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World MTBO Champs Hungary

Michael Posted: 11 August 2012, 12:45 PM   First the bad news. NZ's chances have been dented by a bug caught by Marquita Gelderman in Norway. And Christine Browne's bike has been damaged during the flights in spite of being in a hard box. Now the good news. Marquita is eating again, and a great bike shop in Budapest has got Christine's bike going. Their charge for a couple of hours work was 2000 forints. Work it out!!! Off to a minor event today/tomorrow, training next week, champs the week after. http://www.mtbo.hu/mtbwoc2012.php   DennisdM Posted: 13 August 2012, 11:08 PM   Christine is also writing a blog for the MTBO champs, have a read of it here: http://christineharrebrowne.blogspot.co.nz/ Hopefully her bike is sorted and Marquita has recovered fully!   Michael Posted: 14 August 2012, 12:23 AM   Rob and Michael dominated the old mens categories at the weekend, but there weren't many old men there! Terrain flat wasteland on the SW edge of Budapest with a good maze of tracks. Bikes OK, Marquita improving.   Michael Posted: 17 August 2012, 11:30 AM   After training for a week on the outskirts of Budapest the team moves to the championship area at Veszprem today. Veszprem is a small city an hour or so away near the NE end of Lake Balaton, which is big enough to show on most maps.   Tony Posted: 18 August 2012, 9:33 AM   Good Luck guys   Michael Posted: 19 August 2012, 11:34 PM   The team has ridden more relevant terrain now and the striking feature is the similarity to the flatter parts of Central Otago! Daytime temperatures in the low thirties, big areas of prickly scrub, and areas of mining. Off-track travel is allowed in some areas as much as 40% in some races. Both Christine and Marquita are both well and looking forward to the long qualification tomorrow Monday - but it should be a formality as there are only 73 elite women. Start times 11:38 and 12:50, add 10 hours for NZ. A live button has been added to the website.   mcroxford Posted: 20 August 2012, 11:37 AM   http://www.mtbo.hu/mtbwoc2012.php/live   rob.g Posted: 20 August 2012, 8:23 PM   Both women qualified in the long. The two courses were surprisingly different. It is very hot. Tomorrow the sprint is on an adjacent area - presumably with more tracks per m2.   Michael Posted: 21 August 2012, 7:18 PM   The organisers were saying they expected 15-25% off-road riding, but finishers were saying it would have made a good foot-o course! Check out the map and routes via the live button. Marquita was lying about 10th early on but a 2min error dropped her down a lot of places, so she was a little disappointed. Christine rode extremely well considering that her orienteering experience is much less. Ride of the day from our perspective (and ignored by the speaker for ages after she finished) was UK's Emily Benham who finished 2nd. Emily was a promising junior when I last saw her 4 years ago, she does all the team arrangements, she makes maps, she sells mapholders, all in all a very resourceful person. It's still hot. Middle tomorrow for all incl masters.   Michael Posted: 21 August 2012, 7:18 PM   The organisers were saying they expected 15-25% off-road riding, but finishers were saying it would have made a good foot-o course! Check out the map and routes via the live button. Marquita was lying about 10th early on but a 2min error dropped her down a lot of places, so she was a little disappointed. Christine rode extremely well considering that her orienteering experience is much less. Ride of the day from our perspective (and ignored by the speaker for ages after she finished) was UK's Emily Benham who finished 2nd. Emily was a promising junior when I last saw her 4 years ago, she does all the team arrangements, she makes maps, she sells mapholders, all in all a very resourceful person. It's still hot. Middle tomorrow for all incl masters.   pete s Posted: 22 August 2012, 1:29 AM   thanks for the updates Michael and well done Marquita and Christine. Good luck to the vets tonight!   theoman Posted: 22 August 2012, 10:11 AM   Absolutely Fantastic coverage!!! http://www.mtbo.hu/mtbwoc2012.php/media Awesome to see gps tracking...thought I was looking at a foot orienteering course!   mcroxford Posted: 22 August 2012, 1:23 PM   Do we have our next world champ? Rob Garden leading the M60A in the Middle Distance! Go Rob!!!   mcroxford Posted: 22 August 2012, 1:46 PM   I think he's done it! Congrats Rob!!!   theoman Posted: 22 August 2012, 3:03 PM   GO ROB!!!! beast   pete s Posted: 22 August 2012, 3:12 PM   Wow! Awesome result Rob!!! Woohoo, world champ!!! I knew that rum was rocket fuel! :-) Great news and big congrats - awesome!