Midges, Dirty and Wet, but great riding……..
Building bikes in the morning, we got midged. Little ones, but with a proper bite that soon had everyone scratching and running for more clothes. Those of us with insect repellent were suddenly rather popular !
The event centre is Rattvik, in Dalarna, Sweden, a pretty little town on the shores of a large lake with forested rolling hills rising all around. All morning the skies threatened and towards the end of our ride on the model map just before lunch the drizzle started and has not really stopped.
We sat outside a little woodland cafe, sipping coffee until the rain broke through the sun umbrellas before eventually heading back to our youth hostel.
My bike developed a scary rattle during my model event ride which got louder and louder, so I spent most the the time trying to diagnose it rather than navigating, but once sorted (a loose frame insert) I was soon blatting down rooty, rocky singletracks with a smile on my face.
After a couple more cafe stops in the afternoon it was time for the opening ceremony, always amusing affairs. After some cute violin-playing children we were ‘entertained’ by a troop of local dancers. We all enjoyed there fairly uncoordinated dancing, particularity their last number which had us in stiches.
We also had a smile at some of the interviews live on Swedish radio where one Austrian team member when, asked what he thought of Sweden, pronounced it ‘Wet and Dirty’
After some dinner and a uneventful team leaders meeting a few team members went off to a ‘Monster Truck’ event, in town for the evening, while the rest of us chilled out readying for the first races tomorrow, the World Cup and World Masters Middle Distance events, about 20km away.
Lots of photos at https://picasaweb.google.com/mark.stodgell/SwedenWorldCupMTBO2011?feat=directlink