MTB Orienteering race (World Champs) 1:22:53 [5] **** 25.0 km (3:19 / km)
ahr:135 max:160 (injured)
Maryborough.
hopes were high that I could bring the team home not last on the first leg. These skyrocketed when the terrain turned out to be flat , with a complex track network. At last! All those k’s around the river were going to pay off! I was last to my bike in the 32 team Le Mans start, after carefully folding my big 1:15,000 map to get the first part of the course folded and a good route to number 1. However I wasn’t last to the start triangle, as I passed people looking at their maps. At every track junction to the first control I passed more people stopped and by the second I was up to 14th. At this stage I was ahead of the eventual winner of this leg, Finland, and both Australian teams. However, the window of opportunity slammed shut in seconds – I was looking at my map, looked up to see a chest-high branch across the track, thought maybe I’ll get through it and then I was groping in the sand. After some swearing at other teams to leave me alone I got back on to assess the damage – it didn’t seem too bad. A look at the map told me I had a long way to go, but this was a team event so no choice really. The adrenalin wore off after about an hour and I started riding around potholes instead of through in some serious pain. Turning my bike was difficult, but overall it wasn’t that bad. I handed over in 28th place of the 30 left in the race, incredibly still ahead of a Russian and a Japanese. Mark dropped a bundle at number 1 to let the Russians get through, but passed a Portuguese later to maintain 28th. Nina held that place and with 5 non finishers on the third leg we were up to 23rd (or 17th country of the 20 starters – some countries had two teams).
Finished 29th of 32 (fastest Mikko Tommola on 57:56). IRL ended up 23rd of 25 official finishers ahead of POR and JPN after Mark Geary did 94.40 and Nina Phillips did 83:40.
Went to the local hospital: not sure. Mark packed my bag and the hostie put it in the overhead locker on the flight back. Got an X-Ray following day in Perth - broken collarbone.