Ah, Christmas time! Busy, busy,busy! The Bottles and Chains crew have been in full effect!! We pretty much kicked it all off with an xmas ‘strays’ bbq at Margate.. which of course got looser as the night progressed. As the beers were flowing freely, we decided to hold an impromptu race meet on the back lawn. A grass track was marked out and the racing commenced, albeit slightly er, ‘gladitorial’ racing. American Dave got body-checked on the final corner blowing his chances of a hat-trick of race wins! Haha.
Um, what next? Oh yeah.. we hit the mountain and the sandflats for a few runs on the mountain bikes (rad fun!), but the next big B’n’C event was over road trip to Launnie to catch the carnival at the Silverdome! To cut a long story short.. it was an eventfull trip north.. I wont even mention the bad culinary experiance we had with our northern brethern except to say “DO NOT EVER EAT @ ‘CUCCINA’ CAFE”… yeuw.. bad,bad,BAD. Ah we stopped at the velo-tracks at Parrattah (An old-school gravel track from waaay back in the day) and at..
Campbell Town. The CT track was in ok shape for a velodrome that isn’t used anymore. A few patches in the tarmac and it would be ready to roll again. We spent about half hour rolling around it and getting a feel for the oval. Not to bad eh, but the back straight is super windy!
After Campbell Twon we headed to the Silverdome to catch the Launceston Carnival. I would say about 3000 others were doing the same thing, the dome was fully packed!! Wow! What a night of racing!! Ben Kirstan and Shane Kelly were among two of the standout riders competing. I’d have to say the Keiren, A-Grade scratch and the Flying 200 were the events that stick most in my mind. A few of the Hobart crew were there riding as were our buddies from the Brunswick Club, Brent and Nathan. Simon Price was riding well, his tactical nous really shone thru in the events he competed in.. Phil Jarvie had a spill and destroyed his front wheel, it kinda just ‘wrapped’ around his front hub!! Janelle Smith also raced well in the womens event.
After the carnival we had to roll into Launnie to get some petrol for the panno. At the service station a policeman decided to come over as see who these 3 rough looking hoodlams in the matching black B’n’C hoodies were..
Policeman: “What is ‘Bottles and Chains’ mate?”
Mischa: (in a deeper than normal voice) “A bike gang!!”
Policeman: “Motorbikes?”
Mischa: “nah, pushbikes..”
needless to say the Policeman soon decided we weren’t a threat to Launcestonians and left us alone.. Ah and finally we said farewell to the Canadian last night. Yep, Dave’s pulled up stumps and headed across the ditch to New Zealand where he’s heard that the possums are much bigger and live in plague proportions. We’re all sad to see him go (cue pan pipe music) and wish him all the best in his travels eh.. I’m interested to hear how his last night in Hobart was, maybe Mischa or Liam will spill the beans online later in the week?? Went for one final spin with him on the mountain bike yesterday over at Delphis Drive.. he took a trip over the bars but didn’t break anything. Nice way to cap off his time in Hobart.
Anyway stay posted to Bottlesandchains.com.. We’ve found a replacement token foreigner “Belgian Timmy’.. we’re all cashed up (expect B’n’C skinsuits and jerseys), we’ve got a new B’n’C team BMX and a red fixed Khs track bike for pub and sk8park duties, Dave’s donated some bike parts so except some new builds in the new year.. basically we’ll be BIGGER & BETTER in 2008! Stay safe and have a rad new year from all of us a B’n’C!!!
