MTB WOC 2007
Three Top-20 placings for AUS Team in Czech Republic
The 2007 MTB-WOC started with a Sprint around the World Cup biathlon venue of Hotel Ski near Nove Mesto Na Morave. The map, a maze of tracks at 1:5,000, made the best use of the area. Weather conditions were ideal with a temperature of 26 degrees. Alex Randall placed 14th overall, (only 30sec off the podium and 1:09 behind the winner Torbjoern Gasbjerg from Denmark). Czech television showed the Sprint live. Tuesday was a typically hot day for the Czech Republic and the Middle-distance race near the village of Zubri, not far from Nove Mesto. The forest was a maze of fast forest roads and tracks and very small, indistinct and bumpy forest working tracks. Great results for Australia with two men in the Top-25 - Paul Darvodelsky placed 18th, just 5.30 min behind the winner and David Simpfendorfer placed 25th in 56.27min. Thorlene Egerton had a mistake free ride to place 37th in 59.09min. The Russian girl Ksenia Chernykh repeated her win from the Sprint with a time of 46.45min.
control which saw him placed in the forties at that stage. Russia’s Ruslan Gritsan won in a time of 86:48. In the Women’s 29km A-Final Thorlene Egerton, in her first WOC, rode a strong race to place 33rd in a time 110 minutes. The consistent Michaela Gigon (Austria) took her first gold of the carnival with a time of 92mins, two minutes ahead of Ksenia Chernkyh (Russia) who obtained her 3rd individual medal.
IAN DALTON
Weather conditions for the Long-distance Final turned out to be different with mist being the order of the day but the rain held off for the competition. Alex Randall placed an extremely good 18th overall (96.57) in the 35km A-Final after losing 4mins on an early
Alex Randall powering down the finish chute at the World Champs.
THOR EGERTON
Paul Darvodelsky broke through for his first Top20 placing at a World Championships when he took out 18th place in the Middle-distance event, despite shearing off a pedal when two controls out from the Finish and having to run his bike in. And Alex Randall continued his excellent form at MTB-WOC events with 14th place in the Sprint and 18th in the Long-distance event.
THOR EGERTON
Darvo finishing the Long race.
Above: The team sporting their smart Cycling Australia based team uniforms, from left: Alex Randall, Thor Egerton, Tony Clark, Kay Haarsma (Coach), David Simpfendorfer, Paul Darvodelsky, David Woods.
Darvo running the finish chute in the Middle Dist race after shearing off his pedal 3 controls out. Despite this he still managed 18th place, his first top 20 result in MTB WOC.
42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2007
