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