Long Qualification Start Times...

After a few more training days, relocation to Veszprem and a model map ride yesterday, the long qualification race is upon us.  There will be live tracking of some athletes (no Aussies today) and hopefully live results going up throughout the race. 

The senior men have 3 heats and the top 20 will go through to the A-final, whilst the senior women and junior men will be racing in 2 heats (top 30 go through).  

Start times are as follows (with AEST in brackets):

Steve - 11:04 (7:04pm)

Marc - 11:09 (7:09pm)

Karl - 11:18 (7:18pm)

Heath - 11:51 (7:51pm)

Tom - 12:06 (8:06pm)

Oscar - 12:07 (8:07pm)

Ricky - 12:25 (8:25pm) - 6:25pm Perth time 

Chris - 12:30 (8:30pm)

Mel - 12:35 (8:35pm)

Report to follow this evening :-) 

Training Day 3

After the relaxing thermal spas yesterday the Australian team was feeling fresher for the days training. On the way to training today the convoy had zero mistakes in navigating to the event venue. The venue was at Iharos (Hosszú-rét) which was the north eastern part of the map of the Hungarian Championships. On arrival we parked in the car park but was quickly told to move along by a Hungarian road worker trying to explain to us that they were re-spraying the parking lines that we had parked into.

Todays course was a flatter and shorter, it was on a 1:15000 scale map with 10m contours. The team was practicing their pre-race routine and getting into their race mind set. Ian was sending off the Aussie riders in two minute intervals as one would in a proper race. Having to flip the map over in the last minute and plan as much as we could and race the first one or two controls. This was a perfect event to fine tune anything that anyone felt needed to be practiced more.

The course was a fairly fast course and provided a decent amount of tracks and route choice. Unfortunately Chris on the way to his first control had a little bit of a fall. Paying too much attention to his map and the terrain that he didn’t realize his front wheel had dropped into an over grown rut and soon found himself on the ground. Luckily he only received some minor gravel rash and a bruised leg and arm.

Everyone in the team has improved each day with their navigation, having been in Hungary for almost a week now we are finding our bearings and looking forward to the world championships that are not too far away.

Training Day 2

The second day of training was just north of Csillebérci, where the team is staying. Riding as a team, the Aussies shot down the side of the mountain and road across to the map, which was roughly 10km away.

The days training was again set up by the event organisers who had provided maps and hung controls out in the forest. They had setup SI units and computer print outs for the riders. The Hungarian organisers had set a Short and a Long course that only varied a few kilometers in length.

The terrain consisted of very steep hillsides and a mixture of typical Hungarian forest with open fields. There were small patches of residential housing in the middle of the map and on the out skirts.  The scaling of the map was at 1:20 000. It really showed the climb/descents with 5m contour lines bunching up hard against each other in places, although it did make it hard to see some minor tracks at times.

On the map there were plenty of minor track networks that kept you on your toes to navigate through. It was tricky to navigate fast and fluidly through sections of these tracks. Everyone had their small moments of being a bit lost finding small connecting tracks that sometimes didn’t exist.

After the training everyone was starting to look a bit weary and tired from riding every day since the Hungarian Championships and still had to ride back up the hill to Csillebérci. As it turned out the climb up was very pleasant and fairly quick, and the team could relax and clean up after the days training.

Training Day 1

The Australian MTBO team started their first day of the five day lead up to the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships off by visiting the bike shop. Ian and Tom had to get a spoke replaced in their back wheels after snapping in the Hungarian Middle Distance Championships. The wheels were both repaired but with slightly different spoke replacements. Joining the team today was Melanie Simpson landing in before mid-day and making it to our accommodation safely.

Training was at the doorstep of the team’s accommodation being situated right in the middle of the training map. The Hungarian organizer had kindly set a course and placed controls out in the forest for teams to train with.

The exercise for the map was to go around with a partner and take two different routes to the control and see who got their first. A few of the riders losing a bit of map contact, due to a lot of unmarked walking tracks and having too much fun descending the side of the mountain. Some had more trouble than others with Marc retiring early on in the course after losing map contact and saving his energy on the hills for more of the training to come.

In the evening after dinner the team had a quick debrief of the day. Then finding a different partner the riders had to talk about their route choice and how they rode them. What sort of mapping technicalities they picked up while riding out on the trails. 

Heath and Ian enjoying the trails

Hungarian Relay

The second day of the Hungarian Championships was a two-man relay consisting of four courses that the riders had to complete between the two of them. Each course was estimated to be roughly 10km long with 25 to 30 minute winning times. The race began with a Le Mans start. Chris reached  his bike first and was second out on the course.

Ricky and Chris placed best out of the Australians finishing 8th overall. Both Chris and Ricky said they had fairly clean rides. Steve and Oscar placing 11th. Steve had the fastest time on his second course out of everyone, without even winning a single split. Ian and Mr. Arkhipov the Russian placed 12th behind Steve and Oscar. Heath and Karl taking out 15th, both having better and cleaner rides then the previous day. Tom and Mark coming in just behind in 16th spot.

Everyone found today much easier with a smaller scale map and having had ridden on the map from the previous day. The course took the riders up into the northern area of the map before turning them back around to take them past the spectator control and out to their short last loop at the bottom of the out of bounds army grounds. A few close calls were to be had on the busy trails and especially with a few riders not sticking to their right hand side of the track.

Everyone was pretty relieved not having to race the next day after the short intense races, but are ready and eager to dive into training on the Hungarian maps.



Links to the relay results and maps can be found here http://astrois.hu/mtbo/2012/PANN2012-RESZID.html

Hungarian Middle Distance Champs

The Australian team started their trip with the Hungarian Championships tackling the middle distance race. Pannon MTBO event held at Ròka-hegy map. Ròka-hegy provided a gently undulating terrain with patches of pine forest, bare open slopes and a pocket of residential area.  The tracks were a mixture of road, dirt fire road, smooth single tracks and loose dusty rocky descents.

Being the first time in Hungary and the first race as well the team was wisely advised to take it as a warm up race to learn how Hungary maps are interpreted and mapped. The middle distance had expected winning times of 60min for the juniors and 55min for the seniors. The juniors raced the exact same course as the seniors.

Karl Withers was first Australian to start. He had trouble from the get go. Quickly getting disorientated at the start because they hadn’t put out the start triangle until after he started. They also did not brief him about where the start triangle was. After correcting his error he had a fairly clean ride adjusting himself to mapping and terrain and made it around with small errors and hesitations.

The second of the Australians to start was Tom Goddard. His race stopping abruptly as he arrived at the first control to punch to find out that his SI had dropped off this bike. Riding back along his route to the start looking for his SI stick he gave up and continued his course. Coming in with a fairly clean ride with only some small errors in the intricate hilly residential area, which tricked up almost everyone.

Next off was Heath Jamison. Unfortunately suffering a similar fate as Karl. Getting lost on the way to control number one. Heath was tricked up by the Hungarian mapping. Finding unmapped tracks with questionable track grades, Heath persisted and worked himself into the course. Only to come untangled with the tricky residential area, losing a lot of time and getting disorientated in the single track.

Four minutes behind Heath was Chris Firman. Having the fastest time out of the Australian team and placing 2nd in the junior’s class. Getting confused with how some of the junctions were mapped he had frequent hesitations and one questionable route choice.

Marc Gluskie was starting 6 minutes behind Chris and had a patchy race. His overall time was not helped by heading to his 9th control instead of his 8th, losing well over 5 minutes. Working out his mistake he corrected to get his race back on track. Making it around the middle distance course with some minor errors and adapting himself to the Hungarian terrain.

The coach of the Australian team, Ian Dalton had kitted up to keep the juniors on their toes. Cruising straight into the course his race had two big hiccups losing more then 10 minutes two controls. At one stage being lost with Heath on the questionable track grading near the 2nd control. The infamous intricate residential area creating the next 10minute error, after having a clean ride in between his errors.

Oscar Phillips just recently moving up to seniors performed well. Cruising around the course with a few hesitations and small errors. Like the rest of the Australian team he was just adapting and getting familiar with Hungary’s maps and terrain.

The very last to of the Australian team start was Ricky Thackray. Taking easy being his first international race he was struggling around the course with-out his trusty compass. Having difficulties orientating himself and getting in tune with the tracks he had some unforced errors. Finishing and requesting a compass ASAP.

10 days to go and the training camp is about to get underway

Welcome to the new look Australian MTBO team blog -- We'll be posting stories, photos and maps throughout the training camp and championships. You can read a little bit about the team using the "Team profiles" link above and there is also a link to the official website of the championships.

The 2012 World MTB Orienteering Champs start in 10 days in Veszprem, Hungary, and Australian team have been arriving in Europe over recent days. At least, those of us who are not already in Europe. I know our coach (Ian) has been soaking up some of the Olympic atmosphere in London and I (Mel) am writing from Cyprus. The team will be taking part in some practice races over the weekend in Budapest - the location for this years training camp.

I thought I'd kick off this blog with a quick overview of the team:

In the elite category we have a team of three men and myself. Steve Cusworth (Vic) is returning for his 4th WMTBOC - he won all three races at both the Oceania Champs last year and at the trials earlier this year and I'm just crossing my fingers that he avoids the mechanicals of the 2011 World Champs. Oscar Phillips (Tas), who rode in the junior championships last year, has stepped up into the senior category and Ricky Thackeray (WA) is racing at his first championships. In the junior team we have 5 competitors this year - it has been exciting to see that this category has become tightly competitive over recent years. Marc Gluskie (Tas) and Chris Firman (Qld) are coming over to their 3rd world champs, having competed in Portugal and Italy, and Tom Goddard (Tas/SA) is returning for his 2nd world champs. These three shared the wins at the trails in April, each taking out one of the distances. They will be joined by Karl Withers (Qld - the youngest member of our team) and Heath Jamieson (Vic).

The team is being coached by Ian Dalton from WA. Ian will also be coaching the team next year and will be taking the opportunity of checking out Estonia at the last round of the 2012 world cup because it will be the location of the 2013 championships. Our managers, Carolyn and Peter Cusworth will also be competing in the concurrently held World Masters MTB Orienteering Championships. The Australians to watch in the Masters categories are: Bruce Paterson (M40), Tamsin Barnes (W40), Peter Cusworth (M50), Richard Robinson (M50), Carolyn Cuswoth (W50) and Carolyn Jackson (W50).

More photos and stories coming soon...