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