Aussie MTBO team head to Poland for WOC '08

[mcray]

Yes we all know there is a some little World Cup event happening in Canberra in the next couple of weeks that we are all looking forward to , but...

Good Luck to our Aussie Mountain Bike Orienteering team who will be flying the flag and competing at the Poland WOC 2008, 24 - 31 Aug. GO AUSSIE!!!!

http://www.orienteering.asn.au/mountainbike

Good Luck boy's and girl's, have fun and do us proud.

Australian 2008 MTBO WOC TEAM

MEN
Paul Darvoldeski (NSW)
Adrian Jackson (VIC)
Alex Randall (VIC)
David Simpfendorfer (ACT)

WOMEN
Cath Chalmers (WA)
Thorlene Egerton (Qld)
Jen Graham-Taylor (WA)
Melanie Simpson (NSW)

 

[davidtcr]

For those who are interested in following the team, I just got this update from Paul Darvodelsky on their preparations for the MTBO WOC. Currently Paul and Alex Randell are based in Warsaw, and are doing a few MTBO and XC races.

I’m back in Warsaw after a long weekend in Lithuania. Our plan, cunning as it was, was to nip up to the Lithuanian 3 day. It was only about 500 km away, so that shouldn’t take long. Right? Well we didn’t really bargain on Polish roads. OK. So we knew about it from previous trips, but it’s the sort of thing you forget. Anyhow, about 9 hours later we made it to our destination, averaging 60 kmh. Very tiring.

Lithuania is very lovely. Despite the fact I kept calling it Latvia, none of the locals seemed to be particularly bothered (they spell it Lietuva, hence the confusion). The people are very friendly and it’s a lovely country. Our nearest town – we were at a recreation centre out in the forest about 15 km from anywhere – was really pretty.

Apart from beautiful tracks to ride there were loads of lakes everywhere. Compared to Poland, this part of Lithuania is a bit bushier and bumpier on the tracks. Also a little hillier. But that’s very much a relative term as it was still flat.

This seems to be a place where people have their own private lake. It was the height of the holiday season and still you could find secluded lakes everywhere. Once again blueberries were the general ground cover. Unsurprisingly the terrain is quite Scandinavian, although geologically mostly sand, rather than rock underneath.

So what about the racing? Well on Friday evening we had a middle distance race. I had a very sloppy race and never got into it. I was about 6 minutes after the winner. Alex was clearly winning the race, but broke his derailleur near home and had to walk the last 4 km. So that put him out of the 3 day.

Saturday was a long race and I woke up with quite a sore knee. Of course this caused much concern and swallowing of voltaren. But I took it a bit easy in the race and concentrated on navigation and it seems ok now fortunately. And best of all I started to navigate smoothly, which is of course the key. Alex won the race comfortably in 86 min. I did 96. So both of us were happy,.

Sunday was another middle distance race and I started one of the first. The first leg was straight along a dotty track which went through a big marsh. It was dry, but very grassy and bumpy. I rode well and attacked the course, only making a couple of small errors. But my result was a bit disappointing – about 8 min down on the winner in 69 min. But I’m telling myself it was more than it should have been because I was flattening the grass for everyone. Alex rode fast, but a bit scrappily and posted a 4th place.

From there we absolutely bolted so we could get back. We were a bit scared of the trip home, as it had taken so long to get there. But we only took 7.5 hours in our Volvo!

Well on Friday we head up to do some more training on maps and another mtb marathon race on Sunday. This one a bit longer at 75 km. But still not that long because it’s flat. Probably take about 3 hours.

Cheers

Paul​

 

[krisko]

Thanks for the heads up, keep us posted.
I remember going to Poland and just well eating heaps of blueberries. Me and my brother came home to find the parents making boiling some potent blueberry homebrew.

The scenery around parts of Poland especially the bordering mountains are breathtaking. Im jealous.

 

[davidtcr]

An update from Paul on the Sprint and Middle distance races. "AJ" is Adrian Jackson.

G’day,

Well we’re off and racing and have the first two races under our belts. Overall not a great start for the Aussies. Well, AJ came 4th yesterday in the sprint race and won gold today in the middle, but you kind of expect that these days because he’s so fast.

Yesterday’s sprint map is on the blog (www.ozmtboteam.socialfx.net) and was a university. so flat out through all the buildings, paths, gardens and other facilities. It was way too intense for my slow-thinking brain. I rode ok, but made a couple of mistakes and ended up 48th. My navigation was a bit scrappy so it didn’t feel all that good.

Today was the middle. I started really strongly but unfortunately came unstuck on the 5th check point, missed a track and went around, losing about 1.5 minutes. Then a series of small errors and general lack of smoothness put me home in 67 minutes for 50th. AJ won in 54. Mel also had a fantastic race to come 16th. She was one of the fastest to the radio check point, which was only about 10 min from the finish, but made a 3 min mistake on the way home. But still a great race and result.

I probably lost about 6-7 minutes, but we don’t have the maps back yet because there are masters out there racing. So another frustrating ride but tomorrow is another day…..I’ll try and get the map up onto the blog later tonight, but connectivity isn’t all that great here.

Tomorrow is the long distance qualification race. This promises to be a bit flatter, easier and faster than today. Especially as all their winning times have been easily beaten so far. They predicted 62 today, so I guess their prediction of 60 tomorrow will be more like 50. Thursday is a rest day and then Fri/Sat are the long and relay.

Apart from making mistakes, all are well and the team is having a good time. it’s pretty hard not too here. Nice place.

Paul​

Congratulations to Adrian for his win in the Middle Distance MTBO World Championship.

 

[davidtcr]

And the next update on the long qualification race:

Today was the long qualification race. For me it was really awful. I crashed twice (slowly), managed to cut both hands, corked (slightly) one thigh and gashed the other. In addition I dropped my chain and rode down a couple of un-mapped tracks. No serious harm done, other than to my ego. I didn’t qualify, but I’m not too fussed about that because it means I can now have two rest days and really focus on the relay, which was my main aim of this woc.

I’m not really sure what happened today. The change of scale was a bit tricky, but I think some days orienteering just doesn’t work for you. And this was one of those days.

Alex and AJ qualified easily, riding quite fast times. Sadly Dave just missed out. I’m not sure they’ve got the results happening yet on line.

For the girls it was just a matter of finishing as there are less than the 60 they allow in the long final. So their placing was only to gain a good start as the winners start last. For those of you not familiar, late starts are good because the riders before you make tracks. When you have to turn off a big track into a smaller track there is a nice path (and usually skid marks). On the smaller tracks the grass and nettles are flattened, so it’s quite a bit faster.

Tomorrow is a rest day, so that will be nice break. Although for the next 30 hours I think all I have to do is eat 4 times, sleep, clean my bike and, well, that’s it. I guess I’ll find some things to do to fill in the time. It is rather nice to have absolutely nothing to do for a while. Very novel.

It’s got really dark outside just now. Doesn’t seem to know whether it should rain or not. Oh well. We can watch some more Polish TV. This is a particular experience as they dub everything. But they only have one guy who does it all and he talks for all the characters in a monotone. So it’s not very exciting. But we’ve taken a liking to the many period dramas they seem to show and love here. With dragons and cool stuff like that.

Long on Friday and hopefully another gold for AJ. Also I think the girls are ready to post some good results too.

pd​