Amazed when things work out
The cat is now truly out of the bag, and it was a raging success too, I might add! For you that don't know, last night was the FGP Dirt crit Teams handicap. A 6 lap race, with pairs decided by the organisers, starting as slowest paired with fastest racers and working inwards until everyone has a team. Its always a good race as people get to race with people of differeing ability, and potentially lead overall when they may rarely see the front of a race. Its a winning formula, and heaps of fun.
For this race, the numberplates needed to be swapped on the bikes between riders, and knowing this, I invented a solution. A blank carbon fibre numberplate with some medical grade velcro, and strips of velcro on the plate itself. With a plate on both bikes, all that has to happen is to slap the plate from one to the other...
And back to the race last night, Felt Racings' Jack and I were the fastest two, and paired with, well you know... There's no real polite way to say it. Anyway, we both charged off the front for the first 3 laps, joined briefly by Brett Carr (thylacine cycles) before deciding the pace was too hot. Aboard a single speed 32:16, I must have looked comical spinning around, but I held Jacks wheel before he changed gears down the final descent to get a few seconds into transition. All that gain was negated when the brilliant numberplate swap occured!!! With a rip off, and slap on, Rich was away with a huge gap back to second.
With a curious pass performed mid first lap, which nobody noticed happen (which means, was there a pass??) Jack's teammate hit the front and didn't look back. My teammate Rich was hammering around for the final 3 laps baffled as to how he ended up chasing someone when he wasn't passed. But as the pace hotted up, he crumbled, and with 4 crashes on one lap, it transpired against us. Jacks' teammate Simon held on valiantly held on to second place for them, which was fantastic for both their series hopes, and a few $$ on the day!!
So with Jacks' team in 2nd overall, and my team in 20th, it was a great fun night, with at least one great result, and a fanstastic debut of the new easy swap numberplate!!
Enquiries can be made about these plates to Ash, if anyone is interested.
For this race, the numberplates needed to be swapped on the bikes between riders, and knowing this, I invented a solution. A blank carbon fibre numberplate with some medical grade velcro, and strips of velcro on the plate itself. With a plate on both bikes, all that has to happen is to slap the plate from one to the other...
And back to the race last night, Felt Racings' Jack and I were the fastest two, and paired with, well you know... There's no real polite way to say it. Anyway, we both charged off the front for the first 3 laps, joined briefly by Brett Carr (thylacine cycles) before deciding the pace was too hot. Aboard a single speed 32:16, I must have looked comical spinning around, but I held Jacks wheel before he changed gears down the final descent to get a few seconds into transition. All that gain was negated when the brilliant numberplate swap occured!!! With a rip off, and slap on, Rich was away with a huge gap back to second.
With a curious pass performed mid first lap, which nobody noticed happen (which means, was there a pass??) Jack's teammate hit the front and didn't look back. My teammate Rich was hammering around for the final 3 laps baffled as to how he ended up chasing someone when he wasn't passed. But as the pace hotted up, he crumbled, and with 4 crashes on one lap, it transpired against us. Jacks' teammate Simon held on valiantly held on to second place for them, which was fantastic for both their series hopes, and a few $$ on the day!!
So with Jacks' team in 2nd overall, and my team in 20th, it was a great fun night, with at least one great result, and a fanstastic debut of the new easy swap numberplate!!
Enquiries can be made about these plates to Ash, if anyone is interested.
posted by Ash Thomas at 6:19 pm
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