Luckily Bobby gave me a lift up to the start of the Middle Distance MTBO World Cup Race as I had a very early start of 10.12, the 7th man off. The event area was a good 10km cycle uphill from the event centre so more than a warm up for most.
The terrain was similar to the model area, a plateau and a series of wriggly ridges with lots of fairly steep re-entrants, criss crossed by a denser track network than the long. There were lots of brashings on the tracks and in the forest which again caused many people to return from their courses early with rear mechs tucked in their pockets and spokes missing from their wheels.
I started well, riding smoothly through the controls, if though a little 
frustrated at the junior men getting in the way at the flags until I made an error on the way into number 4, trying to cut through the forest too early rather than riding around which was a big mistake. I ended up thrashing about pulling branches out of the bike, climbing unnecessarily to avoid more brashings and generally started to see red mist and got angry. I probably lost more that 2-3 mins!
Unfortunately I then took both a poor route choice and made a mistake taking an early track on the way to the next control losing another 3 mins. I seemed to bumble the next few controls still losing time and making either daft route choice decisions or little nav errors until I eventually got it together for the middle part of the race but it was too late. Unfortunately I also made an error on the second last control. Until I see the map again tonight I’m not sure what I did but I was thrashing around twice in the same area not seeing the tracks on the ground as they appeared on the map.
Kevin H, caught me at this point but I decided some British pride was at stake and I would beat him in, which I did after a great standing punch at the last.
So not a great race (53rd), I could blame a little of it on the early start, as the elephant tracks created would have helped the later riders but I think I let the first mistake get to me and tried to cut through the forest too much when it was faster to ride around.
The rest of team GB faired much better. Bobby rode solidly and Heather was 25th Emily rode a great race on Women’s elite to take 5th so she will join some of the GB masters on the podium at tonight’s prize giving.
Sarah and Charlie both extended their leads in Women’s 40 and 50 + and Andy Conn rode a superb middle race to get 4th on Mens 40, just over two minutes behind MTBO legend Mika Turvala.
Sarah and Charlie now look unbeatable in the overall masters competition with everything hanging on tomorrows chasing start final.
The World Cup riders will be taking part in a mixed relay on Sunday. I will be leading out handing to Emily on second leg with Bobby on anchor.
Full middle results available later at
http://www.harpagan.pl/worldcup/?page=results&lang=en
Maps will not be available until after the relay.