World Mountain Bike Orienteering Champs 2010

(Sprint Distance)

I have been in Montelegre in Portugal for the last couple of weeks, competing in the MTBO World Champs. The first few days out there we were acclimatising and doing a bit of training, but at 38 degrees, sitting in a river was more desirable than riding a bike!

The first race was a sprint around the town of Chaves on Sunday the 11th July, thankfully the temperature had dropped a few degrees by then. The complex network of roads and cobbled streets made for some challenging competitions. I set off knowing team mate Emily Benham was hot on my heals, starting 2minutes behind. I raced well to control 4, maintaining a top 30 position, then a slight error dropped me to 39th and allowed Em to get a glimpse of me. I pressed on and at control 12 saw Em for the first time. I got onto her wheel to 13 however my back wheel had a puncture. With the thought of staying on Em's wheel in mind I carried on riding but was distracted by keeping an eye on the tyre (not on the map) and eventually had to stop and put in some air. This in itself cost me a couple of minutes however when I looked back at the map I realised I had no idea where I'd riden whilst staring at my back wheel......So bit of a learning curve about stopping when you get punctures. I lost a further 8-9mins relocating (as apparently I was off the side of the map) and finished in 47th. Not what I'd hoped for the start of the week. A mixed bag of results for the GB team with Helen Clayton storming round into 9th position on the Junior womens course and a senior male who will remain annonymous winning the HE course for most of the day!! (Shame he'd ridden the M20 course....).

(Racing Anna Telyakevych into the finish of the middle distance)

The next race was the middle distance in South Montelegre on Tuesday 13th July. The terrain involved technical riding and steep hills of loose rocks which were very physically demanding. I rode a consistant race, with some good head to head racing in which I kept with all 3 riders who tried to pass me in the race, taking the lead on the nav for several legs. My route to 5 turned out to be slower than the direct route on less ridable tracks (I was playing it safe after finding some rather indistinct medium riding tracks in the model event) so I lost a bit of time here and a little later on at 13 but otherwise I was very happy with the race. I finished in 37th, my highest position in an internaitional race to date! Last year I was 49th, 42minutes behind the leader, this year I was only 16minutes down in a tightly packed group, showing a huge improvement in a year!
The next day was the Long Distance qualifier which was less technical in the riding department but a LOT hillier! I rode round pretty gently and didn't feel particularly good, but made the A final.

On the rest day before the middle we had been swimming in a natural pool, a really great find! Captain Conn had jumped in, forgetting his car keys were in his back pocket.....An international rescue team, with representitives from Austria, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and the UK headed back to the remote pool after the long qualifier and in an amazing anti climax (we had visions of hours of diving in search of the keys) Lauri from Estonia dived down twice before miraculously surfacing with the keys! Needless to say:


The final of the Long took place on the Friday 16th July in Morgade. The riding was fast and hilly, which suited me down to the ground! I was flying round but saving some energy for whatever my second map might hold and had caught my 3minute woman at number 1! At number 4 I was heading downhill fast when I hit a rock. I didn't think anything of it until half way to 5 when I realised I had a flat in my rear tyre again! This time I got it right! I stopped straight away and put air in the tyre. I could hear it hissing out immediately so decided to ride to 5 in the hope my tubeless gunky stuff would seal it en route. It didn't, and still not panicking I whipped out the back up plan - an inner tube! I fitted it quickly and pumped in some air. As I took the pump off I watched the inner part of my valve snap and fly across the floor, swiftly followed by the sound of air leaving my tyre at high speed.....
It was one of those moments where you have no alternative but to accept it wasn't to be - I walked back carrying/pushing my bike for 6km before a kind Slovakian called Matus gave me an inner tube and we rode the final 3km to the finish.
The final race of the week was the relay on Saturday 14th July in North Montelegre. Helen Clayton handed over to me after the 1st leg and I have never ridden a bike so hard! Sadly I made the school boy error of going too fast for my brain a couple of times which made it a less than perfect but solid ride with elements of amazingness....Emily finished off the race, bringing us home in 11th.
I had a great couple of weeks, made a lot of new friends and have an increased confidence in my MTBO ability. Although the results don't show it, I feel I've made a big improvement in the last year and am aiming to concentrate on MTBO and cycling a lot more in the next year in order to improve again before the World Champs in Italy in August next year.