CORC Round 3 - Majura Pines 20th June 2010

With virtually no rest after Del Rio, the wheels rolled on, Dads back home, Andrews still on the lounge with the flu and a bad haircut and Mums caught up washing race kits and undies.

Saturday was bike maintenance which ended up with a trip to Canberra for new BB, and while we were there it was decided that dad and Thomas might as well have a look at the new Majura track. Quick install BB in car park and some push up sectioning. Thomas decided the track was sick, wet and slippery on the higher switch backs and tacky on the tight single track in the lower sections. As it turned out all the dedicated DH lads were out and a great afternoon was had riding with mates.

Sunday; With Andrew unfortunately still crook Dad and Thomas had to go it alone!. We arrived around 10 to a rapidly building field of riders. Dad on barbie then marshaling, Thomas push up sectioning.

After taking out the series in 13's 15's and 17's Thomas decided to skip 19's and challenge the elite boys.15 years old this week!

12.30pm 1st race run. With most of the field finishing around 2mins plus, the elite boys hit the track, Tim Eaton pipped the field in a 1:40.27 and Thomas finishing in 5th in 1:46.84.

2.30pm Second run. Thomas decided to lift the pace. Ben Cory took the honours with a very fast 1:40.08 and Tim Eaton using his first run time Thomas secured 3rd place with a time of 1:42.70. There were 26 riders in elite and his time was 3rd fastest of the 92 riders on the day, Great effort!

The lads are now pumped for The State Champs at Lithgow, coming soon!

NSW/ACT State Rnd 4 - Del Rio 13 June 2010

Another State Series has come to an end. And a very successful one it was for Team Crimmins. The last round was held on one of the boys most favourite 'real' downhill tracks (not Mum's favourite) but they seem to love the tracks with all the big scary items on them of which Del Rio has many.

Poor Dad missed Del Rio again this year due to OS work commitments. So the rest of the team headed off early Friday morning in the huge frost and -8 deg temp to head for what we thought would be the warmth of the North. We were actually very lucky with the weather all weekend but as soon as that sun went behind that hill, it was bloody freezing.

Anyway, after 6 hours on the road, we arrived at our destination to what we though would be a nice little cabin in the "Resort". Well, didn't we have that idea completely wrong, but that's a whole other story. We parked the car and headed up the hill so the boys could walk the track before coming back to get their bikes and a lift to the top for their one practice run for the day. It gets awfully dark on the track when the sun starts to go down.

Saturday morning was relaxed as we didn't have to drive anywhere, the boys just had to ride to the end of our road to catch the shuttle bus. After brekkie, the boys headed off so Mum, Jenny and Eloise decided to walk the track. Practice went really well with the boys all getting in some good runs and happy with the shuttles being so fast but also hating the push from the road to the top of the track. After walking the push bit, I can't really blame them. After dinner we went to the Piazza's camp to hang out around the fire and be entertained by Genaro who was in fine form after a few beers.

Sunday morning was pretty cruisy again with the boys only wanting to do a couple of practice runs before race. The boys went off to practice while Mum & Jenny got the stew ready to put in the crock pot to cook for the day (gotta love those crock pots). The girls eventually headed over to the bottom of the track where they would watch the race from. Thomas and Robbie headed off for their seeding runs which were due to start at 12:30pm.

Mum parked herself right near the finish line so she could enter the results on the Series Points table as soon as they came in. Seeding over with and Thomas ended up seeding 3rd but said he wasn't pushing himself and thought he could make up some time for his race run.

Andrew's turn to head to the top for his race run. Andrew was the first of the U15 riders to come down and as he came over the finish line, we knew he didn't have a good run. His helmet had a fair bit of dirt in it and it turned out that he crashed underneath the safety net at one of the tight corners but still managed to post a 2:20.79 which saw him place 3rd out of 10 riders. Still a very good effort.

Finally it was Thomas' turn for his race run. After waiting for the first 26 riders to come over the finish line, Thomas came flying out of the trees and over the finish jump in a very impressive time of 2:01.38, eight seconds faster than his seeding run. Only two riders left on course in the U19, Dean looked like he was having a really good run until landing all wrong at the bottom jump and hugging a tree. Bad luck Deano. Then Jake came over the finish jump and we could see he wasn't going to beat Thomas' time so all over with and Thomas placed first out of 29 riders in U19's. He said he had a really good run and was stoked with his win.

Both boys managed to place first in 3 out of 4 rounds so therefore had enough points to place first overall for the 2010 NSW/ACT State Downhill Series. Well done Team.

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.

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.