A fair bit of work on at the moment. Its nearly crunch time to decide on the expansion into Bendigo... I have to give that a lot of thought. One thing is that we really need 2 cars all the time now.. and maybe even three. Thats for the core team of Kathy and I. We also need to give thought to bringing one of our part timers.. or subcontractors I guess they really are.. on board permanently.. I don't think we are quite their yet.. but soon.. very soon.
My depression over the business and stuff of a technical nature getting on top of me is pretty much over. After a few weeks when the simplest of jobs got silly annoying and nothing went right. I guess we all have those weeks..at least I hope so. Just this Sony to sort and that will be sorted. I have some VPN issues to work through for at least 3 clients next but I am looking forward to that. Its starting to be fun again.
We have a probable 3 sites more for web development. And one for certain. On top of some ongoing development.. A stack of VA stuff to do. Out of our trips to Bendigo we have at the very least established a relationship with a business embroiderer.. screen printer, a proof reader (for sub contracting VA stuff) a business coaching company and a variety of others. We have done some significant work for our client at Pyalong.. probably enough to pay for the trips. And we have had some fun. And scored a business coaching session for Kathy and I . Woot. So far so good. And last week was quite busy in its own right.
But life cannot be all about work. And none of this is the reason I find myself so happy.
The ABOC Summer Sprint Series started off with round 1 yesterday And as previously mentioned all three Team Splat! riders entered. Some last minute kerfuffles had to be sorted out with race licences and we thank Rob of Blackburn Cycling Club. The event was run at Blackburn Velodrome about 5 km away and I am pretty sure not actually in Blackburn. The Velo was pristine.. with the holes filled in and the lines freshly marked. The weather was perfect. It was a magical day for what amounts to my return to real rather than play racing after 30 odd years.
Team Splat settled in well, Getting pretty good at making ourselves at home at racetracks
And I won. In fact I won D grade. Really! Its true. I did. See... here are the results. I even wound up 5th in the aggregate points So a great day. Way to get lifted out of my funk.
Sally got second.. making it a Team Splat! 1/2 And while Jenny missed out on third .. which would have been the perfect result she did very well and showed a lot of potential. She won one of her races and tried her heart out in the rest.
The day started with flying 200's to determine grade and seed order. I tried pretty hard but flying 200,s are not my best thing.. I did,t enter flat out.. and in the bottom curve I backed off slightly and let the bike up out of the sprinters lane. A fairly average effort. I was 0.7 seconds slower than Sally... and fractionally faster than Janine V who had never even ridden at Blackburn before. When the seeding was done we had 6 in D grade.. a clear second separated D grades fastest rider.. Sally :D from the slowest rider in C: Obviously everyones standard has lifted.
I,ll only talk about the D grade racing.. some of the rest was blisteringly fast and close... but you know I can only rave so much. Its great spectating tho... come along.
First up Sally against Janine M. Sally a seasoned racer now.. Janine M a newbie... They rolled around for a lap.. Sally turned on the taps.. it was all over.. Then me vs Jenny in a Team Splat! double. Jenny lead out.. and I rolled around behind her for the first lap..pointedly staying in her blind spot and forcing her to look for me just as we had trained the day before. Going into the last curve on lap one.. I ducked under her.. went hard.. realised I was well clear and backed off to save myself for later. Legs feeling much better by now. The last D grade race.. Janine V.. fast and dangerous..vs Penny.. "training is for other people" Robinson. Result not a big surprise.
Round 2 Sally vs Janine V. The sprint started late with Janine getting the jump.. Sally got herself together.. chased hard .. closed.. closed more.. Janine visibly tiring and.... Sally ran out of time to catch her.
Me vs Janine M. I thought this one would be pretty easy... but some how... really early she jumped.. got 5 metres. I thought she had to be nuts to try and nail me that far out but hey.. I chased, got her wheel with a lap to go. Meh.. no advantage to being on her wheel.. a garden rake would make a bigger hole in the air. I went around on the outside.... backed off.. and took the win. Apparently she had followed Swervin Merv's advice to go early because Dave doesn't last. Thanks Merv, I owe you a beer.
Jenny vs Penny "My eyelash hurts and so I cannot train" Robinson. Blood on the velodrome. Jenny is looking pretty dangerous. She went really late.. jumped Penny on the bell lap and blew her away.
Round 3. Sally vs Jenny. Another Team Splat! double. Jenny is at her best over distance.. Sally over maybe 250 metres. The later it starts the better. I told Jenny to go early. Sally to go late. :D. Sally listened. Sally wins.
Me vs Janine V. Ummmmmm. A real threat. I wanted to go as early as possible.. I though I could get the jump because she didn't want that sort of race and was not tactically good enough to stop me jumping. I was leading out. Half way to the start (did I mention that they were rolling starts?) Janine said she could not get her foot in.. Suspiciously I looked sideways at her.. then she said it was in as we rolled over the start line.. I looked at the start official to make sure it was a clean start.. glanced at Janine.. and jumped.. into the first corner. Won by a long way. I did not expect that to be so easy. Burned more berries than I really needed.
Janine vs Penny "Training is for wimps" R. Janine.. by about a year.
So me vs Sally for 1st and 2nd in D. Janine V vs Janine M for 3rd. With the Janines going first. I thought Janine V much the stronger rider here.. with Janine M,s best bet being to go early and hope Janine V would blow up. Felt sorry for the commentators on this one. In the end both riders started the sprint very very late.. and Janine V easily won it.
So a Team Splat! ride off for first and second. Now while I am consistently faster than Sally in training I would never underestimate her. She is a fighter all the way down to the wire.. always finishes a race day faster than she started it and learns fast. I also dont think she has actually figured out how to accelerate really hard.. I think she has lots more acceleration in those legs and just has to sus out how to turn it on. Just my luck for her to manage it now. And I want the win. I decide again to play to my strengths .. and go very early.. I can hear the commentator saying "Dave likes to go early but its a lot different going early in a 3 lap race than in a 2 lap race, he may regret it if he tries that" Meh. Wanna bet?
I hook under Sally and go on the second turn.. grab 4 meters.. she chases... and on the second lap I can feel her there. I stay just outside the sprinters lane to give me options.. but I can see her back there in the sprinters lane.. coming up.. I jump into the lane and grit my teeth. Sally fades as we enter the third lap.. and I hang on for the win.
Woot.
Happy Dave.
A link to the videos of the races at Blackburn on Sunday last. Where D grade was dominated by Team Splat!
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=383E6B49E7D9C8E6
If you want to know anything more about the Blackburn series or track racing generally by all means email us
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