Photos and maps from the sprint

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Today is an opportunity to rest and get our heads back into the 1:15 000 scale maps with MTBO mapping standards instead of the urban terrain.  That and do some washing, reading books and visiting the local coffee shops.  For Kay the "rest day" has involved a 2 hour taxi ride to collect a new van because our current one seemed to go into complete electrical meltdown.  At one stage we were a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to get the bikes out at the sprint because the central locking was not working.

There are some great photos and a short video that can be found via the official website or if you click here.  Down the bottom this page you can also access the maps from the sprint.  All three controls had the same last few controls and it was around here that caused a lot of confusion, not only in the Australian team, but many good international riders also came unstuck in that area. The structure is a fort that had a high wide wall that you could ride around (control 63 was on top of this wall) and then control 64 was down in the moat around the fort.

Finally, quote of the day goes to Luke.  At the opening ceremony we learnt that Montalegre has a (?pagan) festival every Friday the 13th where they have dancing and fireworks, costumes and masks all in an effort to ward off the evil eye (or some such thing).  And this all occurs in the towns ancient ruined castle on the hill. I pointed out that this will be occurring in August and maybe it would have been interesting to be here!  Luke was also very interested in the idea and enthusiastically asked "Oh really, what date?"