NATIONAL LEAGUE

Canberra Cockatoos consolidate grip

Blair Trewin

AFTER the three rounds in Western Australia in early May, the Canberra Cockatoos take a very strong position into the final National League rounds in Tasmania at the end of September. They lead by 23 points, ahead of a tight contest between NSW and Victoria for second place, and whilst a similar gap at the same stage of the 2003 season was caught by the Victorians, that was against a severely depleted Canberra team that is unlikely to be repeated this year.

Grant Bluett has also secured the individual title. He won all three races contested in Western Australia (a Middle-distance and Sprint on Saturday and a Long-distance on Sunday), making it five in a row (he went on to add three more wins at the WOC trials). His closest challenger is Dave Shepherd, but Julian Dent is also a realistic chance for second place. Apart from Bluett’s three wins, most notable amongst the men was the return to form of Eric Morris, who was second in the Long race, three minutes behind Bluett.

No woman has won more than three out of ten rounds this year, but Jo Allison’s consistency sees her in the box seat despite not winning a race in WA. She leads Tracy Bluett by 21 points and Hanny Allston by 50, and both would need to win at least three of the four remaining races to have any chance at all. Bluett ran an excellent Long race to finish a minute clear of Allison. Clare Hawthorne returned to form, winning the Sprint and third in the Long, whilst Natasha Key was the weekend’s other winner.

The junior division in WA was so depleted as to be almost meaningless in the context of the overall season. Neither Julian Dent nor Hanny Allston will run enough junior events to post a significant score. Erin Post looks to have the women’s competition in hand unless Sophie Barker runs a very good set of races in Tasmania, whilst the leading male will be a race between David Meyer, Simon Uppill and possibly Chris Naunton. WA lead the team competition at present and should feature in the finish, but NSW and Victoria should come home stronger and look the likeliest winners.

MTB-O

Early success in Europe for MTB-O WOC Team

Paul Darvodelsky

IN their preparations for the World MTBO Championships the Australian team took part in some lead-up events in Estonia in early August. Adrian Jackson won a weekend two-day race in which the Finns and Estonians, two of the strongest nations in the world, took part.

Alex Randall writes: “Won the first race in Estonia. Hardly missed anything. Probably my best race ever. Really detailed area. Beat all the Finns and Estonians in a 30-minute sprint. Picked all the right route choices and only lost about 45secs in a few small navigation errors.

In the second Estonian race I didn’t do quite as well but finished a respectable 5th. Lost 2 x 1min on really stupid route choices early on, plus another minute due to deciding to not ride through the forest (which is permissable here) for the first few controls. Adrian had a blinder (only a few small mistakes) and was almost 4mins quicker than me and 2.5min clear of the 2nd placegetter. Overall he won the 2-Day event by a minute to me.

Day 2 was super technical (much more than Day 1). The map was on a XC ski resort with tracks every few metres (it seemed). The map was 1:10 000, so it gives you an idea of the complexity. The other really encouraging part was that the Finns weren’t way ahead, in fact only two beat me on Day 2. It goes to show that we can navigate almost as well as they can on the technical stuff too.”

This terrain is very similar to that expected in Finland in 2006. The maps are 1:10,000 with very detailed track networks. People should keep this in mind when preparing for the trials next year and trial areas should be as detailed as possible. The attached excerpt from the Liperi map gives a good indication of the type of terrain (and map) to expect.