2011's Estonian MTBO Championships with BikEst and WRE was in Southern Estonia near Latvian border and Karula National Park. One part of long distance's terrain was slightly known for me because I took part in Ilves3 (in 2008) and 8th World Rogaining Championships where I got 4th place in MJ class (results) with Ats Sõnajalg. Some trainins were also made there in autumn 2009 (blog post). The second part of the terrain (West from road) was totally unknown for me. Doing some research before the competition I realised that the track density is not high and route choices would be decisive. The target was to lose leass than 15% to winner.
The middle distance started with wrong route choice before 2nd CP where a track was slower than I expected. Then I made a mistake with 8th CP where I went to wrong way beside the river. Then came the stage from 9th to 10th CP. took route choice from right side because I afraid that straight track would be slow, but it wasn't and "my track" was slower than it was snown on map. I lost valuable time with that route choice. Maybe the mappers and competitiors are not yet get accustomed with 2x4 track symbols - I was sometimes unsure because of that during the race. On the other hand, the course was too easy about navigation for middle distance. My result was only sufficient on that day but I lost 19,3% to the winner.
Left: Map of middle distance
Link to results
Link to RouteGadget
Finishing the middle distance. Photo: Peep Eomis (link)
On sunday, there were some windbreak on my way to the event centre (photo below). I was going to be another hot day for competing. And what is more, this long distance (35,6 km) was the longest (by distance) MTBO race for me and the map (1:25000) was with smallest (in cartography: small means bigger numbers) scale in MTBO for me.
The long distance went quite well. I wasn't pleased with the race from 10th to 13th CP. I took wrong way to the 11th CP and had to climb some stairs. To 12th CP I took wrong route choice - tracks were fast but route was too long. From 12th to 13th CP it was fastest do cut, but I didn't and the round was too long. In my opinion, during the course, cuts should not give so much gaining of time. I lost 20,7% to winner, so my race was not good.
Link to results
Link to RouteGadget
Map of long distance
This year's Estonian MTBO Championships were a bit different in map and terrain - so, it was interesting. TAOK made good job organising the event.
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