Snow forecast for NZ MTBO event!
Thursday, 12 January 2012
NZ is throwing a little bit of everything at the Aussie MTB
orienteers. Heavy rain is forecast for Friday’s event at Wanaka, whilst up at “Snow Farm”, at Saturday’s relay site, the forecast is a maximum of 1 degree and 8
centimetres of snow! True!
The 50 strong contingent of Aussie mtb orienteers spent the rest day in Queenstown. With so much adventure stuff on offer there were
actually few who “rested.” Some chose to
practice their bike descent skills on the local mountain, courtesy of repeated
chair lift rides to the top, whilst others sought out various water pursuits.
The toughness of the long event on Wednesday was a rude shock for
many who hadn’t taken the pre-event course description of “open terrain with significant contour detail” literally. The aptly
titled “Linger and Die” map definitely needed mental and
physical stamina. Many
had almost a 400m climb to the first control!
Comments from Chris Firman: “The long distance race was harder than any
course I have ever competed in. The steepness of hills we had to climb this day
was extreme and there were many gratuitous climbs. All who finished this day were
impressive. On this bareback mountain everyone struggled. If you weren’t going
down you were pedaling up and if you weren’t pedaling you were pushing up,
which everyone had to do multiple times.
The descents weren’t always your friend being very tricky to ride down
fast and with the loose rock and loose soil it proved challenging for a lot of
people. My goal for the course was to
have another clean ride like the sprint. One wrong error could potentially send
you down the hill in the wrong direction, and it was everyone’s aim to avoid
climbing more then you had to. Similar to the sprint day, I was hesitant double
checking the vague tracks on the bare mountain and also pacing myself, knowing
I had a lot of climb ahead of me.”
Australian individual highlights were as
follows: Alex Randall placed 3rd
in open men despite a puncture with
4 controls to go, while teammates Oscar Phillips and Ricky Thackray were 5th
and 6th in the 20 person field.
David Simpfendorfer retired with a broken chain, as did Ian Dalton with
tyre issues.
In open women, on course 2, the ultra-fit Melanie Simpson (122 mins)
had a well deserved victory over Maquita Gelderman. Mary Fein also rode extremely well to place a
close 3rd and secure the class victory for the Aussies. Jenn Graham-Taylor, on the comeback trail
after motherhood, persevered well to place 6th out of 14. The fastest time of the day on course 2 went
to M20 Chris Firman with 109 mins,
while fellow Queenslander Karl Withers was 2nd (129mins) in M20,
with Victorian youngster Tim Jackson 3rd. M40
winner (also C2) Damian Welbourne actually enjoyed the tough conditions to win
in 110 mins, just a minute ahead of Greg Barbour, a dual foot and mtbo world
champs Kiwi representative. Remarkably Damian rode the entire event with his front forked locked
out, after forgetting to re-engage it after a bitumen climb to the first
control.
Course 3 saw two victories for the reliable duo of Carolyn Jackson
(W40) – 104 mins, and Marcus Roberts
(M50) – 99 mins. While Carolyn had a 13 minute win Marcus had
less than a minute up his sleeve over Kiwi Phil White. On course 4 Victorian Heather Leslie was Australia’s
only placegetter, with her 3rd in W50. Peta Whitford was unable to start and reserve Carolyn Cusworth
bravely stepped up into the W50 team and was thrilled to finish. In the ultra-competitive M60 class, David Firman (Qld) and Leigh Privett (Vic) rode well in
a strong field for 4th and 5th respectively. Course 5 saw evergreen Kathy Liley again take
the honours in W60.
Some of the riders will go into the 3rd of the
challenge events, the middle distance, aiming to achieve a clean sweep trifecta
of wins. These are New Zealanders Chris
Forne (men’s open), Ed Corey-Wright (M16) Bruce Meder (M60) and Aussies Chris
Firman (M20), Carolyn Jackson (W40) and Kathy Liley (W60).
Sprint map below
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