Sun 27 Aug 2006
Well it’s done & dusted, mixed results for the aussies in the morning with Ben & Joel crashing out, James Maltman was an awesome 5th on a busted up ankle & Mitch Delfs was an awesome 7th highest place west aussie & ben was 9th even with his big digger. It pains me to think where the boys could have come, but me know they are true champions on & off the bike and mark my words, their day WILL come!
Joel was in alot of pain after his run but came good after 2 or 20 beers later at the party! Funny story, some of the kiwi team found Joel on a park bench after the party & carried him back to the hotel. I woke Ben & Joel up this morning both with very second hand heads, Joel’s still in bed frequantly re-visting what he drank last night if u get my drift I sooooo could have videod him but I refrained casue he’d prolly kick my arse if we had to duke it out over the tape!
The boys are in a better mood today which is great. All is good. We are going to hit up some of the local tracks in the next day or two which I’m looking forward to gettin some good footage on these awesome tracks.
Sambo schooled the field, the margin was big on this track and he was def the best by far, there was lines where 95% of the field would take, then Rennie, Minnar, Peat & Kovarik would take the sick line and then Sambo would go where no man feared, truly awesome to watch riders of the above mentioned caliber shaking thier heads at Sam’s lines. In one steeeeep section with drops, & I mean steeeeeeeep (has to been seen to believed) most riders were going high or around, a few rolled straight & Sambo just gapped it. Kovarik & Minnar tried to gap it in practice but niether pulled it off and didnt do it in their runs.
In the press conference sambo didnt say much & looked like he just rolled down for a win at a local track in WA. One journo said “Sam u just won mate smile!” Sambo got a bit of a smile going but gee the way he rides & speaks is world’s apart. He kept it all very under wraps like a true champion.
Sam said he took it pretty easy in qualifying as qualifying 1st at last years worlds put too much pressure on him and when the last rider leaves the gate they usually hear all the riders times before them which doesnt help (something rennies also commenated about & said he wished he hadn’t heard).
Sam siad he basically just focused on what was coming up & had a flawless run. Watching on the big screen down the bottom this was plain to see, everyone made atleast one tiny mistake here or there, a foot down here, check up after running a tad wide etc not Sambo, he really did pin it and his run was like he said, flawless.
Kovarik lead for ages and actually had the 2nd fast top section split overall till sam went .550 under then smoked the bottom of the course to make up several seconds. Minnar, Peat & Rennie were all about 2-4 seconds behind Sam on the split and when rennie went thro 3 seconds down I knew Sambo had it in the bag.
What a day, at the podium the aussies drowned out the announcer and the piss weak cries from a few other countries. It was sick, aussie aussie auisse oi oi oi. Graves had a mega phone and the national anthem went nuts. Sambo stood with one clenched fist in the air while the crowd went nuts like I’ve never seen before. I was so proud to be an aussie but most of all a WEST AUSSIE!
Thanks for the updates Ira Iam sure iam speaking for all the West Aussies.