Snakes, two up and revolution

Snakes are not my favourite animal in the world but hey I pay them there dues and respect them a lot. Mainly, cause I can currently see every day at work what a Tiger Snake can due to a human with the venom from its bite. The old chap at work is into his 2nd week in a induced coma and is in a serious amount of deep shit! Now I have seen my fair share of snakes all over Australia and like everyone have a few stories. But, Gav and I had a encounter, whilst brief took my respect of the Tiger Snake to a new level.

We decided on Tuesday night to head out for a pedal before the pairs racing at the Dirt Crits. We did familiar trails along side the Yarra (which happens to be the home of these creatures) River which are always fun and flowing, especially on a warm night.



Gav was leading and pulled up quick. I pulled up next to him and said whats up. He pointed and said snake.... all good I thought. We watched the snake (1.5 meters long and thick) cruising across the trail, I was amazed at the colour of the yellow stripes, and how black and shiny his head was. I have seen snakes a lot but always when you are flying down the trail, so you don't really get the close up look (hey we were 5 metres away, still too close in my books). The Tiger stopped when his head reached the longer grass. Gav and I thought, make some noise, stamp the feet all will be good and the snake will leave. Not such a good idea, as we stamped our feet the Tiger Snake reared up a 1/4 of its body length to check out what the movement and vibration was. It then faced us and made a quick movement towards us still with its raised head. It was at this stage I elected to get the fuck out of dodge as the bike was pointing the wrong way and the snake was going to win hands down. I think Gav was surprised at the speed I bailed, but seriously I ain't going to try and make friends.

The two up pairs at the Flat Hill Crits were a blast and we had 8 teams I think and everyone had fun. I paired up with Mal and had a ball, apart from braining myself on a low hanging branch. You can see some photos here of the changes in transition. The post race beer and chips session at the finish was well earned, and the beers went down easily. I would like to take this chance to thank Bruce and Cam and the helpers for running this event every couple of weeks. I know I look forward to it even though I get my arse handed to me on a platter every week. No matter what it is a great little event, 30 mins of pain on some fun single track.

Last night was the Revolution 5 track racing event which included the 112th Austral Wheelrace. A average turn out of fans in the stands, but we all know it is because the organisers don't advertise the bloody quality fields. We had 5 or 6 World Champions racing on the track last night so there is no excuse for not getting a bigger crowd in. The in field bar was a success as always and the motley crew of Jase, Nat and Gav who came with me gave it a fair old nudge in the beer department. Neil swears he is hanging it up for a track bike next year, time will tell. It turned out to be a funny night with a few gags going on (Yes Rich, you do look like me, and yes we did confuse a few of the drunk people by making em see double) and it was a great opportunity to catch up with people who I had not seen for a while.

Congratulations to Ben Sanders who won the Austral in a convincing manner and made his dad a big softy (Dave Sanders, VIS coach won it 31 years ago), a few tears were shed at the finish.

Training has been slow this week with plenty of interruption from social engagements as Christmas is fast approaching. So a few rides in the coming days including Ben R's Christmas Ride so all is looking up.

Happy trails and get out there!