"I climbed to 3400m three times and only flew 20km" - it just doesn't sound right does it. But it was the motto for team Oz today - we all landed within 1km of each other just before the first turnpoint after doing the above. I left a climb at 3200m, 4km before the turnpoint cyclinder and landed 800m short. Never have I found sink so consistent, so strong and for so long. It was a similar experience for most in the area pushing strong cross or headwind.
A 69km task had been set with a 25k leg directly to the east and then a goal directly to the north. With strong southerlies forecast turning westerly late in the day, it was always going to be tricky making the first turnpoint. Added to that, there was some pretty wild terrain we were being pushed into by the southerly. Hard for this to not come out as sour grapes but it was not a well set task. The little I know about task setting philosophy is that the task should get harder as you move through the course - today we had a task where if you lived through the first third of the course, you had a free ride for the last 2/3. Not quite right, and not really the kind of task you'd expect in a contest to crown a US national champion. I'm all for difficult tasks which challenge you to devise a way through, but today was all about survival, not racing. Ahh who knows, maybe I'm just a whining bastard ;-)
Results are at www.mphsports.com
James T's pics at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/m/viewAlbum?uname=jamesflys&aname=USA07&start=0
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Hey you - you wanted to say hi, matie! It looks like you're having great fun! WONDERFUL fun! Great! Wish it was me - well, unfortuantly, US IN THE REAL WORLD (tsk tsk) have to go to work and enjoy holidays in pouuuuuring rainy weather! No fun at all, I tell ya! Well, just wanted you say take care and happy flying! All the best! Let me know if you fly wrong and get to Denmark! Come enjoy! We have loads of rain and no mountain! Sounds like fun, eh! Take care, Benji!
xoxox Rikke
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