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Typing the Shoal Hill report sat at the in-laws in North Wales made me think that it must be close to 2 years since I started this Blog. Looking back, it started with a report of my first cyclo-cross race on 12th October, but my 3rd posting was done from here after a mad training session in a blizzard on 29th October, 2008. I've also just noticed that this posting is the 251st, so another milestone.

Stodge-Blog has grown from a few visitors a week 2 years ago, to now well over 50 unique visitors per day, rising to well over 100 around big events. So, a big thank you to all my readers, as lots of visits makes it easier for me to obtain the sponsorship that helps with the costs of competition.

Tuesday evening, following club circuit training at our local school gym, my wife, Cath, was running home when some Chavs in a speeding Saxo decided it would be fun to throw an egg at her.

Unfortunately it didn’t break on impact and Cath was left doubled over in pain as the car sped away, the egg finally breaking as it hit the floor.

We managed to get an icepack on it 5 mins after it happened but the photo below taken a couple of days later shows quite how hard the impact must have been !

Idiots…..

The 2010 Italian World Mountain Bike Orienteering Cup race http://www.mtboitaly2010.it was based in the town of Teolo in the Parco Colli Euganeo hills, approximately 70km south westish of Venice. The World MTBO Championships in 2011 http://www.mtbo2011.org/ is to be held just up the road in another range of low hills, Berici, and many riders have stayed on for a several days training in preparation for WOC following the World Cup event. This years races were held in the vineyard covered valleys between Teolo and Vo, a small town down in the valley.

The hills of Parco Colli Euganeo rise sharply to 450m from the level plane that runs from Venice right across to Milan, and are a road bike mecca. Teolo’s many cafes seem to be a popular stopping off point after a hard climb on the way to higher cols above. In fact, the cafes and restaurants of Teolo with their ice creams, coffees and pizzas tuned into a focal point for teams after the races, everybody enjoying the great atmosphere.

The steep sided hills with their vineyards and woods gave continual views as the roads and tracks wound their way upwards, every so often giving longer vistas over the surrounding plains towards the sea.

The organisers had a big challenge after being forced to replan the entire event following storms that brought down many trees and washed away tracks on the original areas. They also managed to secure some major sponsors http://www.mtboitaly2010.it/sponsor.php . As well as copious amounts of wine supplied to the top 10 at the prize givings there were also helmets, clothing and regional products.

With great walking and riding, lots of wine tasting opportunities and relaxing village squares, partnered with a trip to Venice, a visit to this national park would make a great weekend away.

Our route to the car park and assembly for day 3 of the OO Cup took us up and over a winding pass with amazing, steep, forested vistas down the big valleys towards the capital, Ljubljana, in the distance, with endless mountains visible beyond.

Leaving Holly in ‘Kindergarden’, Cath and I started the epic walk to the start – 2.5km with 250m climb. Waiting for our start time we were treated to lots of jangly bells before a whole heard of friendly cows ambled into pre-start and started munching. They seemed completely non-plussed by lots of orienteers running up and down warming up.

Everybody from the blue start was thrown straight into a low-visibility, rocky, steep, complex hillside. There were people everywhere, all struggling straight away (Ray was asked within 75 metres of the start if he knew where he was!). I forged uphill for a fence, my catching feature and attack point for number 1, but really got confused after it as to what was up and down. Eventually I re-located on a col before taking a safe route in but I must have lost a couple of minutes. I ran clean for the rest of the course except for one bad mistake where I left a track at the wrong junction, but relocated quite quickly. The course was full-on, massive complexity, low visibility and really uneven and rough under foot, with rocks, fallen trees, steep crags, in fact just about every natural impediment imaginable except water. I fell back on super-accurate compass bearings, picking off features as I went, but it worked. We had a long leg right across the map just before the end. Although there was an obvious long route round on the roads and tracks I decided I hadn’t come al the way to Slovenia to do that, so took the straight route over the saddle and down into the control.

We had a long walk back from the finish with over 200m of descent. As Holly was still in kindergarden and still needed to be shadowed round her course I ran all the way back to assembly. I more or less scooped her up and went straight to her start, shattered but made it just as they were packing up. Bumbling round behind her on her W10, I could barely keep up.

When eventually we returned I ventured to the results – I was 4th!It seems that careful control picking paid off. Before today I was lying 8^th overall, so hopefully I will pull up a few places with today’s result.

Used headcam today – first look there is some good footage, just need to edit 90 mins down to 7 now !

Day 2 at the OOCup and the weather is just perfect, mid 20s and a bit of cloud cover. We were glad we were in our apartment last night though, those in the event campsite were treated to an explosion of sound in the middle of the night as some lightning smashed into a tree and the rain came hammering down again.

It was my turn to shadow Holly round her course today, and I’m glad someone was with her, unmarked paths everywhere made me fall back on contours to help out at a couple of path junctions.

So back up to the start for my course an hour or so later, nattering to new people and friends as the time ticked away to the beeps on my minute. Picking up the map I found the planner had pulled the same stunt Cath and I often do, a monster first leg right across the map with no chance to tune in. It was a really good leg, with much more climb than first seems apparent and several route choices. I went off like a bull at a gate and cocked it up completely, probably losing 3-4 minutes in all. I simplified too much, contouring to the road without picking off any major features and then did a classic parallel error off the wrong road bend – muppet. After that I ran the whole course clean except for a 20 second wobble at the second last as I got tired. It was a great feeling ‘riding’ the karst holes and then nailing the controls, getting good control flow, though the forest was a little tougher under foot than yesterday and the constant contouring and oodles of climbing gave tired legs.

Unfortunately we had a remote finish today which was a bit of an anticlimax after a good run but the walk back to assembly had great views towards a small village complete with hilltop church and meadows.

Day 3 tomorrow heads up into the mountains for the first time, as the terrain gets tougher and tougher.

Results will be posted on www.oocup.com

Tonight was the Club summer handicap pursuit race. A 4km-ish course around Brocton Coppice with a fair bit of climb on good tracks. As I had not pre-entered I had to go off scratch with Iain Stamp, which was probably about right anyway. We started strongly with Iain tucked in behind me. As we turned at the top of the German Cutting I accelerated up the little incline and put a few metres between us. Looking ahead I could see our minute men (Simon Webb and Mike Barnby). Knowing that we could end up in a big group I decided to try and drop Iain and the other two at the same time. I slowly pulled in Simon and Mike but kicked about 10 metres before them and accelerated hard away. Luckily it worked, but I then had to keep the pace on all the way to the top of the hill and up to Coppice car park. I then eased back a little and strode out starting to catch the main stream of time handicapped runners who had set off and minute intervals based on their declared fitness.

The end of the race is steep down hill on slippery wet grass, so although I had caught and passed most of the field I could not make it past father and son Mike and Sam Musters racing each other, or supervet Norman Hall who had a clear lead.

So, fastest time and 4^th in the pursuit race. It also looks like a new course record 15.11

Its one of those races that means nothing but secretly means quite a bit and everyone wants to win it, so a happy Stodge tonight.

Following the run was the summer club barbecue which, unfortunately the same as last year, was a little damp and ended fairly early, but it was good to catch up with Mike and Ali, amongst others, who I had not seen for a while.

Team GB made a difficult decision last night. As Andrew Windrum was the only elite man to qualify for the long final, he gallantly gave his place in the relay to me. The deal was that Andy Conn, Ben and myself would not race the Long B final and keep ourselves fresh for the relay to give the team the best possible chance of a good result.

As a result, I spent the day of the long final supporting and taking photographs (see updated gallery). The finish area was again in the centre of a village centre with an exciting downhill spectator loop before a final climb back up to the finish. After watching all the British riders competing come in I

settled down to photograph the culmination of the men’s and women’s elite races, which were close considering the near 2 hour winning times. There was a great atmosphere with Maria commentating to a background track of traditional mountain music.

So I am under pressure tomorrow: Andrew has given me the A team ride but will be starting alongside me in the mass start leading out for the B team. Lets hope I can ride like I did in Poland last month and reward the decision to put me off first.