WUOC Relay

The grand finale of WUOC was the relay today in the same arena in Gustafs. This was a great race to follow as a spectator. Ultra fast terrain, with some negative topography and many trails. Radio control from the forest and spectator loop towards the end with less than 10 minutes running remaining. Robbie was running first leg for the Canadian team and Carol was running the first leg for a mixed team together with Denmark. The men started first, and they were unbelievably fast! Frederic Tranchard of France came in first and he did the 8.2 km course in under 40 minutes. Robbie was fighting it out with Jordan on the US team and Jordan had the last word and came in about 1 minute ahead. Carol had an amazing run on her leg and came in just over 3 minutes after Sarka Svobodna of the Czech Republic.

Eric Kemp went out fast to chase down the American and succeeded! Check out this great picture of Eric's fighting face. Jeff Teutsch also had a great run on the second leg on a mixed team with the US, coming in only a few minutes behind Eric. Will went out about one minute ahead of Leif and they kept trading positions out in the forest, but when Will made a little hook on the control just before the spectator control, Leif could create a small gap that he was able to hold all the way in.

After the relay was over, the day ended with an exciting VIP race for coaches, officials and other guests. This was a mass start in full race speed without forking. Samantha Seager continued the US dominance over the Canucks outrunning Magnus with over 2 minutes, despite a pretty clean race for the Canadian coach. Looks like Sam will kick some ass in Trondheim! Andrea had a fight with an Austrian team leader and clearly outrun the head FISU official.

Here is the team picture! Now we are all off to O-ringen tomorrow!