Category: Cycling

Stodge gets silver !

This bizarre event comprised of approximately 25 controls in a twisty 75 metre course between some bungalows on the event hotel grounds. The aim was to ride the course in the quickest time possible.

There was a qualifier, and a final held later in the evening, in the dark. Riders in the qualifiers were allowed to practice as much as they like but were only allowed to submit one time. After 3 practices, I completed what I felt would be my best, and I was gobsmacked to find I’d qualified 4th fastest.

The final was held as night fell. The 16 finalists lined up on the centre lawn with the whole MTBO camp watching. There was lots of banter and support form the various riders from their team members.

The format changed slightly, so there were head to head figure of eight races in a knock out.

First off I was drawn against a female junior, where I cruised to a victory by an embarrassing country mile – she qualified by winning the short super-sprint on Friday. However, in the quarter final I was drawn against the defending champion, Andreas Rief, from Austria. I had the reverse punching loop first and Andreas pulled out a lead of one control at the turn, but I finished very strongly on the return loop and pipped him on the line by only half a metre with the crowd going mad (for him, unfortunately).

My semi was against an Italian, and I managed a really clean ride and beat him by a control, now with the Austrians joining Em supporting me . So, to the final against local Danish boy and crowd favourite, Andreas Proschowsky. After a crowd chanting countdown I started well and at the figure 8 crossing we were neck and neck, but I then fluffed two controls in a row, the nerves getting the better of me, and despite a really strong finish where I was pulling him back in, it was just not enough and he beat me by about a second.

So, second place in this highly prized international event ;-). Ill go to bed with a smile on my face tonight…..

   

Another journey south took us to the venue for a middle/long race this morning. The start was on a pretty foot bridge over a stream, next to an historic museum village with old houses, workshops and barns. There was bright sunshine, but a cold wind blowing.

There was more direction changing, route choice and fine navigation required in today’s race, but also much, much more climb. The course required careful route choice to avoid unnecessary ascents and descents and caught many out.

In hindsight my route to number 1 was not the quickest, but I essentially played it safe, not wanting any more mistakes on a first control. However, my route choice to number 2 using the road was very slow at the end, losing me too much climb and forcing me to get off and push up to the control site. After that I got into the flow and rode the rest of the race fairly cleanly, pleased that I seemed to pick the better route choices, staying away from the tricky, slow-to-ride tracks.

The event was marred for me, though, when I realised on the way into number 14 that I’d lost my Garmin! I promptly rode straight past the control and had to turn and go back up the hill.

I finished strongly and am happy with 34th place, but the steep hills played to the strength of the Danes and Russians, pulling them 20 minutes ahead.

I went back out for another 45 minutes retracing my “steps” & looking for my lost GPS, but to no avail…….

A very tired Stodge got back to the patiently waiting lift back to the hotel, but not before the suggestion of a tasty hot dog from the local cafe.

The area was quite similar to Cannock Chase in some ways and I enjoyed the changes in pace the hills provided, and some exciting fast and technical descents to the river. The course looping in the area near the finish was very difficult to read, though, and at one point I found myself on a beeline for the wrong control only to end up looking down on the control site I needed on a parallel track just 50 metres away. I was a good boy, though, and retraced my route rather than cutting through the forest.

Another great MTBO area, another well-planned course.

Update: My GPS was found by Lasse Brun’s Mum. Many thanks to her for making my evening.

 

 

The Crying Mile – 17 controls, 1.4 km, 1:1500 map – and, yes, it made me cry. Well, scream, shout and bang the handlebars….

I started and immediately made a mistake, getting confused and thinking the map was a smaller scale than it was while traversing the first valley, and before I knew it, I was misplaced. Misplaced then became completely lost as I now know I rode off the map. Not just a little ride off the map but a huge one. Eventually admitting defeat I just turned North and headed on a safety bearing to try and find a road and perhaps get back to the car park.

From the car park I had another go at number one and bounced around the map until I eventually got my eye in and I was then away picking off the controls in grand style. My time for the first split: 16 minutes, my time for the rest of the course: 14 minutes – what a Muppet….

The Crying Mile was fantastic training, but the tracks were very indistinct and everything came up so fast that people were all over the place….

One to put down to experience I think, and I won’t be the only one – I didn’t have the slowest split to number 1, and I wasn’t last!

The forest was amazing and chatting to Per and Maria who live locally they have training packs for clubs to come and use, one for Chasers to consider for a club trip, me thinks.

Results here – just look down almost at the bottom for the Muppet.

http://www.mtbocamp.dk/2010/results3.htm

 The Long Race was held 30km south of the event centre on an army tank training area, next to the Baltic Sea. There was a fantastic atmosphere as the 150+ riders all assembled for a mass start, peleton style. Camp organiser, Johan, rode at the front with a flag which he waved to signal the start. The route to the first control was uphill on a fire road and the fastest riders showed their class pulling away up the incline. I got stuck in and gave it everything. Soon I seemed to find my position in the field and then started to ride my own race, keeping an eye on those coming out the the controls though, which helped several times. The rules allowed us to ride off track on all solid yellow (open) areas and this was used to advantage, but was slower than the gravelly tracks and roads. So of the controls were on proper orienteering features in the middle of these open areas. I then caught a small group of riders, including the Danish Coach whose saddle had broken (which looked very uncomfortable), and then played cat and mouse for the next few controls until I finally pulled away on the last 3 before the race to the finish.
I finished feeling very pleased with only one small 15 second mistake on the whole course and felt there was not much else I could have given in terms of speed. The results show me 27th which at 11 minutes down on World Champion, Lasse Brun Pedersen, and approximately 5 minutes down on many big names. This is probably my best result in MBO to date, and shows the winter training is starting to pay off.

Looking at the results there were groups of riders finishing in close proximity and I noticed many riders drafting to gain a rest on the course, particularly when riding into the wind. This is something I will try and do out in Hungary when I have my next mass start long race. I recorded the whole race on my helmet cam and there is some great foortage of the mass start. Ill edit something together when I get back to the UK

Results available at http://www.mtbocamp.dk/2010/results2.htm

Well I’ve made it and am now waiting in Copenhagen Airport for my lift over to Sweden after a very early flight out of Stansted. The Pre Season European Training Camp with 150 of the best MTBO riders in the world kicks off tonight with a sprint in the dark which should be interesting, but not as interesting as another race than jumped out of the schedule, a supersprint : 1.7km with 15 controls, sounds great. Assuming I get a wifi connection I will try to blog everyday whilst at the camp, and perhaps post a few photos and map extracts.
Full details of the camp are available at www.mtbocamp.dk