A gruesome report – by Toby

Track night last night and we had another great turnout.  The rouleurs lining up for another session on the boards included Jason, Ainsy, Zac, Daryl, Mike, Daniel, David, Mark H, Nick (Paddy) and myself.

In the space of one week two of the boys have already bought their own bikes.  Ainsy has gone and got himself a Giant Omnium and Dan B has joined the ultra-retro cool bridgade and got a nice fixie.

To start the night off I helped Ainsy put a new sproket on his machine.  It was supplied with a 46 x 17, which is a tiny 71″ gear.  Is that a junoir rig? We quickly had him up on a 80.7″ which is still small but definately better.  I was excited to see the Omnium do its first lap, but unfortunately as Ainsy and I rolled up the ramp there was a big noise coming out of the drive chain.  Shit – something wasn’t right.  Luckily after a quick examination we found the problem.  Whoever put the chain on at the bike shop had put the quick link on the inside, and this was hitting the spoke.  A quick change and we had the link on the outside and everything ran smoothly.  The Ominium was off and running.

From here everything was going well.  About half of the Rouleurs opted to stay in the novice group for the first session and did the normal drills around the bottom of the track.  I was happy (and a little nervous) to see a number of the boy joining in with the motorpace session with me.  For those who don’t know the motorpace is usually a long line of riders rolling behind a motorbike for about 80-100 laps.  The pace is increased gradually until the last couple of laps when only a couple of the strong guys will be able to hold the pace.  I was impressed to see Ainsy make it to about 10 laps to go which was a huge effort for his first time.  I made it to 7 laps to go a PB for me also.  To give you some idea at 10 laps to go we are going well over 50kph.

After this we did a couple of graded scratch races.  Nick held onto for 4th in the C-grade race.  B-grade and A-grade were combined for a scratch.  I’ve just started riding B-grade, so wasnt too excited to see A-grade joining us.  Anyway off we rolled.  With about 10 laps to go we were all together and the pace was up.  Twice I had a guy in front of me pull out after finding the pace too high – so I had to bridge back to the group both times.  I was just bridging up again for the second time when disaster struck.  I made it back to the group and let one of the Abritrage guys drop in front of me – I wanted hi wheel for the sprint – then in the back corner with 3 laps to go it happened.  I was about 4th wheel when one guy pulled up to take his turn.  Unfortunately the next rider went up straight away causing the guy in front of my to get caught up – he had to quickly gas-off and move up to prevent touching wheels but the whiplash effect meant that I couldnt get out of the way.  There was mm in it.  My front tyre touch Arbitrages tyre.  I remember actually bouncing off it about 3 times before I lost the wheel out from under me.  Down I went.  So I’m sliding along the deck thinking ‘ah fuck i’m down. Fuck.’  I ended up on the infield about 40m down the back straight.

Here is the process of what to do after a crash on the track. 1) Do a quick inventory of body parts. 2) Once all limbs are accounted for make sure everything still works 3) Stand up and move bike off the track 4) Put bike down again 5) Remove helmet and throw it on the ground to make sure everyone knows you’re pissed off.  Step 5 is definately the most important.

After this you have the chat with the track guys who are all very good at making sure you and you’re bike are ok.  At this point – if you are reading this – I’d like to thank Bobby, Brian and Murray.  They guys are brilliant and know just what to do when someone goes sliding.

So the damage report.  Skin and splinters.  I have a good deal of skin off on the lower left leg and hip.  I pulled about 40 splinters out of my arse (leg) with the help of my poor Alana, for whom this was her first rodeo.  The most gruesome part of the ordeal was have Jason help me remove a huge splinter from my should with Daryl’s long nose pliers.  That was like toolshed surgery at it best! Oh and my skinsuit is a write-off.

Not a bad crash really.  Few wood burns and splinters but nothing too bad.  It never hurts at the time – the most painful part is always the shower when you get home.

Racing this Friday night – bring it!