3/5 Sprint Teams DQ'd... Oh, no, we take that back, you're all in!

2009 Australian Track Nationals,
Adelaide SuperDrome, Feb 3-8

Day4: Elite Men's Team Sprint and Points Race

What do you get when you add 2 sprinters and an enduro together?
Silver in the team sprint!! :)

In the starter's hands for the qualifier

It certainly wasn't the prettiest bike race you would have ever seen but the effort Tom Palmer put in to hold Danny's wheel was extraordinary, as was Danny's effort to lay off Birdman to ensure that Tom wasn't left behind! The boys qualified second fastest in a time of 46.437 sec, but then the drama started...

First lap- "Wait up Birdman"; Second lap- "Get on Danny's wheel Tom!"; Third lap- "Go Ninga, Go!!"


There was an announcement that they had been disqualified for an illegal change, along with the SA and NSW teams!! "WHAT?" was the collective cry from the mothers and remainder of the team in the stand. After some frantic searching for photographic and video evidence of their changes, it was determined that in fact there changes were legal and the officials had just been a little over officious!

Oh the drama!!

So, it was the gold/silver ride for our composite team, up against the pure sprinters from Victoria- Joel Leonard, Jason Niblett & Ben Sanders. Then, more drama... off the line and the red flag goes up... one of the Vics had pulled their wheel. Get back in the gates and do it again...

Good clean start and it was on. The ACT boys dug deep and managed to stick reasonably close together to look like a team! Birdman got us off to a flier, and a good change to Danny who came through with Tom stuck to his wheel, and then it was up to Palmer to finish. With all his experience as a kilo rider he was able to bring it home in style. Unfortunately the Vics were a well oiled team and being pure sprinters, took out the gold in 44.948 sec with ACT in second in 46.005.

Shortly after his impressive foray into elite men's team sprint, the Ginger Ninja backed up for the 160 lap points race! To our amazement he not only finished the race, but was aggressive and took a solo lap on the field! In the end he finished 7th and was a very spent unit! Awesome effort Tom!

Tom backing up for the Points Race