Marquita ranked 7th ahead of World Champs, 28 July 08
We have just about finished a week of races in Poland, one more race tomorrow.
We are in forest about 40km from where World Champs will be so the terrain should
be quite similar. The week didn't get off to such a great start. The rental
car broke down on the way from the airport to the hotel (15km), when we finally
arrived at the competition accomodation we found that we were squashed into
a really grotty little "camping hut" i.e a cabin. It might not have
been so bad but the weather was lousy, raining and cold. A day later the weather
had not really improved and we had our first race, a sprint (25-30 min winning
time). The area is quite sandy, and with the rain, turned the tracks into drivetrain
destroying monsters. Neither of us had a good day; Marquita got completely lost
while trying to return to the cabin for a spare part and ended up riding for
1 hr 40mins with absolutely no idea where she was until she found a main road
and then an intersec tion about 10km from turn off to the forest. She did go
on to ride the course and placed 8th. Rob was late to his start, mainly because
of an absence of start lists, then was given the wrong map so rode the wrong
course. We packed up as quickly as possible and headed off to town to a warm,
dry hotel room.
Things have certainly improved since. The following day was a middle distance
race (55min winning) and World Ranking Event (WRE). Most of the top women were
here so there were good ranking points up for grabs. Marquita was a bit average,
placing 13th. Excuses abounded though; an early start cost about 5 mins (there
was a LOT of tracking) and she was still suffering from the full leg stinging
nettle attack from her adventures the day before. Rob was flying, a bit too
fast as it turned out as he made a rather large error mid-way through the course.
He still placed 2nd in his age group.
Day 3 was another WRE for Marquita, an ultra-long this time (2 hr winning).
It was a mass start "one-man relay" so we got two maps and on each
map you had one of several variations in the loop structure. Everyone ended
up doing exactly the same course but you had no idea how you were doing until
the very end. Marquita was very pleased to arrive at the finish in 2nd place,
20 secs behind the winner and 2 mins ahead of 3rd, earning some very good ranking
points. With the races in France, and Aussie last year, she is now ranked 7th
in the world, very valuable as it places her in the "red start group"
at World Champs, meaning no more early starts. Rob did very well too in this
race, winning by 9 minutes.
We then had a welcome day off. Rob went kayaking with Greg while Marquita ate
lots and blobbed out. Yesterday was another long race, which turned out to be
as long as the ultra long. The terrain was a bit hillier and the legs pretty
tired. Marquita ended up 10th, Rob won again despite anohter big boo-boo. Today
was a middle distance again, Marquita snuck into 2nd place 5 mins behind the
winner but just ahead of a closely bunched pack. Rob blitzed them again.
Tomorrow we have a free-order event, like a score event but you have to get
all the controls and the fastest to do so is the winner. Then it's off to Warsaw
to drop Greg off and down towards the mountains in the south of Poland. We have
2 weeks of peace and quiet then head to Lithuania for a 3-day event and a look
around a new country. We have made friends with a Lithuanian girl so at least
have a contact there.
Hope everything is well back home and you're all coping with the rain. It's
news even over here!
Do widzenia from Rob and Marquita.