Greetings everyone,
Most of the US team has installed themselves in Silkeborg and are happily training away. And when they're not training, they are filling up time with other important tasks. Like eating. And playing games. And avoiding my prying camera.
The weather has been fantastic so far, and the woods are generally open and fun. Everyone seems relaxed, though the excitement is mounting as we near Saturday and the middle qualifier.
The venerable Ross will be providing some thorough and entertaining prose in the near future. Stay tuned!
Awesome! Keep the updates coming!
Yeah, keep it flowing... can't wait for Saturday! I know some of you have great chances!
I certainly hope there will be extensive updates about how my alliance partner, the mighty mr. j-man is doing in the wilds of Silkeborg, and even Denmark.
j-man is doing fine. He is killing all the pizza in sight! In fact, he's out for pizza at this very moment.
That's excellent. J-man is no dummy! After all, he works for the Fed.
Plus it's been very well established in Senate conference meetings that the Fed's effectiveness is highly correlated frequency of pizza consumption.
Good luck in hitting those red and white triangle thingies!
I hope you guys aren't confusing a post-TDF pro criterium with an actual sporting event. They are fun to watch, but they are semi-scripted entertainment. Think pro wrestling. If the esteemed Mr. O'Grady was off the front for most of the race, it's because the promoter gave him an appearance bonus to do so.
Be a bit cautious with Danish pizza. It tends to have very stinky cheese on it.
After having consumed Danish pizza each of the last four nights, I can assure you that none of it had very stinky cheese on it. In fact, it was all quite scrumptious.
The team has moved over to the accomodations in Aarhus and the middle distance runners are out at the middle model event now. The beautiful weather has been replaced by drizzle, which is, I suppose, par for the course.
It looks like we'll have slightly better internet access from now on, so I'll see about getting lots more info up in a more rapid manner...
Hey guys! Ok, I managed to get all of my photos taken so far posted here:
WOC 2006 Denmark Pics
Thanks to Biggings for the server space...I'll get a link up to the game shortly. These are mostly of the bike race, since I've only taken a few shots during training, but now that we are in Arhus the races will be starting soon. Saw Holger and The Cheese at the meet HQ this morning. Holger said that Sandy will be running the middle distance race - apparently feeling that her leg is ok to do so.
Hi All,
Team USA arrived in Arhus this morning and checked in at the accommodations--the campus of the Vejlby Landbrugsskole. Unlike the previous few days, which were sunny and hot, today and the next few days are promising rains and lower temperatures (60-70s F) . Because the Middle Qualifier is tomorrow (see full schedule below), the team split into two groups to check out the Middle (for those running the Middle), and Long Model event areas. The Model event for the Middle course was a quick, technical 4.4 km highly runnable course with intricate contour detail areas and extensive trail network. The terrain is continental, with different forest types, reminding Clem of Assunpink in DVOA. I do not have the information about the long at this point (the group is still out). Later today the team is hoping to visit the technical model event (probably previewing the punching, downloading, etc.).
The full event schedule for the next few days:
Fri Jul 28th : Check-in, Model events, Technical Model Event.
Sat Jul 29th: Middle Qualifier
Sun Jul 30th: Long Qualifier
Mon Jul 31st: model events, rest day, etc.
Tue Aug 1st: Sprint qualifier and final
Wed Aug 2nd: Long Final
Thurs, Aug 3rd: model events, rest day, etc.
Fri Aug 4th: Middle Final
Sat Aug 5th: Relay
The running assignments for the events are as follows:
Sprint
Men: Boris, Eddie, Eric
Women: Samantha, Sandra, Hillary
Middle
Men: Boris, James, Clem
Women: Pavlina, Suzanne, Hillary
Long
Men: Eddie, Eric, Clem
Women: Pavlina, Samantha, Sandra
Relays:
Will be selected in Denmark
Go USA!
Yes, the cheese definitely doesn't stink correctly in this country... I was supposed to get parmesan on my pasta today... and it was some sort of Emmentaler... what a blasphemy
Eddie, the server space on us-o-team is still available, too, in case you need it. Catchingfeatures may be better/faster connected, though.
There's also an official Team blog page available on the WOC website. I sent the info on getting started on this to Tom. If someone else needs it, let me know.
Hum reading about all that cheese... somebody is starting to regret not having tried for the team this year... never mind, I can alraedy smell the beer from the Colorado 1000days ;-)
Thanks Vlad. Christina, Ross and Dasha are all over the official team blog on the WOC website. I presume they will post a link here to point everyone that way when its up and ready. I'll probably continue to post my photos and link them here, and they may link some of those onto the blog page as well.
I went out to the Long model today with Tom, Eric, Samantha and Sandra. There were lots of controls set in quick sucession on a smallish area of 1:15000 map. Longest leg was 500m. I expect there will be longer ones in the qual on Sunday. There was an area of light/medium green that was rife with many parallel logging tracks (rides). It was very difficult to read. There were also some other areas that were very open, and some areas of slash - not *too* thick. There are definately some steep climbs. Tom thinks we may see several close controls in these areas of intricate logging tracks.
Yep, we've set up the blog, but apparently
blogster.com needs to make sure that we're not a spam site or something, so it has yet to be "approved". I'll post the link once it gets going.
Have a great time all of you! And great races, in the qualifiers and beyond ... I'll be 'watching' from any computer that I can find while on vacation ...
and thinking of you all even when I can't find a computer.
Enjoy and race well.
I have never orienteered in Denmark - how flat is it? If you find a hill, can you see Sweden?
Here is the old map for the
middle qualifier tomorrow. The arena is in the field along the south edge, just west of the fold.
It ain't flat, climb is about 4 to 5%.
The startlists for tomorrow’s Middle Distance Qualification Races have just been posted. The races will be on the Hjortsballe Krat, 1:10,000 map, with a projected winning time of 25 min, top 15 finishers from each of the 3 heats of 45 competitors will advance to the final.
Women:
4.5-4.6k, 210-220m climb, 14-15 controls
Hillary Saeger 10:06
Suzanne Armstrong 10:22
Pavlina Brautigam 10:46
Men:
5.1-5.2k, 210-225 m climb, 15-16 controls
Clem McGrath 10:07
James Scarborough 10:41
Boris Granovskiy 11:09
We will try to post the updates on the finishers as they come through—Good luck to everyone tomorrow!
On the map that Peter posted, tomorrow's MIddle Qual start is in the lower right (SE) part of the map, and the finish is in the clearing just W of the long NW-SE dark green at the bottom center of the map. A preponderance of the control locations are reentrants - at least 2/3 of the total. I think I''ve only seen 3 tiny boulders in 4 days of O here.
Results will be very tight. I think that 5 minutes from winner times will hold all 15 hopefuls in each heat. Cutoff of 30-32 mins is expected?
Good luck to all during your races!
Today is the official rest day at WOC. Team USA members running the sprint departed to the Sprint Model Area in preparation for the Sprint Qualifier and the Final tomorrow. The rest of the team are either recovering from their races or ran one of the open courses at the WOC Tour events.
This is a day of the Long Final in Denmark, this tough competition beginning at 2pm this afternoon. Unfortunately, there are no North Americans who qualified for this race, but Team USA will be in attendance spectating the event. Until then, In the morning, Team USA has split up, with a group going to the Relay Model area, while the rest of the group will be recovering from the week of races. Best of luck to all the competitors today!
Today is the 2nd and last official rest day at WOC, designed to give the exhausted Long Final runners rest before the Middle Final. Accompanying WOC Tour events are still on, and most of the Team USA members will be running their elite or open courses today, on the same map as the Long Final. The Relay competition will be held two days from today, on Saturday Aug 5th.
The Middle Final races will begin in less than 2 hours this morning. Team USA will be in the finish arena, spectating this exciting event. Later in the afternoon, some will again participate in the Elite or Open races of the WOC Tour, while others will be recovering. One day to go until the Relay competition.
This discussion thread is closed.