Another world champs come and gone. Overall organisation was good. I am not sure
many other countries could have done it at all.
As you know there where four races:
The prologue which was reduced to an order determining event. I rode reasonably
but found out that I could not cycle fast enough. Some of these guys are very
fast.
The classic, 36km in 117 mins. I rode a bit faster but made a couple of errors
in route choice in the middle and did not follow enough. The course was easier
than it needed to be. I ended up 59th which puts me the last in the top half.
I could have done maybe 6 or 7 mins better over two hours. Still off the pace
really. Also not as smooth as I could be if I had a bit
more practice. Aussies did well this day with Emily 2nd! The boys also all good
and between 15 and 50th place. They clearly have had a bit of practice.
The short was 12k and I took 33.03 in an almost perfect ride navigationally.
I still have not yet learnt to follow although I learnt to ride a bit faster
and I do mean seriously fast. Ended up 52nd in what was a way to easy course
that really suited the MTBers. I guess the French are better riders than MTBers.
The relay for me was in an open team and I rode first unfortunately 15mins
after the main mass start. Rode alone and had my best ride in technically more
difficult course. I rode 51mins and the best were 47. Ended with about 33rd
fastest time so was a major leap forward with 3 from 4 Aussies behind me. Relay
had some exciting finishes and they will need a camera in future
to be certain of placing.
So what did we learn?(lots)
That I need more competition practice, although this is hard to come by as Belgium
has a legal problem staging events at present. In fact my performance improved
during the week as I learnt more!
That I need more cycle racing to prepare for the speed required.
That my technical riding skills are sufficient.
That I should focus on events that have higher navigational demand.
That the start interval of 1 min is too small and many poor navigators just
took a ride.
The dominant nations where in Order: Finland, France, Czech, Russia, Australia,
Austria, Slovakia, Switzerland
That the boys competition is reasonably deep already but the girls really very
weak with only around 10 reasonable riders. So a real opportunity for a good
female cyclist to do well.
In away it is great fun, more so than foot as it is not so painful and so fast
and at times exhilarating.
Of the others including, Ireland, Britain, Belgium and Germany I would be one of the better riders.
Australia in 2004 sounds interesting as I believe the courses will be navigationally
more testing.
This page written by Greg Barbour and installed 8 July 02