Wednesday 22 August 2012

Elite sprint race

Had a good ride in the sprint race today (Tuesday). I made a few errors but with many of the controls off track with control descriptions provided, I was pleased how my navigation went under such conditions.

It was mostly open terrain with a lot of winding motorcycle tracks squiggling all over the place. I was thankful that I had done a lot of foot orienteering so that reading the off track terrain was possible and absolutely necessary. The bulletin information had indicated it would be up to 25% off track riding.

There's prickles and thorns out on course. The briar bushes remind me of Central. There's been a few punctures out there. I am riding with 'slime' sealant filled inner tubes so that hopefully any puncture is sealed by the slime as the wheel rotates.

I finished in 39th place with 31:52, just over 10 min slower than the winner. Another of my Budapest training camp roomies did well today, Emily, earning a silver medal. Congrats Em!

It was hot again today, somewhere around 34C. I covered myself with water at the start. There was a bit of whispy cloud and a breeze that helped a little.

Yet again a great performance by my Giant Anthem X2 from Hedgehog Bikes Tauranga. I'm probably faster through the rough stuff (and it has been pretty rocky) having rear suspension.

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