The final MTBO event, the sprint, provided much excitement. Riders did the first 40% of the course through a village specifically closed off to cars and then climbed the hills behind the assembly area in full view of the crowd before finishing through a complex vineyard section.
Our Aussie team did really well, as the increased depth of the competition was demonstrated by the closeness of the results. Melanie Simpson rode with only some hesitations and her 30th place was only 3 minutes behind the winner. Russian road star Anton Foliforov took out gold in the elite men, with Steve Cusworth’s 19th place being just 2 minutes down. Steve regreted a 30 second or so error near the end when he could have tagged on to the eventual 2nd placegetter, but did his own thing. Alex Randall again found his legs lacking power and was disappointed with his 66th.
The Czech dynamo Krystof Bogan grabbed gold in jwoc men, with “Mr Consistent,” Tom Goddard doing well again for 17th and Oscar Phillips being close behind in 21st. Marc and Chris didn’t have such clean runs.
Russian junior Svetlana Poverina took out her 4th gold of the Championships!
Kay Haarsma (coach)
Elite men
1 26.28 Anton Foliforov (Russia)
19 28.39 Steve Cusworth
66 34.14 Alex Randall
Elite Women
1 26.36 Gaelle Barlet (France)
30 29.55 Melanie Simpson
Junior Men
1 23.21 Krystof Bogan
17 25.50 Tom Goddard
21 26.12 Oscar Phillips
34 28.11 Marc Gluskie
44 29.41 Chris Firman
Check out the event website and the Australian team blog