Bergen Sprint Camp - Race 4, final.
Mini mass start with 6 runners.
Østerbo, Bostrøm, Runesson, Høye, Moen Pedersli (top H20) and Strain. Cash prizes for the first 3 across the line. Some "gaffling".
The gaffling quickly becomes obvious - two loops starting at the first control. All six of us pile down the steps only to meet a taped off alleyway. We all bale right which was ok for my gaffle but the others were way off line. Øystein and Mårten punch the same control as me so I know we all have the same course. Heading back up the hill they head right but I spot a shorter route up some steps to the left and I pop out at #3 ahead of them. I lead through the common control but Øystein comes past when I hesitate on #6. Again I find a faster route up the hill and I'm ahead at #7. I lose a bit of my lead when I don't notice a second gate out of the park so they are right on me as we come through the common control for the final time. No sign of the other three so it looks like we're splitting the prizemoney between the three of us.
Punching #9 I discover there is a long leg into the fortress at #10 which I've not even looked at yet. I panic and turn out to the right then realise the others haven't followed me. Choice - either double back and chase them down or forge on with my own route. A glance at the map and I can see a slightly hidden route into the fortress on a route which looks OK so I put my head down and get on with it. It wasn't a great route as there were some very steep leaf covered steps where I had to slow right down but fortunately as I turned into the fortress Øystein and Mårten were streaming across the grass and we punched together. From there to the finish we stuck together. I put a surge in up the hill to #12 but Øystein covered it and we punched together. Mårten had some kind of punching failure (I'm not sure if his brick didn't register or if it pinged off in the punch) and had to double back. I chased Øystein into #13 but not hard enough and he got ahead. He crossed the road straightaway while I took the straighter line but had to slow down for a chicane through some parked cars to get on the walkway to the upper level and lost all my speed - I probably had 10m to catch him with 100m to go. Amazingly I was reeling him in quickly and with 20 yards to go I thought I might catch him but a slight bend just before the line was enough for him to block my line and give him the win by about 12 inches.
All in all, this was a somewhat more successful weekend than I was expecting. My knee wasn't great, particularly on the downhills but it was good enough that I could get some quality sprinting under my belt. My fitness was comparable to the other guys (which was surprising). The races were super well organised, the prizes were top notch (lots of leftover Stoltzekleiven gear as well as some kroner) and all within walking distance of the city centre. There were good talks (albeit in Norwegian/Swedish) on Saturday night from Bostrøm and JanK on WOC and route choice analysis and all the stuff was online straight after the races.
Map