NWOC orienteer Bobby Smyth was Irelands sole representitive at the 2010 World MTBO championships in Portugal this year.
Here is a taste of what Bobby experienced at his first major MTBO competition.
You can read his full report on the Trailblazers MTBO webite.
MTBO WOC Portugal 2010
Preparation
After a successful bike and foot orienteering season in 2009 I decided that I needed a new goal for 2010. I got word early in 2010 that I would be representing Ireland at the MTBO World Champs in Portugal in July. So it was with a mixture of fear and excitement that I set about training for such an event. I was afraid that I would suffer from the “Eddie the Eagle” syndrome where I would finish in a distant last position but be popular because I was the only competitor from Ireland. I was extremely excited as it would be my first taste of international competition. My preparation involved training for between 9 to 12 hours per week. My training consisted of 2 hour cycles for aerobic endurance, cycling to work, mountain biking on the hills around Clonmany, running and core strength. For sharpness I competed in as many foot and bike orienteering events that I could manage. I also travelled over to England and Scotland on 3 occasions to compete in some of the UK MTBO Cup events and I currently lie 4th in the rankings with 3 events still to go. I vowed to myself that I would finish every race in Portugal no matter how tough, the only thing that would stop me would be mechanical problems.
Portugal
I travelled out to Portugal on Friday 2nd July with my wife, Aine and daughter, Ciara. There was no way they were going to miss the opportunity of a holiday in Portugal. I explained to them that we would be nowhere near a beach and there would be a lot of waiting around at very warm finish areas, they were undeterred. We arrived in Chaves in Northern Portugal just before midnight . Chaves is an old spa town which was situated near 2 of the competition areas in addition to being the venue for the sprint event. I spent the next day wandering around the town to get my bearings and locate the nearest supermarket for supplies. My first impressions were that everywhere I looked there were hills and the temperature gauge was hitting 38ºC, boy this was going to be a tough championship.
Sprint Race Sunday 11th July
The world championships started with the sprint race on Sunday 11th July in Chaves. I had ridden the model sprint event in Montalegre the day before so I had a fair idea of what to expect at the start and finish areas. The sprint took place in the morning so the temperature was relatively cool. All competitors were contained inside FC Chaves’ football stadium before the start so that we could not see any of the course. I spent the time before my allocated start chatting to the British team and warming up on the dirt track surrounding the pitch which created a remarkably large dust cloud that did my asthma no favours before racing. I had an early start time so I wouldn’t benefit from seeing other competitors going in and out of controls. I felt confident on the start line and went off like a bat outta hell overtaking the other competitors that started at the same time as me. I mispunched control no. 1 but lost no more than 10 seconds as my control was only 50m ahead. I rode controls 2-7 quickly, made a 20 second error at 8 by going to 9 first which was very nearby. At this point I vowed to keep better contact with the map. Controls 10,11, 12 and 13 presented no problem except that I was starting to suffer on the hills from my fast early pace. I got a little bit disorientated on the way to 14 through following another competitor and not looking at my map enough this lost me about 20 seconds as I had to stop to relocate. I was hesitant on the way to 15 as I could not find a direct route on the map (there was none) losing me another 30 seconds. I made a slight mistake on my way to 16, turning the wrong way at a junction which cost me another 10 seconds. I rode 17,18 and 19 extremely quickly and had already planned my route through the last 2 controls to the finish in my head which proved to be a big mistake. I rode along the walls of an old Napoleonic fort to where I thought number 20 was only to find out that I was 20 feet above it. I had to retrace my steps to a walkway that would take me to the lower level of the battlements however tried to be clever on the way and went down another walkway first that was blocked off, then back up to the correct walkway and finally into control 20. Control 20 cost me 2 minutes 15 in lost time! I sprinted to the final control and finish without further mistakes. At the finish I was gutted because I knew that I had blown my best chance of a top 40 finish. All in all I made nearly 4 minutes of mistakes and finished in 69th position, if I had only looked at my map before going to number 20 I would have finished 10 places further up the field. I know that I will never have a completely clean run but I really need to cut out these silly mistakes.
On Sunday evening we travelled 40 minutes to Montalegre, where the event centre was, for the opening ceremony. This involved walking through the town from the castle to the event centre behind a child carrying each country’s flag. I must say that it was quite a buzz, especially since Ciara was with me in her pram and taking her job of carrying the Ireland sign very seriously.
