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World Cup Report.
Posted: 29/04/10
World Cup Round 1 – Hungary
Written by Emily Benham
Round one of the World Cup was held in Balatonfured in the hills surrounding Lake Balaton. This event formed the first of the international MTBO season, and with the IOF changes to World Ranking system, meant that anyone who is anyone turned up to race.
The sprint distance kicked off the weekend, with the start at the top of the hill and the finish at the bottom. Although the race was not especially technical concerning the number of paths and tracks, many controls were close together and many athletes made mistakes in the open land with bad compass bearings or mispunched in the challenging final part of the course.
Emily Benham had a reasonable race to finish in 12th place, but after having lost 2 minutes in the early part of course was unable to pull back any places. Sarah Bayliss finished in 36th place but was disappointed to have made some basic errors in the middle stages of the course. In the mens races Andy Conn had a great ride to finish in 25th and Mark Stodgell achieved his best international result to date with 30th place. Many of the men were caught out by the close controls and 15 elite athletes mispunched on the same control, a lesson which was learned by the later starters.
The middle distance was held in the same terrain with the start and finish located in the same place, on the plateau of open grassland covered in the sprint distance. The planner had cunningly used different areas of the map to keep competitors in new areas meaning navigation skills were as important. Sarah Bayliss struggled with the physical course which had demanding hills and challenging paths, but finished a few places lower than her sprint result in 43rd. Emily Benham, despite having a fairly clean race, struggled with fatigue from her train trip across Europe and finished in 14th place. The men didn’t fair as well either with Mark Stodgell losing time when he crashed after hitting some fence wire, but managed a respectable 48th, while Andy Conn had the misfortune of a puncture and finished a few places behind Mark in 53rd.
The long distance mass start is becoming the signature race of this event. With the plane flying overhead filming the start, the men lined up ready for a 50m dash to their bikes. Although you would think a mass start race is easier in that one can follow other athletes, in fact the courses are often subtly gaffled meaning you have to follow your own plan for each leg and not get distracted by other riders. After 2 laps of the grueling climb Mark Stodgell overtook Andy Conn on the final loop using his technical ability to his advantage and was very pleased to finish in 38th place. Andy Conn finished in 43rd after acknowledging that challenging navigation at the end of a 2 hour race doesn’t play to his advantage! For the women, Emily Benham had her best result of the weekend and best international result to date in the W21E class and finished in 7th place. On the final loop she was racing in 13th place a few minutes behind 5 riders, and used her technical navigation skills to find controls with ease and overtake while the other athletes were looking elsewhere! Sarah Bayliss was prepared for the long distance and had hoped to use her winter endurance to her advantage, but after making a few mistakes, she finished in 41st.
The weekend had its mixture of highs and lows for the athletes with some personal best results for Emily and Mark showing their winter training has started to pay off. The next international races are the second round of the World Cup in Poland 3-6th June.