Training Log Archive: O-ing

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.

Middle Distance. 64th of 99. Hilly but set better than the Long Q. The hardest was number 1, and despite stopping at the start triangle I didn’t make the right choice, losing about 2 minutes with the 87th fastest time. On number 2 I had the 94th fastest split – this wasn’t looking good. However it was all (mostly) downhill from there and despite losing another 2 minutes on a dud route choice and a minute at the last in a complex track area I managed 64th with 71.58. I was happy with that, and particularly with the Spanish team for turning up as I finished ahead of all 6 of them. Other scalps were all the Slovenians, Japanese, Latvians and Israelis. The if only situation would have had me on 66 minutes and that would have been good enough for 52nd, beating my previous best at a World Championships (57th in 1979). Mark pulled out a 10th fastest split on number 15 and finished a respectable 80th, one place ahead of the Brazilian, and in time for the ASDA drug test.

Long Qualification. Too easy. I had an early start, which was handy because of the baking temperatures (the hail was long gone). Leg 2 was 5.5km, which wouldn’t fit on my mapboard (it would have on one of Tony Whittakers!) so I lost some time folding. Route choice has never been one of my strong points and on leg 3 I lost significant time. I chose an “around” route that had more climb than the straighter “up and over”. The problem was that my route went up and down lots across 1 or 2 contours each time, which were all really sharp ascents and descents with putrid puddles at the bottom of each hollow. I had the 87th fastest split (99 starters) and lost about 3 minutes. That was the only significant time loss and I was never really in the hunt for the top 60 to qualify for the next day (needed 93.15), finishing 79th in 99.47. The defending World Champion, Jussi Makila was 66th, after a sidewall puncture, while Mark Geary was 90th of 99 just one place behind the lone Brazilian.

Mainly at the Opening Ceremony. Steve Moneghetti came 2nd in the Celebrity MTBO.