hustle champ!!!

Next it was up to Thomas to do his thing. As he was ranked #1 he was also first out of the start gate. As with Andrew, we were watching the clock again, next thing Thomas comes flying out of the trees in what also looked like a good time. Good sprint to the finish line over all the jumps and straight into the "hot seat". Thomas knew the next kid to come down was going to give him a run for his money so as he crossed the line over 3 seconds behind Thomas' time, he was very relieved. Although there were still another 17 riders yet to finish. Finally all U17's over the finish line and Thomas had taken the win. Great work mate!

Both boys ended up with the Leaders number plates and Leaders jerseys so they were pretty stoked on that. Next Round Mt Baw Baw 16 January 2011.

*** All in all, it was a great result but our thoughts have to go out to Eugene Smith, a 15 year old Tassie local who has raced against Thomas for the last 3 years who had a severe accident in practice. Eugene is in a pretty bad way and at the end of the day, win or lose, all we can really do is hope that our kids always get to the bottom of the track safely. ***

VIC State Round 1 - 17 Oct 2010

Team Crimmins hadn't had a big race for a while so 3/4 of the team decided to head to Eildon in Victoria for Round 1 of the 2010/11 VIC State Series. Although we were keeping an eye on the weather and it looked like it was going to be pretty damp, that was not enough deterent for the boys. "The more rain the better" was Thomas' response. After heading off early Friday morning to make the long trek to Eildon, it rained all the way with a few landslides and flooded roads along the way. It also took a bit longer as Googlemaps sent us on a bit of a goose chase, but eventually pulling into the motel around 4pm.

Unpacked and the boys went and found the track to do the obligatory track walk then off to the pub for a drink and a feed. Walking into the Pub and the publican said "two beers?" to Ian and Thomas. Haha, I don't think so!! Rego was also open at the Pub so got the boys registered after much perplexing by the lady a rego as to why Thomas was only 15 but entering U19's and also Andrew being 13 entering U17's. Didn't help much when Timmy Eaton walked in and told Thomas he was Sandbagging in U19's lol.

Practice on Saturday went well with Thomas managing to stay on the bike all day and Andrew only having about 4 crashes. One in particular into a massive mud puddle, head first, hmmm, clothes and helmet full of mud. The track was soooo muddy and slippery there was people running off the track everywhere. Including the cars trying to get to the race village on the road.

Sunday race day and luckily it had stopped raining but the track was still really wet and muddy. Couple of practice runs and Andrew headed up for his qualifying run. Yes, they qualify the U17's as well in Vic and only take the top 50% through to their race run. Same as U19's. Andrew was up first for his qualifying run and came down the hill first as he was number 701 cos he was the first to register in U17's. All 44 riders down and turns out Andrew qualified 2nd in a time of 3:41.812. Pretty good effort for his first ever qualifying experience. Next was Thomas' turn and he had a pretty cruisy run and come down in a time of 3:13.627 which was the fastest time out of all 57 riders in U19's.

Bit of a spell and watching some of the other categories race and it was time for Andrew to head up again for his race run. He ended up having a clean race run with no major stacks and posted a time of 3:26.119, 15 seconds better than his qualifying run and ended up in 2nd place. Stoked on that great effort especially in U17's. Only beaten by a 16 year old!!!

Thomas then headed up for his race run. Hoping for a clean run also. As Thomas qualified fastest, he was the last to start his race run. He ended up posting a time of 3:01.338, 12 seconds faster than qualifying which also put him into 1st place. Well done mate, great effort also.

Another successful road trip for Team Crimmins with the boys coming home with cash and a big stash of prizes and trophies. Thanks to the organisers and sponsors for running a great race and handing out excellent prizes. There were over 370 riders at the event, especially considering the weather, it was an unreal turnout and most of them hung around for presso's too which makes for a great atmosphere. Hopefully we'll be back for Round 2 at Barjarg.

2010 NSW/ACT STATE CHAMPS - LITHGOW 12 JULY

After both boys placing first in the State Series, the Team headed off to Lithgow hoping to continue the good form. We arrived at Lithgow just after lunch on the Friday (thanks Glen for the dodgy directions, haha). We headed straight to the bottom to drop off the boys and Mum so they could walk the track and see what changes had been made since last year. Not many according to the boys but they said the track still looks like fun. To the top, kitted up and off to do some runs. After about 7 runs, Mum & Dad had had enough so we all headed to our nice little cottage Mum had rented in Mt Victoria, about 20 mins drive away. No camping for us at Lithgow in the middle of winter!

Saturday saw us all up early and headed to the track to get in some runs. A bit of rain overnight saw the track quite damp and slippery in the middle section but still pretty dry and tacky at the top and bottom. Shuttles as usual were pretty slow with over 200 riders keen to get in as many practice runs as possible so it always pays to do runs on the Friday. Mum & Dad spent most of the day walking up and down the track watching the action, especially in Bumble Bee where it was quite slippery. Practice finished about 4:30 so we headed back 'home' and went to the pub for a nice dinner with the Evans's who were staying with us.

An early start again on race day Sunday. With a bit of rain overnight and clouds threatening in the sky, we were hoping the rain would hold off for the day (well some of us, Thomas loves riding in the rain and mud :\). However, it was not to be, whoever was doing the rain dance, it was working and it started drizzling rain in the morning and continued to do so throughout the day and it was freezing but lucky we had the trusty Morewood tent to hang out in. This made the track even more muddy and slippery in parts. Practice over at 11:30 and Thomas headed to the top for his seeding run. As Thomas was ranked #1 in U19's, he was the first to start for seeding, crossing the line in a 3:03.29 eventually putting him in 4th place for seeding. He didn't push himself in seeding and just wanted to post a reasonable time so was happy with that.

Eventually Andrew's race time came around so he headed to the top to get ready for his race run. Andrew was first off in the U15's and came over the finish line in a very fast time of 3:11.93. After all 16 riders had crossed the finish line, it turned out Andrew had come 2nd by about 2 seconds. Andrew had a good run and managed to stay on track through the very slippery Bumble Bee section so although he wasn't happy not to have won, he did extremely well to finish in the time he did considering that 3rd place was more than 10 seconds behind him. Props to Matt who won the U15's, he's been trying to beat Andrew for ages!!

Back to the top for Thomas to get ready for his race run. After all other divisions had raced on the track, and more rain, we could only imagine what condition it was in for the U19's and Elite's race runs. Thomas came flying out of the scrub and as we looked at the time, we could tell he was going to post a very fast time, which he did finishing in a time of 2:57.82. Sitting in the hot seat after 35 riders and with only 3 riders yet to finish, Thomas had a nervous wait. David came over first, not quite fast enough, Phil next, also not fast enough leaving only Deano to finish, we could see him coming and looking at the time, knew he wouldn't post a faster time. Yes, it was confirmed, just 2 weeks after turning 15 Thomas had become Under 19 NSW/ACT State DH Champion. We were all absolutely Stoked.

All said and done it was a very successful weekend. We have a bit of respite now until the National Series starts in November.