Junior men finish 5th in the relay
Monday, 19 July 2010
A brief report by Luke Poland:
Our final race, the MTB WOC Relay Championships turned out to be an excitement filled day, keeping us all on the edges of our saddles! The morning began with a short ride to the assembly area, and at 10am the Senior Mens teams began. Steve was the first leg rider for our first team, and Grant took a place on the line too, to ride for the second "mens" team (which included Mel and Mary). At 10:20 our Junior Boys began with Chris bravely nominating for the first leg. Chris returned in a fantastic time, and Marc headed out, also returning after a great ride. Luke was the final rider and kept up the pace, crossing the line in fifth position, just in front of a frantic Russian. The course was physical, with a big fat hill on the way to most peoples second control, and another just before the finish. Highlights of the day included Super Bock (local VB) at the finish line, some stellar muddy sections on course, and a great repetoire of Grunge music. And continued by Mel... We were all really proud and pleased to see the junior men string together three of their better rides to get a podium place in the relay. Very pleasing for them individually, but also very promising for the future of the sport. The senior teams had mechanical and gender disadvantages. In the first leg, Steve had a solid ride and sent Alex out around mid-field. Alex unfortunately had a flat on the way to the first control which he fixed promptly and continued smoothly through the course until just before the spectator control where he had yet another flat. Not wanting to run the remaining loop, which was taking about 15mins to ride, Alex got a tube from some the spectators. Their team was subsequently disqualified because you are unable to accept outside help even when two flats has definitely put you at a disadvantage. AJ had a couple of small mistakes, but otherwise had a speedy ride. So, what now of the "Mens B team" who are still in contention? Well, with two women in a strong field of men we were hardly ever in contention. All three of us had good rides with minimal small mistakes and we finished in 28th position out of 34 or so (and 18th nation).
Performances of note from the day include: 1. The Czech juniors who took out both the mens and womens relay classes 2. Danish senior women who at the end of the second leg had a mere 2 or 3 second lead which Rikke Kornvig managed to extend to about 5minutes, and the Finish senior women who pulled themselves from 6th to 2nd in the final leg. 3. Mechanical tantrums were greatly entertaining. Second place went to Per Frost of Sweden who, after his second flat, declared that "I hate this f#cking sport, my tube is broken again" *all in a swedish accent*. However, he was well outclassed by the German first leg rider who ran up to the spectator control with a flat rear tyre apparently ready to complete the last loop on foot. When someone pointed out that he had just run 2 or 3 meters past the (blatantly obvious) spectator control it was the absolute last straw... he commenced to swear and curse, threw his bike at the control, picked it up threw it over the fence towards the spectators, lept over the fence and preceded to kick the sh!t out of his bike before turning on the nearest tree. I would like to say that I have photos to share of this episode, but Briohny was too scared of her own safety to take any, despite having a truely advantageous view.
The team has now left Montalegre after the final hurrah at the banquet last night. Luke and I are currently hanging out in Porto before flying out to the UK tomorrow, Mary and Marc are headed back to Aus, while the rest of the team are spending a bit of time in Europe (AJ-racing, Alex-riding, Kay-touring, Grant and Briohny-following the tour) except for Steve who is holidaying in Thailand on the way home. All in all it was a successful championships for the Aussie team. And equally/more importantly it was an enjoyable time with some very entertaining moments and a great group of people.
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Long Final
Saturday, 17 July 2010
There was, yet again, much excitement in the Australian team camp as AJ rode to get his third medal in the individual races. He held onto the winning position until very rear the end of the race when Russia's Anton Foliforov came through to take the gold. AJ is the only elite man to have finished on the podium in every distance, let alone to have won a medal in each!! Alex was reasonably happy with his ride and finished in 27th position. Both he and AJ crashed in a semi-concealed ditch - AJ came out with bruised ribs and Alex with a sore wrist which fortunately does not appear to be fractured on x-ray. Steve was disappointed with his ride, having made many smaller errors throughout the course.
The men's course was a gruelling 38km with over 1200m of climb and the winning time today (1:53:03) was only a few minutes over the expected winning time for a long distance race. On the other hand, the women's course took around 15mins longer than expected with Christine Schaffner (SUI) winning in 1:54:05 (normally a women's long distance race would take 95-100mins). Melanie and Mary both had solid rides, however lost around 5 minutes each towards the end of the race. Melanie finished up in 20th position, a mere 13 seconds ahead of Japan's Sakiko Miyauchi who had been training with the Australian team last week. Mary ended up in 28th.
The junior boys had a similar distance and climb as the senior women - about 30km with 930m climb. Marc had his best ride of the championships finishing in 25th position. He had a few mistakes around indistinct junctions, however recovered himself and his fitness has really paid off on the physical course. Luke was relatively pleased with his ride and finished in 30th, at one point he was feeling quite strong on a hill and offered himself a bit of moral encouragement, only to find that another rider was within earshot and looking at him strangely. Chris had some early mistakes and had difficulty recovering his enthusiasm and navigation. He finished up in 38th position.
The relay tomorrow starts at 10:00 for the mens and 10:20 for the JWOC teams. (Pending a decision on Alex's wrist and if he is prepared to ride with it, Mary and Melanie will be riding in the "Men's B team" with Grant).
Before we forget, yet again, something you may want to check out is a you tube video made by a British rider, Mark Stodgell, who has condensed a helmet camera recording of his sprint ride into a 7 minute demonstration of how tight the streets were, how close the cars got and how bumping the cobblestones are! Check it out via his blog or on you tube.
Results
MEN::
1. Anton Foliforov (RUS) 1:53:02
2. Adrian Jackson (AUS) 1:55:05
3. Erik Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 1:56:03
27. Alex Randall (AUS) 2:08:19
49. Steven Cusworth (AUS) 2:20:27
WOMEN::
1. Christine Schaffner (SUI) 1:54:05
2. Ksenia Chernykh (RUS) 1:56:42
3. Marika Hara (FIN) 2:01:13
20. Melanie Simpson (AUS) 2:14:04
28. Mary Fien (AUS) 2:18:45
JUNIOR MEN::
1. Pekka Niemi (FIN) 1:46:00
2. Maciej Gromadka (POL) 1:46:01 (he was 1sec slower in the finish chute!)
3. Vojtech Stransky (CZE) 1:49:09
25. Marc Gluskie (AUS) 2:10:57
30. Luke Poland (AUS) 2:18:26
38. Chris Firman (AUS) 2:31:35
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JWOC Middle Final and WOC Long Qualification
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Today saw the JWOC classes have their re-run of the middle distance final after the cancellation of the courses yesterday due to a misplaced control. Our Junior Men all had pleasing races with Chris finishing 28th and Luke and Marc finishing 39th and 40th respectively. Chris said his race was fairly clean and mistake free. Luke and Marc both made a few small errors, but were still quite happy with their performances in their second hard day of competition in a row. The start order for the Long distance final on Friday for the Junior classes will be reverse order from the Middle distance results today.
In the WOC classes Adrian, Stephen and Alex all finished in the top 10 in their heats, but Grant missed out on making the A final after finishing 24th. Adrian rode a quick pace for around 3/4 of the course before easing off to save energy for the tough race on Friday. Stephen had a clean race and was close behind in 10th position in a closely packed A heat. Alex had a good race despite not feeling 100% physically and finished in 10th position also. Grant rued a late course error and a poor route choice which ended up costing him a spot in the top 20 in his heat.
The drama of the day came from the WOC women, with 2 competitors having to be ambulanced off the course after bad crashes on the steep rocky tracks. Melanie along with Anke Dannowski (Germany) stopped to help the most seriously injured of the women for more than 40 minutes. The Czech competitor was very seriously injured and has been airlifted to Porto and is expected to be operated on tonight for a broken spine. Mel otherwise had a clean ride, although rode very gingerly downhill. Mary tried to conserve as much energy as possible in the steep terrain and was happy with her ride and time.
Results
Junior Men
1. Pekka Niemi FIN 49:47
2. Krystof Bogar CZE 50:53
3. Mikhail Utkin RUS 51:16
28. Chris Firman AUS 58:44
39. Luke Poland AUS 65:55
40. Marc Gluskie AUS 66:10
Junior Women
1. Olga Vinogradova RUS 49:34
2. Barbro Kvale NOR 51:58
3. Magdalena Seifertova CZE 52:51
WOC Men Heat A
1. Kevin Haselsberger AUT 73:03
2. Davide Machado POR 75:01
3. Andrey Kornev RUS 76:19
7. Adrian Jackson AUS 76:35
10. Steven Cusworth AUS 78:05
WOC Men Heat B
1. Anton Foliforov RUS 73:44
2. Juho Saarinen FIN 76:55
3. Clement Souvray FRA 78:25
10. Alex Randall AUS 82:02
WOC Men Heat C
1. Erik Skovgaard Knudsen DEN 76:55
2. Luca Dallavalle ITA 79:08
3. Marek Pospisek CZE 80:47
24. Grant Lebbink AUS 96:06
WOC Women Heat A
1. Martina Tichovska CZE 77:18
2. Maja Rothweiler SWI 79:48
3. Micheala Gigon AUT 80:25
29. Melanie Simpson AUS 136:40*
*Awaiting decision on time adjustment for stopping for injured competitor
WOC Women Heat B
1. Ksenia Chernykh RUS 82:28
2. Christine Schaffner SWI 83:53
3. Line Brun Stallknecht DEN 87:26
15. Mary Fien AUS 94:34
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