After 3 days of pondering the plume of pesky pumice emanating from Iceland, it was all systems go and mega-stress on Wednesday night getting packed, when finally it was confirmed I would be flying out to Budapest on Thursday morning, after all, for round 1 of the IOF MTBO World Cup Series.
Monday evening & night had been spent producing the start lists for the British Foot Orienteering Champs which is being held on the Chase over the Bank Holiday weekend, so I was full of horror getting my race bike out of the car (not cleaned from Sunday) on Tuesday night for a quick recovery ride finding a slow puncture from the rear tyre.
Investigations on Wednesday lunchtime showed a small stick embedded in the tread which produced a large hiss when removed. Unfortunately all the wheel milk had dried up inside so no autoseal. A quick trip to a local bike shop to discover they had run out of my normal milk ended up being supplied with a bottle of useless stuff I won’t complain about too much to here, as I have since read their website and discovered I wasn’t given the right stuff anyway, it being more like a puncture fill than a wheel sealing milk – grrrrrr…… After a couple of hours of air pumping, goo squirting and 2 rim tape replacements, knight in shining armour Raleigh/Corratec’s Jimmy Taylor offered to meet Cath at 9pm in Derby with some Joes No Flats Milk and by 10.15pm everything was dandy again, and by 11pm I was all packed. Not great prep for a 4am get up, but at least I had a ridable bike.
On Thursday morning things went much better, both alarms went off, I had a proper breakfast and was in the airport early after using a really good parking provider – Airport Car Parkz at Luton. Into departures for collection of the British MTBO teams standard fair (Boots value meal deal) and time to chill. It never ceases to amaze me on these early morning flights just how many stag do’s are propping the bar up, lager in hand, at 6.30 in the morning!
We ended up taking off an hour late but with a tailwind. A good book, a front row seat with lots of leg room and a packet of peanuts, and I was finally a happy chappy.
After picking up the hire car (from a different terminal in Budapest) I set off on the A4 into the Hungarian countryside to kill a few hours before picking up Sarah Bayliss from the airport. After a quick stop in Tesco’s to get some water and fruit (then back in to get some more water after the first bottle I opened in the car let me know it was fizzy by spraying all over me), I found Monor, a little town where I had goulash and rice in a little eatery by the town square, before finding a quiet lane to sit down in and build my bike on the side of the road, much to the amusement of passers by.
I then went for a 30 minute shake down ride on the roads and tracks just following my nose. Other than the vineyards the flat nature of the terrain, coupled with the straight single track lanes and low hills in the distance, reminded me a lot of the North Curry Moors and Sedgemoor where I grew up in Somerset.
From the airport it is about 100km to Balatonfured on Lake Balaton where we hope to meet up with Andy Conn and Em Benham, the rest of the British Team. Unfortunately Mark Hayman’s flight was cancelled so we are one down.
Full details of the event at http://www.mtbo.hu/
Glad 80% of the team is there ok, but it’s a pity Marky isn’t. Hope you and the rest of the team have a good one tomorrow!