2012 SILVA National Orienteering League Has Sensational Start

The 2012 SILVA National Orienteering League commenced this weekend in Victoria.

Event 3 on Sunday saw WA junior Oscar McNulty take his second win for the weekend in dramatic circumstances. Six men started the final loop of the 12.8 km Hagaby event together and despite swapping the lead often they came to the last control all together with Great Britain’s Matt Crane punching first. However Oscar outsprinted everyone to win the most thrilling race finish ever seen in Australia with Matt, Bryan Keely, Dave Shepherd, Simon Uppill and Rob Preston just behind. 

In the women Kiwi Lizzie Ingham (running for the Canberra Cockatoo’s) had a narrow 5 second win from Aislinn Prendergast with Grace Elson just 13 seconds further back in 3rd.
Lilian Burrill, Heather Muir and Amy Buckerfield were the junior girl placegetters, while Ian Lawford and Brodie Nankervis filled 2nd and 3rd behind Oscar. Having the elites and juniors racing the same courses certainly was worthwhile.

Ballarat University campus was the venue for race #1, with a complex array of building and passages making for tricky navigation. The courses had several loops and legs past the finish providing lots of spectator involvement.

The story of the day was the amazing run from Western Australian junior Oscar McNulty who won the Junior Elite class, but also beat all the elite men. Great Britain rep and now Canberra Cockatoos team member Matt Crane was the best of the >20yo’s 9secs behind McNulty. South Australian Simon Uppill was another 20secs back in 3rd place. McNulty is now the youngest male winner of a National League race.

Tasmanian Brodie Nankervis also showed great promise to finish 2nd in the Junior Elite class with Canberra Cockatoos rep and reigning Junior National Series winner Olly Poland in 3rd.

Queensland Cyclones Rachel Effeney continues her stunning year with a win in the women’s elite class, just edging out NZ and Canberra Cockatoos rep Lizzy Ingham. Tasmania’s Grace Elson was 3rd, 31secs off the pace. Effeney had a great debut at WOC last year making the Sprint Final and just last month won the prestigious Sprint the Bay competition in New Zealand.

In the Junior Elite women’s class Queensland Heather Muir lead from start to finish to beat team mate Lillian Burrill by 14secs. Nicola Blatchford (NSW Stingers) filled the podium, 39secs behind Muir.

The competition then moved to Surface Hill, a new gold-mining map SW of Ballarat by Roch Pendergast. The courses passed through a very difficult hillside with difficult steep gullies and mullock hills left behind by the miners from the 1870’s. The Women’s Elite class was dominated by Lizzy Ingham who won by a massive 2mins 11 secs of a 4km course. Southern Arrow’s Middle distance specialist Vanessa Round was 2nd and Victoria’s Natasha Key continues beat competitors many years her junior took 3rd place.

The men’s elite class was much closer. Victoria’s Bryan Keely got off to a great start and lead until the 20min mark before Canberra Cockatoo David Shepherd took the lead. Shepherd stumbled near the end to hand to lead to Matt Crane. But a fast finishing Southern Arrow Simon Uppill snatched the victory in the final few legs to beat Shepherd by 9secs. Uppill, the currently SILVA NOL champion placed 2nd in 8 races in 2011 but failed to claim one victory. Perhaps 2012 will bring a change of luck to Uppill, but the competition is likely to be very close in 2012.

Race 3 W21E placegetters, Grace Crane (3rd), Lizzy Ingham (1st), Aislinn Prendergast (2nd)
Race 3 W21E placegetters, Grace Crane (3rd), Lizzy Ingham (1st), Aislinn Prendergast (2nd)

Results

Race 1 Results – National Orienteering League #1
Race 1 Split – National Orienteeing League #1
Race 1 WinSplits
Race 1 Route Gadget – NOL1 Sprint

Race 2 Results – National Orienteering League #2 & Victorian State Series #1
Race 2 Splits – National Orienteering League #2 & Victorian State Series #1
Race 2 WinSplits – Elite
Race 2 Route Gadget – National Orienteering League #2 Middle DistanceVictorian State Series #1

Race 3 Results – National Orienteering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2
Race 3 Splits – National Orientering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2
Race 3 WinSplits – Elite
Race 3 Route Gadget – National Orienteering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2

Thank you to Eureka Orienteers, Melbourne Forest Racers and Orienteering Victoria for 3 great races.  Special thanks to Geoff Adams (Event Advisor), Roch Prendergast, Geoff Lawford, Rob Plowright, Warwick Williams, Nicola Dalheim, Dion Keech and Ruth Goddard for making it all possible.

Videos and Photos by Bruce Arthur for Orienteering Victoria and Melbourne Forest Racers

MTBO Australian Team Selection Trials, Training Camp and National Squads.

JWOC & WOC MT BIKE ORIENTEERING Trials – Victoria  – 28-29th April

-The selection trials for the World Championships to be held in Hungary from  August 20-25th are all 3 events at the National Series round 1 on 28-29th April based in central Victoria at Maryborough and Newstead.  There will be a sprint, middle and long race.  See VOA website for further details.

Nominations for the Australian team are due by APRIL 1st. (see below)

 

MTBO TRAINING CAMP – 25-27th APRIL

This will occur all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning and be based in Castlemaine or nearby.

Ian Dalton, the national coach, will lead this and accommodation costs during the camp will be met for squad members by the OA MTBO budget.  Other orienteers, of 16 years and above, and including veterans, are welcome to attend.   OA can provide a verification letter to schools or universities re attendance at the training camp.

 

MTBO TEAM & CAMP NOMINATION FORM

Return to both Ian Dalton (coachian_dalton@hotmail.com and Kay Haarsma (OA High Performance Manager) at kayhaarsma@hotmail.com  by APRIL 1st.

NAME:                                                                 DOB:                                      Email:

Postal addres:

Ph numbers (h)                                       mobile

If under 21 please add your parent/s names and email.

 

I wish to nominate for JWOC / WOC Australian team      – YES / NO

I wish to attend the training camp on April 25-27th               – YES / NO

If you can only attend part of the training camp please state which day/s.

MTBO NATIONAL SQUAD
Elite Women

– Thor Egerton (VIC); Mary Fien (NSW) Melanie Simpson (NSW).

Elite men

– Steven Cusworth (VIC), Jamie Goddard (VIC); Oscar Phillips (TAS) Rob Preston (VIC)  Alex Randall (VIC); David Simpfendorfer(ACT); Ricky Thackray (WA);

Juniors

– Chris Firman (QLD), Marc Gluskie (TAS); Tom Goddard (TAS); Tim Jackson (VIC), Heath Jamieson (VIC), Angus Robinson (VIC), Karl Withers (QLD);

Change in WOC Coaching team announced

After leading our WOC teams to Hungary 2009, Norway 2010 and France in 2011 Rob Lewis has resigned his coaching position due to family reasons.  We thank Rob for his valuable input into our international teams.  He will continue to be involved with coaching.

OA has had to work quickly to secure a replacement with WOC only 5 months away.  We are delighted to announce that Tom Quayle has eagerly accepted the men’s coach / manager role working in conjunction with Wendy Read, the existing women’s coach / manager.  Tom lives in Sweden.  This provides us with a coach who can easily research European based world championship terrain and also some-one who understands Australian orienteers.

Tom represented Australian in JWOC teams in 1994 and 1995, and WOC teams in 2001, 2003 and 2004, in an era when the Australian men’s team was probably its strongest and had incredible depth.  (Initially WOC’s were held bi-annually)

Tom made an important breakthrough for Australian orienteering when he became the first Australian to podium in a World Championship, with his long distance 4th in Poland at Jwoc 1994. This success was recognised by all the other nations present who were rapt to see Australia emerge as a top orienteering nation.

Tom repeated his 4th at JWOC 1995, this time an agonising 2 seconds from a medal, and he also was placed 17th in the sprint final.  In WOC 2001 Tom stood upon the elite podium with an outstanding 6th in the relay, and was in ultra-competitive relay teams in WOC 2003 (9th) and WOC 2004 (10th). Tom’s best individual result was 13th in the long in Sweden, 2004.  In World Cup events Tom had many top results, with his best probably being 7th in a Norwegian sprint in 2002. He has competed in World Park tour events and all the major European international fixtures with good success.  Earlier this month, while holidaying in Australia Tom dropped into a Sydney sprint series race and won the event.

Although Tom has had a coaching position with the Bushrangers in the past, now that he has finished his elite career he is keenly looking forward to his new role.

Rachel Effeney wins Sprint the Bay! Matt Parton takes third.

racheleffeney_WOC2011SprintQual 2Congratulations to Rachel Effeney (QLD) for winning women’s elite in the 6 race “Sprint the Bay”in New Zealand.

As predicted the hilly, forested stage 5 saw many people lose major time.  Rachel Effeney lost the leaders yellow jersey and the leading 4 men, including 2nd placed Oscar McNulty (WA) plummeted down the order.

In a drama packed last stage Rachel started 8 seconds in arrears of Angela Simpson (NZ). In this last stage the 2 leaders started together but did two initial loops in different orders before coming together with the same controls to the finish.  When Rachel punched at the final control and Angela wasn’t in view the commentator declared her the victor. Afterwards it was found that Angela had missed the first control and another leading contender, Greta Knudsen had unfortunately taken a men’s course map, resulting in a DNF for both. Lizzie Ingham, the fastest on stage 6, took 2nd place overall.

An outstanding result for Rachel against quality opposition.  She won the first 4 stages and then was 6th and 2nd today. Runner-up Lizzie Ingham was 11th in the sprint at WOC 2011. Angela Simpson was 6th in the World Universities sprint in 2010; again 6th in sprint at Jwoc 2011 and won STD last year.  Rachel qualified for the final and was 35th in her WOC debut in the sprint last year.

The men’s final stage had plenty of speed but no changes in the leaders. Victory overall went to Toby Scott (NZ), who had leapfrogged from 5th to first during stage 5 in the morning race. Tom Reynolds (NZ)retained 2ndplace and NSW’s Matt Parton maintained his composure to keep 3rdplace.    Toby’s individual stage results were: 9th, 6, 7, 6, 1, 5.

A great result for Matt based on many consistent runs at the pointy end, with his individual stage results being 22nd, 8, 5, 2, 3, 10.  Lachy Dow also performed really well to be the next leading Aussie in 6th, less than a minute behind Matt.

MEN:  1) T Scott (Nzl) 1h34m35s,  2) T Reynolds (Nzl) 1h35m53s,  3) M Parton (Aus) 1h36m36s. 6) L Dow 1h37m.31

WOMEN:  1) R Effeney (Aus)  1h32m56, 2) L Ingham (Nzl) 1h34m11s, 3) K Morrison (Nzl) 1h38m04s. 6) H Allston

Other overall Australian results were:

Men:   8th I Lawford, 11 B Keeley, 12 O McNulty, 15 B Arthur, 17 M Scown, 21 K Gregory, 25 O Mitchell, 28 M McQuire  DNF G Bluett, E Barr, J Russell.  60 starters.

Women:   7th A Prendergast, 9 L Grant, 10 M Neve, 12 B Lawford, 14 I Barr, 15 S Jones, 16 K Effeney, 22 H Muir, 23 E Cantwell. 38 starters.

Most of the Australian squad are staying on in NZ with coaches Jim Russell and Hanny Allston for a training camp for the next 6 days.

SPRINT the BAY – Great Aussie success on Day 1.

Rachel Effeney (Q) and Oscar McNulty (WA) both had tremendous victories in a fantastic opening day of the Sprint the Bay carnival inNZ.   These wins enabled Rachel to be wearing the yellow jersey (overall leader) and Oscar, 3rd overall, will don the white jersey, as leading junior in the 60 person men’s field.

Rachel, who debuted for Australia at WOC in 2011, won both stages and now has a 52 second lead overall. On the mass start stage 1 course she crossed the line 4 seconds ahead of Lizzie Ingham (NZ), but in stage 2 she took the lead after leg 2 and was never headed and won by a whopping 45  seconds from Great Knaston (NZ).  Lizzie Ingham, who now resides in Canberra, made a big 75 second mistake to fall back to 9th in stage 2 but is certainly close enough to still podium.

Hanny Allston,  “having a run” to complement her coaching duties, was the next best Aussie in 8th on both courses.  Aislinn Prendergast, who also debuted at WOC in 2011, and is more renowned as a long event specialist, performed really well to be placed 9th after day 1.

The “boy from the west,” Oscar McNulty was the talk of the town after his dramatic 8 second victory on stage 2.  Having just finished school in Perth, he is Sydney bound for university later this month.  Oscar won 4 of the 23 splits and led throughout the race except for one leg in the middle.   In the initial race Oscar also excelled winning 7 splits before fading a little towards the end to finish a close 9th.

Young Bendigo gun Bryan Keeley used his leg speed to advantage on stage 1 by placing 5th and backed this up with an 11thin stage 2.  Lachlan Dow (7th) and Matt Parton (8th) ran extremely well on stage 2 after being in the 20’s on stage 1.

After day 1 there was just 1 minute 6 seconds separating the top 10 in the men’s elite field, and 2.20 down to twentieth place.  In the women’s field it’s a little more stretched out with 4 minutes between 1st and 10th. Sunday’s two races are both again in mostly urban terrain featuring 2 or 3 different schools on each map.  The afternoon stage also has some public gardens to traverse.  With sprint races being so fast and frantic there are many chances for other runners to come to the fore.

Rachel Effeney2011

Overall after day 1 – top 20 results

1st  Tim Robertson (NZ)  places  1 + 3      31.01 minutes

3rd Oscar McNulty (WA)               9 + 1     31.07    “

7th Bryan Keely (VIC)                     5 + 11

11th Ian Lawford (ACT)                  12 + 15

13th Matt Parton (NSW)                22 + 8

14th Lachy Dow (ACT)                     23 + 7

 

1st    Rachel Effeney (Q)                 1 + 1      29.46 minutes  (pictured above)

2nd   Angela Simpson (NZ)             3 + 3       30.38      “

8th   Hanny Allston (TAS)                8 + 8

9th   Aislinn Prendergast (VIC)      11 + 7

12th  Mace Neve (ACT)                   15 + 13

16th  Shannon Jones (ACT)            21 + 14

17th   Ilka Barr (VIC)                         16 + 23

19th  Katelyn Effeney (Q)               19 + 18

20th Belinda Lawford (ACT)           18 + 21

Sprint the Bay-Day 2 – Aussie men trifecta on stage 4!

Day 2 of Sprint the Bay was another successful day for Aussie orienteers.   In fact it was “moving up” day for a number of our younger men and a “moving further ahead” day for Rachel Effeney.

Rachel won stage 3 by 7 seconds from Angela Simpson (NZ), while Hanny Allston had her best result at 5th and WOC 2011 team members Aislinn Prendergast (10th) and Mace Neve (12th) again ran well, as did Lisa Grant (14th).   The men saw Kiwis Tane Cambridge and Tim Robertson remarkably have another dramatic draw for first, (as they did on stage 1) both clocking 16.07.   Matt Parton (NSW) had his best result at 5th just 12 seconds behind and 18 year old Oscar McNulty (WA) starred again with 6th place, just 3 seconds further back.  Ian Lawford (12th) and Bruce Arthur (14th) again were at the pointy end of the field.

Ian Lawford2010 (1)Stage 4 saw our boys take the trifecta with brilliant runs!  WA ‘s Oscar McNulty bolted around for his 2nd stage win just seconds ahead of Matt Parton (NSW) and Lachy Dow (ACT) and Victorian speedster Bryan Keeley was close behind in 5th.  Bryn Davies (NZ) had looked likely to take the victory but omitted a control near the end.   Rachel took her 4th consecutive victory racing home 19 secs ahead of Lizzie Ingham with Ainslin Prendergast again steady in 7th and Hanny Allston was 10th.

Stage 5 on Monday morning on the “Sleeping Giant” map at Te Mata Park is seen as being “huge in determining overall rankings” by the organisers.  The area was used last year and is unique because of its mix of intricate vegetation and rock detail with rugged hills and complex track networks.  The promise is for physically challenging courses but still with high technical difficulty.  Vegetation, tracks and the 5m contours come into play.  Stage 6 – the final race at Arataki, will utilise three school campuses and again demand some micro-orienteering.

Rachel Effeney takes a 1min41 sec lead into the last day with a number of Aussie girls trying to move up the rankings.  Currently Hanny sits in 8th just 5 seconds ahead of Aislinn in 9th, followed by Mace Neve(VIC) and Lisa Grant (NSW) sitting close together in 10th and 11th and Belinda Lawford aiming to maintain her top 15 position.

Oscar McNulty heads out 2nd overall just 11 secs behind the Kiwi leader Tim Robertson. The top 15 guys are only separated by 4 minutes and includes 6 Aussies.  Matt Parton (6th), Lachy Dow (7th), Bryan Keeley (10th), Ian Lawford (12th) and Bruce Arthur (14th) will look to maintain their good form.   With tomorrow’s terrain perhaps the danger man is NZ’s super fit Chris Forne, currently sitting in 11th.

Sprint the Bay (NZ) starts Saturday Feb 4th.

The popular “Sprint the Bay” series of 6 sprint races in 3 days commences in Hawkes Bay, NZ on Saturday Feb 4th. Twenty three Aussies are travelling over and comprise 25% of the elite fields. There are 60 elite men and 38 elite women.  All the Aussies, even the younger juniors, are competing in the elite races.  Three of our WOC women are competing in Aislinn Prendergast, Shannon Jones and Mace Neve.   Shannon will be competing shortly after the birth of her first child, while Mace is flying in from Samoa where she is working for 12 months. Grant Bluett, Bruce Arthur, Murray Scown and Bryan Keeley will be chased around by a lot of our young guns.

After the races most of the Australian contingent is staying on for a 6 day training camp, along with some Kiwis.  Jim Russell is the head coach for this, ably supported by Hanny Allston.

Event one will be held on a brand new map combination called Koponga Ride. This includes public gardens, model train tracks, forested valleys, school buildings and a graveyard. Will be exciting stuff for any race let alone a mass start!   Some events are totally urban while others have substantial forest / paddocks.  All maps are at a 1:4,000 scale.

Bruce Arthur at full speed.
Bruce Arthur at full speed.

In the Men’s and Women’s Elite grades there are various coloured singlets available for the overall leader (yellow singlet), fastest overall junior runner in Elite grades (white singlet), sprint leg leader (green singlet) and the hill climb leader (polka-dot singlet). The overall results for each singlet are calculated after each race, and then the singlets are ceremoniously presented to their rightful wearers.

In 2012, the STB crew has really upped the ante by setting up a live video/audio stream to the internet. From the LIVE CENTRE on our website, keen orienteers from all over the world (especially the cold-winter-suffering Europeans) and your friends and family can follow all of the action from the comfort of their living room.

The Kiwis are even trying to psyche out their Aussie competitors, with event notes stating: “There are plants that can hurt you. The main hazards in STB are stinging nettle, and the more dangerous Onga Onga.”

Round 1 2012 SILVA NOL- Eureka Challenge 2012

Round 1 2012 SILVA NOL- Eureka Challenge 2012

Over two days on the 10th and 11th of March, Melbourne Forest Racers and the Eureka Orienteering Club will be holding the Eureka Challenge in the Ballarat area. The Eureka Challenge has been a common feature of the National Orienteering League calendar and the mass start hagaby format has always attracted big fields and great competitions. Event information can be found in this document 2012 Eureka Challenge NOL Invitation v1.pdf and any additional information will be added to this webpage.

State Forest RdSaturday will begin at 9:00am with the Elites competing in a Sprint Event at the University of Ballarat.(about 10 minutes from Ballarat PO)  With a planned winning time of 12 to 15 minutes the competition will be fast and furious.  Every one is welcometo enter and challenge the Elites at their own game. University of Ballarat location.

At 12:30pm the challenge continues for the Elites at Surface Hill with a Middle Distance event amongst some challenging mining terrain.(about 20 minutes from Ballarat PO)At 2:00pm everyone else is invited to accept the challenge to conquer the hill over the Middle Distance with all classes having a winning time of 30 to 35 minutes.

Sunday, the challenge continues with a Hagaby style event on Chinamans Flat.  ( 30 to 40 minutes from Ballarat PO) The NOL race starts at 9:30am and the Victorian State Series event will begin at 10:30.

Chinamans Flat

All events are Pre Entry and entries will close on Wed. 29th Feb.

Relay concludes NZ MTBO Carnival

The successful Otago MTBO Carnival finished with a friendly relay yesterday at the Snow Farm, a ski-field high above Cardrona near Wanaka. The rain cleared, the sun came out, though it was a coolish 6 degrees.  Riders tangled with a spaghetti-like maze of benched ski trails and motor vehicle testing tracks. The race format involved 2 person teams taking turns to do 2 loops each.

NZ top guns Phil Wood and Chris Forne sprinted in just 17 seconds ahead of Alex Randall and Oscar Phillips to win the long men’s course.    Other Australian placing’s in this class included: 4th – Damian Welbourne & Dion Keech; 5th -David Simpendorfer & Paul Darvodelsky; 6th – Ricky Thackray & Ian Dalton.

Mary after finishing her 2nd course.
Mary after finishing her 2nd course.
Chris Firman
Chris Firman

Marquita Gelderman and Georgia Whitla won “long women” by 3 minutes ahead of Mary Fien & Melanie Simpson. Chris Firman (Qld) paired up with Jen Graham-Taylor (WA) for a convincing win in long mixed, while the mother and son pair of Carolyn and Tim Jackson took out 3rd.

Andrew Campbell (Far North Queensland) teamed with Tim Hackney for 3rd in medium men, whilst Jean Douglas (NSW) paired with Sally Dickson for 2nd in medium women and Carolyn Matthews and Malcolm Roberts (both NSW) did well to achieve 3rd in the medium mixed category.

In “short women” Victorian duo of Heather Leslie and Peta Whitford placed 2nd while Cath Vero (Alice Springs) teamed with Annie Sanderson for 3rd place.  And guess what?  A bit of a shower overnight, and the next day the hills were coated with a fresh dusting of snow down to 1000m!

New Zealand is to be congratulated in organising such a fantastic carnival despite the earthquake hardships faced by the Christchurch orienteering community.  They utilised a variety of interesting terrains, some innovative course setting and also had a diverse range of weather conditions which added up to a memorable experience for all riders.

392687_10150605095366913_542986912_10953387_160621109_n[1]

Snow farm contouring tracks – map below.

SnowFarmNZ

Aussies draw middle event but Kiwis win MTBO Challenge.

Both sides slipped and slid their way to a draw in the third and final event of the 2012 ANZ MTB-Orienteering Challenge at Wanaka yesterday. So the final result over the three events of the ANZ Challenge was New Zealand 14, Australia 10

Carolyn Matthews - part of victorious W40 team in middle
Carolyn Matthews – part of victorious W40 team in middle

Persistent rain overnight and during the middle distance event near the Clutha River outlet made riding conditions difficult, but riders praised the variety of terrain in the small area. Australia won the tightly contested Womens 40 class for a second time –  winning by 1 minute 57. Christine Brown (NZ) won this class by just 19 secs over Carolyn Jackson but 6th place by Carolyn Matthews helped the Aussies to victory.  In Men’s Open Chris Forne was threatened by top Australian Alex Randall who finished just 3 mins down but the kiwis held the class. Oscar Phillips was 5th, Paul Darvodelsy 7th and Ricky Thackray 10th. In the Women’s Open Marquita Gelderman took her 2nd win by the narrow margin of 21 seconds over Melanie Simpson, but the Aussie depth showed, with Mary Fien 3rd and Jen Garham-Taylor 8th and the class went to Australia. Australia also took Mens 20 and Mens 50 while the hosts won Womens 50, Mens 40 and Mens 60.

Other good Aussie individual results were: M20 Chris Firman 1st, Tim Jackson 2nd, Paulo Jun Alvear Fujii 3rd. M40 – Peter Swanson 4th; M50 – Malcolm Roberts 2nd; W50 – Heather Leslie 4th; M60 – Andrew Campbell 4th; W60 Kathy Liley 1st.

Jwoc multiple representative Chris Firman again displayed his undoubted talent, in winning M20 and being the fastest on course 2, beating all M40 and W21 participants.  Here is his race description: “I had the first start of the day and this meant I had to concentrate on the 1:7,500 “Sticky-Hikuwai” map which had ever changing terrain in its 4 square kilometres. Course 2 was tricky from the get go. The first check point route choice had one of the new symbols that New Zealand invented. A green dash track route, meaning it’s vague and hard to pick up on. The track was more direct and went straight to the first checkpoint. Having managed to navigate my way smoothly through this tricky route, it built up my confidence in the race. The map consisted of a bit of everything. Technical single tracks, mazes of track, dark yellow open areas and a lot more white section of the maps (white meaning you are allowed to ride through the forest on this map.) I used the open areas and white forest section to my advantage giving me and the other riders a lot more route choices and flexibility on cutting the corners. I only made one or two route choices that I felt were not the fastest routes but I executed them well and kept my navigation solid. Very pleased with my ride.”

Another course 2 competitor had a different account. “A real shocker. I forgot to start my GPS, so now I will never know where I went! Lost map contact just after the start triangle, and struggled to relocate – eventually hit the river and worked it out. Another time I rode a long way over the map fold before realising it was a 7,500 scale.”

Riders dried out and relaxed at the historic Cardrona hotel last night. Today they ride a “friendly” relay at the Waiorau cross-country skifield and motor vehicle testing ground, 1675 metres up high on the Pisa Mt Range about 40 km from Wanaka.   With snow forecast last night and today, it should be another memorable and unique experience.

(Based on Michael Wood (NZ) report – additional input Kay Haarsma.)

Provisional team results based on the best two riders from each country.

Full results will be at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/

M-20: AUS 88-16, NZL no team

M-Open: NZL 104-53, AUS 111-34

M40: NZL 83-41, AUS 98-03

M50: AUS 92-20, NZL 103-29

M60: NZL 73-07, AUS 88-58

W-Open: AUS 90-56, NZL 95-07

W40: AUS 113-39, NZL 115-36

W50: NZL 98-46, AUS 106-46

MiddlemapNZ