Hobarts ‘Bikes and Spikes’ carnival was held on sunday at Newtown Oval. BnC were in attendance, with one team rider (being myself) entered.
Before anything is said about the carnival a few ‘thank you’ are in order..
– Tim Smit: Mate ta for getting out of bed early Sunday morning and driving me to track.
– Clint & Jack Turner: Cheers for picking up and delivering my errant seatpost in time for my 1st event.
– Dave Dennis: Thank you soooOOoo much for loaning me your bike, the advice and for acting as my pusher.. Can’t thank you enough mate.
– Simon Va Der Aa, Dave Welsh & Nathan Fraser: Ta for the advice boys, Dave I’ll stay low next time, Vanders ta for the heads up and Nathan I’ll try not to almost kill you next time!!
Ok.. now the event. Well.. The 1000m handcap, I came last. The 2000m wasn’t much better.. (I was so nervous that I was shaking like a drunk with dt’s). Went ok in the Miss ‘n’ Out race (reckon I was about middle of the field), but it was in the Sprint Derby and the C Grade Scratch that I started to calm down, relax and get my head around what needed to be done.
I drew Steve Rossendell and Jeremy Hills in my heat of the Sprint Derby.. I knew I was pretty much screwed, I mean Rozzie won the wheel yestreday and Jez won one of the northern carnival wheels (Burnie? Devonport??).. so what else was there to do but sprint ‘BnC Style’ from the outset and make them earn their win!? Well, that tactic kinda worked.. Dropped Jez and the rest of the field off the back but was mowed down by Rozzie. 2nd wasn’t a bad result.
The C Grade Scratch field was pretty strong (eg: Danny Pullbrook) so I wasn’t liking my chances.. There were ‘suprise’ sprint laps where the winner could pick up a cash prize. These laps were indicated by a whistle blast as we crossed the line.. well I was hanging off the back when I heard that whistle blow and I went for it.. a 450m sprint later and I was $30 richer!! Yeah! A sprint lap win!! BnC represent!!
Throughly enjoyed my first ever carnival, met some great people (Nath & Brent give us a call next time ya down eh?), learnt ALOT and it was great to have all the BnC boys in my corner backing me! Bring on St Helens…
