{"id":1332,"date":"2010-04-10T20:42:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-10T19:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=1332"},"modified":"2010-04-10T21:30:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-10T20:30:11","slug":"mtbo-camp-paallikkoos-diavolo-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=1332","title":{"rendered":"MTBO Camp – Paallikkoo’s Diavolo Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stodge gets silver !<\/h2>\n

This bizarre event comprised of approximately 25 controls in a twisty 75 metre course between some bungalows on the event hotel grounds. The aim\u00a0was to ride the course in the quickest time possible.<\/p>\n

There was a qualifier, and a final held later in the evening, in the dark. Riders in the qualifiers were allowed to practice as much as they like but were only allowed to submit one time. After 3 practices, I completed what I felt would be my best,\u00a0and I was gobsmacked to find I’d qualified 4th fastest.<\/p>\n

The final was held as night fell. The 16 finalists lined up on the centre lawn with the whole MTBO camp watching. There was lots of banter and support form the various riders from their team members.<\/p>\n

The format changed slightly, so there were head to head figure of eight races in a knock out.<\/p>\n

First off I was drawn against a female junior, where I cruised to a victory by an embarrassing country mile – she qualified by winning the short super-sprint on Friday.\u00a0However, in the quarter final I was drawn against the defending champion, Andreas Rief, from Austria. I had the reverse punching loop first and Andreas pulled out a lead of one control at the turn,\u00a0but I finished very strongly on the return loop and pipped him on the line by only\u00a0half a metre with the crowd going mad (for him, unfortunately).<\/p>\n

My semi was against an Italian, and I managed a really clean ride and beat him by a control, now\u00a0with the Austrians joining Em supporting me\u00a0. So, to the final against local Danish boy and crowd favourite, Andreas Proschowsky. After a crowd chanting countdown I started well and at the figure 8\u00a0crossing we were neck and neck, but I then fluffed two controls in a row, the nerves getting the better of me, and despite a really strong finish where I was pulling him back in, it was just not enough and he beat me by about a second.<\/p>\n

So, second place in this highly prized international event ;-). Ill go to bed with a smile on my face tonight…..<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stodge gets silver ! This bizarre event comprised of approximately 25 controls in a twisty 75 metre course between some bungalows on the event hotel grounds. The aim\u00a0was to ride the course in the quickest time possible. There was a qualifier, and a final held later in the evening, in the dark. Riders in the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MTBO Camp – Paallikkoo’s Diavolo Challenge”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-competitions","category-mountain-biking-cycling","category-orienteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1332"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1348,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions\/1348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}