CORC Round 1 - Kowen Forest 18 April 2010

The first round of the 2010/11 CORC Series was held at Kowen Forest near Queanbeyan last Sunday on a roughly 1:30min track. Over the last 3 years, Thomas has won the U13, U15 and U17 divisions so this Series he has decided to skip U19's and race Elite. Andrew decided that he would race the U17's.

We arrived at Kowen at about 9:30am and the boys headed up for a few practice runs. As the push up is really steep, they mostly like to do sections rather than complete runs but still managed to get a few runs in. Racing went well with Dad having his first experience being the starter, which went very well for his first attempt. When all was said and done, Thomas came 3rd in Elites (third overall) and Andrew got 2nd in U17's (16th overall) as there were 84 riders there, it was a great effort.

NSW/ACT State Rnd 2 - Awaba 11 April 2010

Round 2 of the State Series was held at the infamous "Monkey" track in the Awaba State Forest, in the Hunter region between Gosford and Newcastle. It's a pretty gnarly track this one, with the helicopter known to make regular pick ups from the track. Not this weekend though, thank goodness. A few ambulances but no helicopters.

We packed up the car on Thursday ready for a quick getaway early Friday morning. On the road by 7:30am with about 6 hours ahead of us. Quick stop off at Lane Cove to pick up the Morewood tent from Nicho and we headed to the cabin at Mannering Park to check in and drop off some gear. Got to the track by about 2pm and the boys walked the track with Mum tagging along as Mum would be marshaling all weekend and didn't think she would get to see the whole track over the rest of the weekend. Got to the bottom and the boys kitted up and Dad started doing shuttle runs for them. Got in about 4 runs and then back to the cabin.

Saturday morning and we headed out to the track early to get a good parking spot where we could also put up the tent. Mum headed off to Marshal briefing, the boys headed to the shuttle line up and Dad was catching up with friends before heading off to walk the track. Practice was all going well until Thomas goes OTB (Over the Bars) and hurt his chest and hand. Bit of first aid and a spell and he did one more run but realised he couldn't hang on to the bars so decided to call it a day and head back with the Trotter crew. Andrew had a great day of practice.

Sunday race day and Mum got up early (as usual) and headed off to find the supermarket to get supplies for the day. Got back and everyone was ready to go to the track. Quick pack up and on our way. Thomas was still in a fair bit of pain in his hand but just had to tough it out. Few practice runs in and Thomas headed up for his qualifying run. 37 riders in the U19's with only 1/2 of them going through in qualifying, Thomas wasn't pushing too hard and ended up 5th fastest qualifier.

Andrew headed up for race run pretty pumped on having a good race prep and really looking for the win. Andrew was first out of the gate in the U15s and crossed the finish line in a 3:59.09 and all we had to do was wait for the other 9 riders to cross the line. All done and Andrew ended up winning by 11 seconds. Stoked!!!

Thomas headed back up for race run and was 5th last rider to start as they race in reverse order. When Thomas crossed the finish line he was in the hot seat for a very short time until he eventually got knocked into 4th place. After talking to Thomas, it turned out he was having an excellent run in the top 2/3's of the track but after coming over the wombat jump, he saw one of his mates who had come off the track in his race run and took his focus off the track and went over the top of a berm. Struggled to get his bike and himself back on track, he lost quite a bit of time. Anyway, ending up 4th was still a huge effort although he has learnt a very valuable lesson. No rest and off to Clubbie next weekend. Catcha!

Interschools - Thredbo 19-21 March 2010

Friday night both boys raced in the 4X. Andrew placed first in all his heats and also placed first in his Final. He didn't look at all threatened in any of the heats or the final. He was also the only kid (out of all divisions) who was jumping over the whole mogles which everyone thought was pretty amazing. There were 46 kids racing in his division.

There were 76 riders in Thomas' Div for 4X. Thomas managed to win 4 out of his 5 heats to get into the final where he placed 3rd which was pretty impressive as the two kids who beat him placed up in the National Series in U17 and U19. People were talking about how smooth the boys looked on the 4X track.

Saturday was DH. As they didn't want kids killing themselves on the fire road, they
started the race just before the single track. Boys were under quite a bit of pressure as they were both ranked #1 and with racing in reverse order, both were last out of the gate. Danny at SEMTB was talking them up a fair bit also. Andrew's Division was first with 60 riders to go through. Andrew came down right behind 3 other riders who he'd caught up to but ended up still winning by 22 seconds in
a time of 6:08.

Thomas' div was next with 134 riders in total. Thomas didn't have such a great run at the top of the hill but said he had a really good run at the bottom section. The lead changed a few times with the last 10 or so riders but Thomas came down in a 5:58, winning by 5 seconds.

With all the good stuff over, it was only the XC left. Both boys did the short XC on Saturday afternoon after the DH. Funnily enough they both hung on till the last lap and placed 7th in their respective divisions. There were about 50 or 60 riders in each race so not too bad for a couple of Downhillers.

Sunday morning was an early start for Andrew with the XC starting at 8:30am. They rode 3 laps of the 4km track and placed a very respectable 9th out of 46 riders. Thomas, after a late night with his mates and knowing he was out of the running for King of the Mountain, opted out of the XC and went and did some DH runs with Robbie instead. After the SXC on Saturday, I don't blame him.

Preso was after lunch on Sunday in the Keller bar with both boys taking home a swag of trophies with Andrew also collecting the very coveted and much wanted Division 3 King of the Mountain.

Glad Interschools only comes around once a year that's for sure.

National Round 4 - Mt Stromlo 14 March 2010

The National Series is done and dusted, run and won for another year. Yay!

The Final Round saw the Team head to Stromlo Forest Park on the weekend of 12-14 March. Dad and the boys headed to Stromlo on Friday to get in an afternoon of practice while Mum went to work. Mid afternoon Mum gets a phone call to say "Thomas has crashed into a tree and we think he might have broken his finger and we might need you to come and take him for an xray. He's heading down to the medic tent". Just what you want to hear while stuck at work. Anyway, turns out the medics didn't think it was broken, just badly bruised. Bit of taping up and that was Thomas' practice over for the day. Andrew's practice day went without a hitch.

An early start on Saturday with Group B practice starting at 8:30am and Mum due to start her DH marshaling then also. Saturday practice went well with no major incidents in Team Crimmins camp. Saturday arvo saw Group A Seeding runs so we hung around to watch that.

Sunday was another early start with practice starting at 8am and going through until 10am, then Group A from 10am till 12pm and racing due to start at 12:30 for Group B. Couple of practice runs and the boys had a bit of time to chill before heading up to get ready for race run. Thomas due to start at 12:43.30 and Andrew at 13:02.30.

With Mum nervously watching (and marshaling) at the bottom of the rock garden and Dad at the finish line, racing started. A few other divisions came down and then it was time for the U17's. Thomas was second to come down after Connor. He went well through the rock garden and all we could do then was wait till he got to the finish line. Mum could just hear the commentary and was anxiously waiting until all 34 riders finished before we knew that Thomas, in a time of 3:50.04, had placed 3rd after Connor and David.

Next it was the Under 15's and as Andrew was leading the Series, he was first out of the start gate. As with Thomas, Andrew looked really good through the rock garden (Thomas showed him the best line to take). Again, all we could do was wait until all the riders had crossed the finish line and then it was official, Andrew had smashed the U15's by a whopping 17 seconds and did a PB of 2:59.81. He told us later that he was having such a good run that he decided to do a bar hump over the jump at triple treat. Lucky Mum & Dad weren't there to see!!

Now that the Series is over, and with the boys gaining a podium finish in every round, Thomas has earned the title of 2009/10 Under 17 National Downhill Series Runner up and Andrew 2009/10 National Series Champion. Considering both the boys will be in the same age categories next year, it's an amazing effort. Well done Team.

Off to Interschools this weekend. Great.

NSW/ACT State Rnd 1 - Thredbo 28 Feb 2010

Another race and another weekend in Thredbo. After picking up the boys mate Robbie after work on Friday, we headed to Thredbo early on Saturday morning as the boys wanted to get in a good day's practice. We set up the Morewood tent and got organised, then Dad headed back to Jindy to measure up a potential job there.

Practice over and back to the Maggs' Lodge (thanks again for their hospitality) to settle in, do some bike maintenance, have showers and dinner, bit of chilling and off to bed.

Early start Sunday morning with practice open from 9am. The boys headed to the lifts after brekkie while we packed up and loaded the car so we could make a quick get away after race (as we always seem to be the last ones to leave for some reason).

Practice finished at 12pm with Thomas heading to the top not long after as he has decided to race Under 19's for the State Series this year so that he could get two runs, one qualifying and one race run. Plus there's prize money for U19's!! As he headed up for his qualifying run, Mum headed to the timing tent to help out with spotting numbers as riders came over the finish line, Dad was up the hill somewhere and Andrew and some mates also headed up the hill to do some cheering.

Thomas was the third rider out of the start gate for qualifying, after Phil & David. After all 45 riders had finished their quali runs, Thomas had the fastest time of 6:27.23, coming in 1 second ahead of Jake with 2nd fastest time.

Next it was Andrew's turn to head up the chairlift for his race run in Under 15's. Andrew was 2nd off the start, after David Maggs. It seems like an awful long time waiting for that first 7 minutes to tick by on the timing clock, finally David comes out of the trees and crosses the line in a 7:13 and before we knew it, here comes Andrew out of the trees not far behind. Andrew was screaming down towards the finish line and crossed in an extremely fast time of 6:47.89. Obviously he had a very good run as this was a PB for Thredbo for him. All 19 riders finished and Andrew was stoked, he finished in first place by a whopping 21 seconds. It made up for his terrible Nationals race run there 2 weeks before.

Finally it was Thomas' turn to head back up the lift for his race run. As if it's not stressful enough with him having one run but now we have to stress during two runs, very inconsiderate I think :) Anyway, they run the race run in reverse order so the slowest qualifier goes out first, each rider in 30 second gaps until the final 10 which they were leaving a one minute gap. The suspense was killing us as we were watching all the riders coming over the line, some in faster times than qualifying and some slower. Finally Jake came through and was 1 second quicker than quali but next thing, here comes Thomas, you could hear the crowd making shock noises as he headed down home run with us all watching the clock in amazement. Finally he crossed the line in a 6:22.13. WOW, the crowd cheered and applauded, he had won!!! After the whole race was done and dusted, it turned out that Thomas had the second fastest time of the day overall (over 220 riders). Pretty damn fine effort for a 14 year old.

CORC Round 9 - Majura 21 Feb 2010

The second last round of the 2009CORC Series was held at Majura last Sunday in quite warm conditions. We arrived at the track around 10am and the boys only managed to get in a couple of practice runs before heading up to get ready for race. They did a bit of sectioning as it was too hot to push to the top too many times.

Both boys ended up having a bad first run, Thomas stacking and Andrew collecting a few trees along the way. Stop for a quick drink and head back up for second run. Both boys had much better runs second time round. Thomas ended up winning the U17's by only some hundredth of a second and Andrew ended up 2nd in U15's. Pretty happy with results as this keeps Thomas in the lead in U17's with only one round remaining. Last round at Isaacs on 28 March.

National Round 3 - Thredbo 14 Feb 2010

Ian and the boys headed to Thredbo for some practice on Friday while Mum went off to work (lucky Mum). Turns out it wasn't such a bad idea for Mum to go to work as it rained most of the day and the boys got really muddy and Dad had to deal with the clean up in the afternoon. Luckily they were staying in Maggs' lodge and it is well equipped to deal with cleaning of muddy bikes, clothes and kids.

Practice for Group B on Saturday morning till 12pm, again in the rain. Boys finished practice and went back to the lodge for a shower and change of clothes. Luckily Mum arrived about lunch time and spent the next few hours washing dirty clothes while the crew headed back to watch the seeding runs for Group A.

Sunday race day arrived and it had been raining pretty much all night so when the boys got to the lift, they were told they could only do one practice run (just to try and save the track a bit) as by now there were huge ruts in the track and it was really sloppy. After practice both boys went back to the lodge for a shower and to put on a nice clean kit.

Race time approaching and the boys kitted up in their lovely plastic poncho's to ride up the lift in to try and keep a bit dry. Seems we started a trend and most of their mates did the same thing (will have to remember to stock back up on poncho's).

Thomas was first of Team Crimmins to start his race run. Even though he was equal 2nd in U17's and he got a better place at the last race than David, for some reason he was still third off at the start. Not that it made too much difference. Anyway, Connor came down in a time of 7:59.23 which we though was a fairly decent time considering the conditions. Next we were expecting David to come flying out of the trees, but no, it was Thomas next, flying out of the trees into the home run, pedaling as much as he could and still managing to stay on track. Wow, he crosses the finish line in a time of 7:43.88, we knew that would be a hard time to beat. After all 30 riders crossed the line, Thomas had won by 16 seconds. This puts Thomas into outright 2nd in the Series, with one race remaining.

Next was Andrew's turn. He was the first to start in U15's as series leader so we watched most of his time on the timer and it kept going up and up. We started to think something might have happened but next thing he comes out of the trees, still pedaling and with his goggles around his hand. He crossed the line in a time of 9:33.93. We didn't think this would be good enough for the win and as it turns out that time placed him 3rd out of 10 riders. Well done to Maggsie for his first Nationals win. It was still a great effort for Andrew to come 3rd as it turned out he crashed in race run and his front wheel seized up and wouldn't turn properly which made it a real struggle to have any momentum especially in those conditions. We thought he must have got mud in his axle but when we got home Ian pulled the whole bike apart and found that he had creased his front brake casing which would have caused his brake to be on the whole time. Anyway, he still holds the Series lead so is looking forward to doing well at Mt Stromlo in 4 weeks time.

Thanks to Nicho for the use of his (waterproof) Morewood tent for the weekend, it was a real saviour in the rain.