Graves, Brosnan and Cory have streaked ahead of the pack in seeding for the first Australian National Series raceA�of the new 2011/12A�season. After a morning practice that saw multiple crashes, seeding started late in the afternoon with rain clouds lurking. For most riders, today’s practice was to consolidate everything practiced over the past few days. As ThredboA�is such a long track making sure you had your lines sorted before today was critical.
Seeding Results:
Elite Men:
1. Jared Graves 5.37.74
2. Troy Brosnan 5.39.06 + 1.32
3. Ben Cory 5.40.28 + 2.54
4. Sam Hill 5.48.42 + 10.68
5. Kaine Cannan 5.49.33 + 11.59
Under 19 Men:
1. Joey Vejvoda 5.45.08
2. Dave McMillan 5.47.65 + 2.57
3. Tom Crimmins 5.49.16 + 4.08
4. Brent Smith 5.51.38 + 6.30
5. Trent Piribauer 5.52.13 + 7.05A�
Elite Women:
1. Tracey Hannah 6.14.81
2. Michelle Crisp 6.53.69 + 38.88
3. Claire Whiteman 7.10.77 + 55.96
4. Trudy Nicholas 7.31.31 + 1.16.50
5. Phillippa Roston 7.44.87 + 1.30.06
Under 19 Women:
1. Danielle Beecroft 6.40.63
2. Ella Scanlan-Bloor 8.22.81 + 1.42.18
3. Gemma Greentree 10.33.63 + 3.53.00
We talked to riders and got their thoughts on how to approach practice on such a long demanding track and whether or not the rain was effecting their line choice.
If you are scratching yourA�head after looking at the seeding results here are a few other comments from today’s seeding (and then the race in general):
– Reigning Series Champion Rhys Atkinson seeded seventh, his bike only arrived earlier in the week.
– Second place in last years series was Ricky Boyer, he crashed in his seeding in the ‘Bunny Walk’ section of the track and seeded 26th.
– Sam Hill cruised his seeding run, visually you could see he was taking it easy with the pedalling. His comments were “I just wanted to hit everything half decent and save a bit of energy on the other bits inbetween.”
– Jared Graves won’t be racing the next round in Mount Buller, he will be training in New Zealand but will be back for the Australian Championships’.
– Connor Fearon seeded last in Under 19 Men, he is sick and lacking energy therefore Thredbo was a struggle toA�even roll down. Some people were speculating it was justA�to cover up the fact he wanted to be first down the hill tomorrow to beat the predicted thunderstorms.
– One place in front of Connor was Henry Blake who suffered a flat near the topA�of the track and had to have a “pig run” down.
A�Tomorrows final is going to be one of the most interesting National rounds for a while, tune in for all the info!