Round 1 Australian National Series

downhill247.com Graves1 — Some considered him a dark horse for this race but seriously when can Jared Graves ever be considered a dark horse?! First in seeding.

Graves, Brosnan and Cory have streaked ahead of the pack in seeding for the first Australian National Series raceA�of the new 2011/12A�season. After a morning practice that saw multiple crashes, seeding started late in the afternoon with rain clouds lurking. For most riders, today’s practice was to consolidate everything practiced over the past few days. As ThredboA�is such a long track making sure you had your lines sorted before today was critical.

Seeding Results:
Elite Men:

1. Jared Graves 5.37.74

2. Troy Brosnan 5.39.06 + 1.32

3. Ben Cory 5.40.28 + 2.54

4. Sam Hill 5.48.42 + 10.68

5. Kaine Cannan 5.49.33 + 11.59

Under 19 Men:

1. Joey Vejvoda 5.45.08

2. Dave McMillan 5.47.65 + 2.57

3. Tom Crimmins 5.49.16 + 4.08

4. Brent Smith 5.51.38 + 6.30

5. Trent Piribauer 5.52.13 + 7.05A�

Elite Women:

1. Tracey Hannah 6.14.81

2. Michelle Crisp 6.53.69 + 38.88

3. Claire Whiteman 7.10.77 + 55.96

4. Trudy Nicholas 7.31.31 + 1.16.50

5. Phillippa Roston 7.44.87 + 1.30.06

Under 19 Women:

1. Danielle Beecroft 6.40.63

2. Ella Scanlan-Bloor 8.22.81 + 1.42.18

3. Gemma Greentree 10.33.63 + 3.53.00

We talked to riders and got their thoughts on how to approach practice on such a long demanding track and whether or not the rain was effecting their line choice.

downhill247.com Vejvoda1 — Joey Vejvoda seeded first in Under 19's: "I definitely reckon it's going to be raining tomorrow...I have a few wet lines up my sleeve because I have been riding here in the wet flat out, so I have got a fair few lines for the wet, so it shouldn't be too bad."

downhill247.com Graves2 — Jared Graves seeded first in Elite Men: "I have ridden here quite a bit in the wet before and the track holds up really well unless you get major downpours, so a bit of moisture and slipperyness would do it good and be good practice."

downhill247.com Brosnan1 — Troy Brosnan seeded second in Elite Men: "It's good to be riding with Sam, practice all Friday was pretty nice and relaxed really. We walked it after practice and found a few sneeky lines out there, they seemed to be working out there."

downhill247.com Hill1 — Sam Hill seeded fourth in Elite Men: "It's been good, trying to learn the track again it's so long, that middle wood section I still don't know each corner, it's taking me a little while to learn the whole track, I am just excited to riding at an Australian National. The track is fairly one line in a sense, so if it doesn't rain too much it's just going to make the corners grippier. We will see how much it rains tonight, put some fresh rubber on and get after it tomorrow."

If you are scratching yourA�head after looking at the seeding results here are a few other comments from today’s seeding (and then the race in general):

– Reigning Series Champion Rhys Atkinson seeded seventh, his bike only arrived earlier in the week.

– Second place in last years series was Ricky Boyer, he crashed in his seeding in the ‘Bunny Walk’ section of the track and seeded 26th.

– Sam Hill cruised his seeding run, visually you could see he was taking it easy with the pedalling. His comments were “I just wanted to hit everything half decent and save a bit of energy on the other bits inbetween.”

– Jared Graves won’t be racing the next round in Mount Buller, he will be training in New Zealand but will be back for the Australian Championships’.

downhill247.com Cory1 — Third in seeding for Ben Cory surprised a few people, maybe he should be the under dog for the race? How much of an under dog can a former Junior World Champion really be though?

– Connor Fearon seeded last in Under 19 Men, he is sick and lacking energy therefore Thredbo was a struggle toA�even roll down. Some people were speculating it was justA�to cover up the fact he wanted to be first down the hill tomorrow to beat the predicted thunderstorms.

– One place in front of Connor was Henry Blake who suffered a flat near the topA�of the track and had to have a “pig run” down.