No cars were required to get to the start of the WOC middle race as Ben Shemen forest is adjacent to the event centre. The heat on the way up to the start was intense, particularly on a climb in the open, but the organisers had kindly laid on chilled bottles of water that soon brought things under control.
Lucy and I got interviewed by local TV before the start which was a great way of calming the nerves. The lone Chinese competitor Zing Li (part of my Fantasy WOC team) started just before me, but I wondered on the way to number 1 that perhaps this might not have been a good buy as I passed her, this being her first international event.
I nailed the first 2 controls but got confused in the miriad of singletracks and lost a couple of minutes on the way to number 3. From then on I had a good ride and really attacked the climbs, trying to keep the control flow going in the complex track network. There were some good route choice legs but as we don’t get our maps back till after the relay I haven’t yet reviewed them.
The last few controls were just to get us back to the finish area near to a swimming pool and involved little navigation, they were however all in direct sun. The sweat poured off me as a gave it everything trying to keep in front of an Italian rider, who finally caught me just before the line. I had an early start so I then had to watch the results for 2 hours to see how my time stacked up against the other 75 riders.
Zing Li’s plucky ride finished with all the teams cheering her in (unfortunatley she was timed-out, so no fantasy points for me), just before Andy Conn came into the finish straight. I knew it was going to be close between us from my watch but the final result showed I was 54th pipping, Andy by just 6 seconds.
After the disappointment of yesterday I feel really positive going forward to the relay on Wednesday where I will be riding first leg for team GB in the mass start. The teams other news is Em Benhams fantastic 8th place in the womens race, only a couple of minutes off a podium place.
The event website has videos of todays and yesterdays action that give a really good feel of the event.
http://www.nivut.org.il/mtbo/Photos.aspx
World MTBO champs – Israel – long qualifer
The long qualifier was held 40km south from the event centre at Haruvit. The 1:20000 map had a dense track network splitting small fields from olive groves and stands of trees.
After a tape cutting ceremony by the local mayor (in which Sarah starred in the TV coverage) I started in the 3rd group of three men, each riding a different gaffeled course. The top 20 from each course go through to the final on Saturday so I had to have a good ride to get in. The heat wasn’t too bad at the start and I spiked the first 5 controls but losing time on the climbs to the stronger riders. Number 6 gave 3 route choice options and I decided on a straight route up and over. Though the track became sandy and v difficult to ride, it wasnt much slower than the southerly option on the road but the northerly option over the saddle seemed quickest on looking at the splits.
I made an error on number 7 missing a track junction, perhaps only losing 1 minute, but got filmed by the TV decending into it and bike on shoulder running back up the hill.
I rode an otherwise clean race taking advantage of some sneaky shortcuts and felt reasonably strong towards the end. After finishing came the agonising wait to see if I would qualify for the final. In the end I missed out by 1 place coming in 21st. 🙁
I take the positive though that I am only 9 or so mins down on most of the worlds best, but I am disappointed to riding in the B final.
Hot as a hot thing, thorny as a thorny thing
Well, we have arrived. A few problems picking up the hire cars, a puncture and a car with a tiny boot, which isn’t the best for carrying bikes! We now have an upgrade to a Skoda Roomster – which lives up to its name….
The accommodation is basic but great and the food very plentiful and yummy, if a little odd at times. It is very hot and humid, but not as bad as I feared. We have been out for a shakedown ride after building the bikes and many have had punctures already. The riding is very technical with lots of rocky trails to trip us up, as well as the thorns. I will go out again late this afternoon with the map to do a few controls at race speed to finish tuning in, then its lots of rest and fluid to get ready for the first race the long qualifier tomorrow morning.
I was pleased to get a value of 3 million euros in the Fantasy MTBO team competition (many of the Japanese and Spanish got 1 million euro values) and now have to think about my team for the competition. I’m going to go for youth and ignore the 10 million euro big guns as we only have 30 million to spend !!!
Off to Israel
Well the bags are packed and weighed (28 kilograms is all we get !) Bike serviced and tested, EMIT card sourced and I’m ready to go. Most of the team are staying with me tonight so we can travel to Heathrow together in the morning. Ive had a couple of colds in the last few weeks and the training has been a little disjointed but I feel very fresh and have tapered well getting lots of sleep.
I’m not sure of the internet connectivity at our accomodation in Israel but Ill try and blog every night if I can.
You can keep up to date at the WOC site http://www.nivut.org.il/mtbo/
Or at British Orienteering – www.britishorienteering.org.uk and the TCA at www.trailquest.co.uk
Thanks Eat Natural
The postman has just delivered my latest batch of Eat Natural bars. After running out a couple of weeks ago I have been missing having a box on my desk and one in the car and those garagey, chocolaty, crispy moments have surfaced a couple of times when I have been hungry on journeys.
Earlier this year I experimented with Gels and more technical food on races without much success but I am now using Eat Natural bars whilst racing as well as as a snack during the day. I particularly like the Date and Walnut ones which are nice an sticky and easy to eat on the bike. I find having something proper to eat seems to give me more umph than gels.
My mum has also a convert, a sufferer of many food intolerances she finds they give her no problem at all and my supply always seems to dwindle a bit when she visits !
Ive enough to keep me going for a few months now, so thanks Eat Natural for your continued support.
Squirt !
I recently noticed that Squirt Dry Lube had become a sponsor on Dark and White mountain bike events and as I have had difficulty buying my normal dry lube for a while and have had some trouble keeping the chain clean using wet lube on the Chase I contacted them to see if I could try some.
I came back off holiday to find a nice package containing a sample bottle and a full 120ml bottle, thanks in2dust the UK distributors of Squirt.
I will now follow the instructions carefully for first application of the wax based lube which involves fully de-greasing. Ill post in a few weeks to let you know how I am getting on…..
OO cup MTBO – Slovenian-Croatian MTB-O League
The final details of the OO Cup mentioned an MTBO to be held in the afternoon of the Friday after the main foot O competition. After a few helpful emails from Slovenia before departure from the UK I lined myself up with a hire bike and travelled out with pedals, shoes, helmet and mapboard intending to race the event.
Unfortunately I could only hire a fully suspended ‘enduro or all mountain’ bike from Tandem of Logatec. It was a Slovenian
manufactured Cultbike with a huge Marzocchi Bomber front shock. It was of quite high spec with XT thoughout and wasn’t too heavy (about 30lbs I would think) but I spent an hour on Thursday night trying to dial out as much suspension as possible, lengthening the reach and swapping the breaks over so I didn’t launch myself into space accidentally (for those that don’t know the Europeans have their breaks set the other way with the front brake on the right). I’ve since learnt it was a prototype model for their new Mania bike. Cults are made in Logatec and a very nice Carbon Hardtail was given to George Bush on his visit to Slovenia last year !
My start time for the foot orienteering race was very late so I only had about 2 hours to get re-hydrated (it was about 34 degrees) and get ready to do battle with the forest again but this time by bike. I started well and took a couple of route choices influenced by the bike. It really didn’t climb well on road or hard packed tracks as the rear wouldn’t fully lock out, so I to
ok steeper more direct routes. I seemed to pass most of the field in front and was going well when I was suddenly caught by two riders who appeared from a different direction having taken a road option. We then had a great head to head for a few controls with each of us challenging for the lead until I took a different route choice option and made a small error. I caught them again just before the finish but by then my legs were feeling the excess’s of the foot O race of earlier and they pulled about 30 secs in front on the last two controls.
I was really pleased with 3rd place as 2nd place went to Slovenias best MTBOer (who hadn’t raced 
earlier that day) and 1st to a Belgian who again was not competing in the OO cup foot races.
The navigation was very intense on the small rocky tracks and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I spent most of the race cursing the heavy sofa I was riding but a little loving the way it soaked up the huge rocks that littered the paths and liked the way it climbed over particularly loose rocky ascents but a light hard tail would have knocked a bit of time off.
Full results at http://www.orientacijska-zveza.si/index.php?id=43&rid=439
Some photos at http://picasaweb.google.si/matjazmk/MTBOPokalIdrije2009#
OO Cup 2009 – Slovenia
This years OO cup (foot orienteering) was centered on the town of Logatec near to Ljubljana. As a 
family holiday we all jetted to Trieste in northern Italy hired a car and stayed in a pretty hotel 2km away from days 1-3 in the village of Crni Vrh.
We flew out on the Monday evening deliberately so we could do the model event, held on the Tuesday nearby. It was a complete eye opener to what was to come and I spent an hour thrashing around in the complex contour detail of the Limestone ‘Karst’ forest trying to understand how it was mapped.
The 5 day event was excellent with great weather, maps and planning and efficient, informal organisation. The 1000 or so competitors came from 27 countries and it was really noticeable how many Elites had made the trip in preparation for the world champs next month.
My performances got better during the week as I got used to the mapping style and bonkers terrain. I was mostly mid table on M35 but managed a 7th and ended up 12th overall which I was very happy with but I did have one of my biggest mistakes of recent years on day 4 – 17 mins…… The terrain was very tough underfoot with lots of rocks and tough undergrowth.
Day 3 also saw me competing in an MTBO – see seperate posting.
The planning for Holly (6 years old but the youngest category is W10) 
was very challenging with several legs completely off track and many legs having 5 or six decision points, but she managed OK and got her medal along with all the other W /M10s at the prize giving on the last day which was a nice touch to encourage the youngsters.
She also gave Cath a close call on the run in split time only being beaten by 1 second 🙂
The OOcup was a fantastic event and I would recommend it to experienced orienteers as a really challenging 5 day, plus the little country of Slovenia has lots to offer for apres Karst…..