News and views from the team

Friday, 7 July 2006

With regular internet connection the team is now into full blogging mode.  Read on for blogs from the team members.

Getting to the Start Line

With WOC fast approaching it seems that things are getting a little more chaotic. Paul’s demons have once again done a decent job of trying to stop him from getting to the start line with a broken rear swing arm in the last few days and today in a unlikely incident I managed to run into a another go-kart at the moment it was airborne, negating the kart’s guarding and battering my leg instead. Unfortunately it also meant my track time was cut short which was a pity as it was the first time in the last few weeks that I’ve been faster than AJ and Alex.

The leg is pretty sore and slightly swollen but doesn’t appear to have done any joint or muscular damage so I have my fingers crossed that things will be fine. It would be very disappointing not to be able to ride after doing the training and having experienced the anticipation leading up the event. Paul spent half of yesterday formulating back-up plan on back-up plan so he has a suitable bike to ride and to put his mind at rest. So at the moment I plan to keep the ice up and spent time resting. Given that the leg will be right soon at least this means I will be well rested by the time the event starts and eager to get out there.

Dave Simpfendorfer

My Trip so Far

I have been having a fantastic trip so far. I arrived in England on the 18^th June and after waiting 2 hours in the passport control line in Heathrow found my relatives waiting outside the terminal. It was hard to train in that first week as I was having so much fun with my cousins and aunt and uncle, though I found some time and went on some rides through an area south on London called the south downs.

It was good meeting up with the team in Lahti and getting to train in some more technical and relevant areas. AJ, Alex and I also ran a club foot o event near Lahti. It was a very different area to what I have run in Australia, lots of negative contours and large areas of depression.

We have been in Joensuu from Sunday night and are trying to make the most of the technical maps and areas we have available to us for training. I’m getting much more confident and consistent in some on the harder maps. Unfortunately there have been some problems and bad luck so far for the team, though we should be able to overcome most of them by the start of the weekend and competitions. Hopefully everyone can perform well.

Steve Cusworth

Relay Fun

On probably the only ‘typical’ Finnish area of the training maps we decided to hold a 2-person relay. Having done exactly the same type of exercise with the entire Finnish team a week ago (on the same map, which is posted below) I knew that it was a great area for flat-out racing. I also undertook the course-setting to avoid control sites I had already visited before. The area itself is quite small, and is between 2 small creeks. It has, however, enough crossing points for good route-choice and leg setting. For flat-out riding the scale needs to be at 1:5000! There were a lot of small tracks connecting between the main ones which added to the demands of both route-choice and navigation. The format was that each rider in the team rode the same loop consecutively, then did the same with the second loop. We didn’t have enough teams to split the loops so it was effectively a mass start. Teams were as follows: Alex + David, Steve + Darvo, and Adrian + Carolyn.

The start for the Finnish relay was a flat out sprint, however the Australian one comprised a leisurely placing of maps into the board followed by a convoluted route to the start triangle. Steve showed a clean pair of heels to Carolyn and Dave, building a 3min lead on the first leg. Dave and Carolyn were within 30sec, meaning AJ and I were pitted almost neck and neck. Paul (using Steve’s bike) conceded a bit over 2 min on the borrowed bike, which meant the battle for first was open again. I held the gap to AJ so it was tight for the second loop. This was the shorter of the two, which meant time would be harder to pick up. Steve once again blasted free of the rest, and the 3min gap was back. Dave had almost pegged Carolyn back, but missed the last control and had to go back for it. I had a job in front of me, and roared out for the second loop. This time I lost about 15 sec twice, and fell back a little, and the gap proved too big for AJ to bridge. The results were:

1^st: Steve + Darvo

2^nd: (2min back) AJ + Carolyn

3^rd: (further 30 sec back) Alex + Dave

Fastest times for the loops were about 10min for the first and 8 min for the second.

Good news in the constructors championships was that Scott took out all podium places!!

Alex Randall