Middle final and another top 10 for Tom

Friday, 26 August 2011

The middle distance final was run (ridden) in Pozzolo di Villaga today in a mix of forested areas and vineyards.  Each of the courses involved a spectator control followed by a 10-12 minute loop that brought the riders back to the same spectator control before riding up the finish chute.  (Literally UP the finish chute).

 Tom had another excellent ride and placed 10th in 63:18.  Krystof Bogar (Czech Republic) won the junior mens race in 54:56.  Marc recovered remarkably well from a pre-race crash and finished in 19th in a time of 66:53.  Somehow is chain / deralleur seized up his rear wheel and he went over the hangers whilst he was warming up.  Thankfully, he was relatively uninjured and the local bike mechanics got his bike in reasonably working order just in time for him to get to the start blocks.  Chris and Oscar had several smaller errors, and although they themselves were disappointed, rode into very respectable positions of 27th (68mins) and 33rd (71 mins) respectively. 

The womens´ race was won by 6-time world champion Michi Gigon (Austria, 58:02) with a margin of 15 seconds over Anna Kaminska (Poland) and Rikke Kornvig (Denmark) another 47 seconds behind.  I had a large error enroute to the 3rd control, and together with some smaller errors later in the course finished up in 40th.  

The senior men also had a trying day.  Steve broke his seatpost shortly before the spectator control and had to ride standing up.  He recommends this as a good training technique for the quads, but found it (understandably!) difficult to keep up race pace for 15+ minutes.  He finished up all the same in 34th position.  The race was run up this years long distance champion, Samuli Saarela (Finland, 55:56) ahead of Ruslan Gritsan (Russia) and Tobias Breitshädel (Austria).  Alex had a rare brain fade and punched the wrong first control.  

Tomorrow is the relay and will be held in a similar area to todays races. Kay had a tough decision to make regarding the teams, given all the of the junior men have shown excellent potential and different stages through the week and had their own difficulties at other times.  The teams and riding orders are as follows:

Senior men: Steve, Alex, Oscar (start 10:30 - 18:30 EST)

Junior men: Chris, Tom, Marc (start  10:50 - 18:50 EST)

 Photos of maps and riders from today will come tomorrow (promise!).