WOC Long Men: The Analysis!

A lot of route choice options on today’s WOC Long distance – thus a lot of interesting material for GPS & Splits analysis. For now here is the raw material – this article will be updated with further analysis later on.

The overall conclusion is that there are not that many decisive route choices – most top runner choose the same routes – or at least routes which were approximately equal in time. The deciding factor was the ability to avoid doing small mistakes all the way.

The split times are shown leg by leg – and maps with routes are shown for the most interesting legs. Note that the split times shown on the maps are “GPS splits” – usually off by a few seconds – the splits in the tables are the correct ones.

Enjoy – and please add some comments below if you have any! The complete map is available here.

autOanalysis: Lundanes versus Merz

To start the analysis, an autOanalysis Lundanes versus Merz. As you can seem, Lundanes gains significant time already to control 1 and control 2. Going further until control 14, Merz looses some time all the way – the most on the longer route choice legs. It looks like Merz was defensive in this first part of the course. In the second part of the course it is – however – Lundanes who makes some small mistake ; mostly direction mistakes. In this part of the course the speed is more similar between the two, but Lundanes has still an edge speedwise.

Men (MEN): S-1

To the first control the runners are faced with the question they get many times later on in the course: Around on the paths or direct. For the leg to the first control, there are either the large paths to the right, the small paths to the left or direct in mostly white forest with some green 1. As the direct route is mostly white forest, this is the obvious choice here – but some probably choose the “safer” variants to get into the map from the start.

Lundanes is fastest already to the first control – 1 second ahead of Hertner (who later was disqualified) – going on the direct route choice. Merz looses 36 seconds by (1) taking the “safer” route on the paths/road to the right and (2) taking off wrong to the right already after less than 100 meter running.

Men (MEN): S-1 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 3:35 +0:00 2. Fabian Hertner 3:36 +0:01 3. Edgars Bertuks 3:38 +0:03 4. Anders Holmberg 3:39 +0:04 5. Anders Nordberg 3:40 +0:05 6. Kalvis Mihailovs 3:42 +0:07 7. Kiril Nikolov 3:45 +0:10 8. Gustav Bergman 3:47 +0:12 9. Matthias Kyburz 3:48 +0:13 10. Gernot Kerschbaumer 3:50 +0:15 12. Philippe Adamski 3:51 +0:16 32. Matthias Merz 4:11 +0:36

Men (MEN): S-1 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 3:35 +0:00 2. Fabian Hertner 3:36 +0:01 3. Edgars Bertuks 3:38 +0:03 4. Anders Holmberg 3:39 +0:04 5. Anders Nordberg 3:40 +0:05 6. Kalvis Mihailovs 3:42 +0:07 7. Kiril Nikolov 3:45 +0:10 8. Gustav Bergman 3:47 +0:12 9. Matthias Kyburz 3:48 +0:13 10. Gernot Kerschbaumer 3:50 +0:15 12. Philippe Adamski 3:51 +0:16 32. Matthias Merz 4:11 +0:36

Men (MEN): 1-2

The leg to number two is a short 1 minute leg. No special route choices here to the 2nd control. Lundanes is two seconds behind Holmberg who has the fastest split. Merz looses another 8 seconds to Lundanes. Adamski looses 13 seconds – Bertuks 15 seconds.

Men (MEN): 1-2 (Legtimes) 1. Anders Holmberg 1:09 +0:00 2. Olav Lundanes 1:11 +0:02 3. Hans Gunnar Omdal 1:15 +0:06 4. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 1:16 +0:07 5. Matthias Kyburz 1:17 +0:08 6. Fredric Portin 1:17 +0:08 7. Erik Rost 1:17 +0:08 8. Tuomas Tervo 1:18 +0:09 9. Matthias Merz 1:18 +0:09 10. Rasmus Thrane Hansen 1:19 +0:10 13. Philippe Adamski 1:22 +0:13 17. Edgars Bertuks 1:24 +0:15

Men (MEN): 1-2 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 4:46 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 4:48 +0:02 3. Fabian Hertner 5:00 +0:14 4. Edgars Bertuks 5:02 +0:16 5. Matthias Kyburz 5:05 +0:19 6. Hans Gunnar Omdal 5:08 +0:22 7. Kiril Nikolov 5:08 +0:22 8. Tuomas Tervo 5:08 +0:22 9. Anders Nordberg 5:10 +0:24 10. Fredric Portin 5:10 +0:24 12. Philippe Adamski 5:13 +0:27 21. Matthias Merz 5:29 +0:43

Men (MEN): 2-3

To the third control it is again about direct in the forest or going around at the road. This time the direct variant features quite a few green stripes, and it is thus not that advantageous to go direct as to the first control. Again Merz runs the “safer” road/path route to the right – but this time the Swiss runner looses only 2 seconds to the fastest split time of Bertuks who goes direct. Lundanes goes also direct and looses 7 seconds – it looks like he is a bit much to the left early in the leg.

Men (MEN): 2-3 (Legtimes) 1. Edgars Bertuks 1:41 +0:00 2. Hans Gunnar Omdal 1:43 +0:02 3. Matthias Merz 1:43 +0:02 4. Mikhail Mamleev 1:43 +0:02 5. Kiril Nikolov 1:44 +0:03 6. Jan Šedivý 1:44 +0:03 7. Matthias Kyburz 1:45 +0:04 8. Aleksei Alekseyonok 1:45 +0:04 9. Tue Lassen 1:46 +0:05 10. Anders Nordberg 1:47 +0:06 12. Philippe Adamski 1:47 +0:06 13. Olav Lundanes 1:48 +0:07

Men (MEN): 2-3 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 6:34 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 6:40 +0:06 3. Edgars Bertuks 6:43 +0:09 4. Matthias Kyburz 6:50 +0:16 5. Fabian Hertner 6:51 +0:17 6. Hans Gunnar Omdal 6:51 +0:17 7. Kiril Nikolov 6:52 +0:18 8. Anders Nordberg 6:57 +0:23 9. Kalvis Mihailovs 6:57 +0:23 10. Philippe Adamski 7:00 +0:26 14. Matthias Merz 7:12 +0:38

Men (MEN): 3-4

The leg from 3 to 4 is the first leg with a real route choice option. Looking at the routes on this leg, a lot of different route choices are taken – and also many runner loose time here. There are three main choices:

• Far around to the right mostly on road/paths,
• To the left on small paths
• Direct, with a curve to the right to get around the green

It is tempting to take the small paths around to the left, but runnability on the small paths in this terrain is not the best – you can often run just as fast in white forest. In addition, the last part of the leg takes you through yellow with green stripes or tight green stripes (or a large detour to the left).

The best choice seems to be the direct route  – keeping on the road long enough to get around all the green on the middle of the leg.  The rightmost choice seems to be too long, while the leftmost is too slow due to the green and the small paths.

All the Top 6 take the correct choice except for Nikolov who looses a minute by going left. Hertner also looses time by going left.

Men (MEN): 3-4 (Legtimes) 1. Anders Holmberg 3:05 +0:00 2. Olav Lundanes 3:09 +0:04 3. Valentin Novikov 3:10 +0:05 4. Matthias Merz 3:11 +0:06 5. Jan Šedivý 3:11 +0:06 6. Adam Kovacs 3:12 +0:07 7. Philippe Adamski 3:18 +0:13 8. Ionut Zinca 3:19 +0:14 9. Matthias Kyburz 3:20 +0:15 10. Frederic Tranchand 3:20 +0:15 19. Edgars Bertuks 3:39 +0:34

Men (MEN): 3-4 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 9:43 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 9:45 +0:02 3. Matthias Kyburz 10:10 +0:27 4. Philippe Adamski 10:18 +0:35 5. Valentin Novikov 10:18 +0:35 6. Anders Nordberg 10:22 +0:39 7. Edgars Bertuks 10:22 +0:39 8. Matthias Merz 10:23 +0:40 9. Tuomas Tervo 10:29 +0:46 10. Adam Kovacs 10:31 +0:48

Men (MEN): 4-5

4-5 is a quite short leg – but still Bertuks and Adamski loose nearly half a minute. On this leg it is all about avoiding the green and the yellow with green stripes.

Lundanes has the second best time – 1 second behind Novikov – by running  in an “S” – first in the white forest down to the road – then follow the road – and finally the shortest possible way through the green 1 area.

At this point in the race Lundanes is in the lead – 6 seconds ahead of Holmberg with Novikov in third. Merz is already 46 seconds down (5th), Adamski at +59 and Bertuks at +1:04.

Men (MEN): 4-5 (Legtimes) 1. Valentin Novikov 1:58 +0:00 2. Olav Lundanes 1:59 +0:01 3. Anders Holmberg 2:03 +0:05 4. Matthias Merz 2:05 +0:07 5. Scott Fraser 2:06 +0:08 6. Kalvis Mihailovs 2:08 +0:10 7. Hans Gunnar Omdal 2:08 +0:10 8. Gustav Bergman 2:08 +0:10 9. Tomáš Dlabaja 2:08 +0:10 10. Gernot Kerschbaumer 2:09 +0:11 28. Philippe Adamski 2:23 +0:25 30. Edgars Bertuks 2:24 +0:26

Men (MEN): 4-5 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 11:42 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 11:48 +0:06 3. Valentin Novikov 12:16 +0:34 4. Matthias Kyburz 12:26 +0:44 5. Matthias Merz 12:28 +0:46 6. Anders Nordberg 12:37 +0:55 7. Philippe Adamski 12:41 +0:59 8. Adam Kovacs 12:42 +1:00 9. Edgars Bertuks 12:46 +1:04 10. Kalvis Mihailovs 12:46 +1:04

Men (MEN): 5-6

On this long leg there is really only one route choice option (one runner takes another choice). It seems that this leg is only a transport leg to get to another part of the map.

However, both Merz (+28 seconds) and Adamski (+46 seconds) loose time here on the last bit into the control. This again proves how important it is with full focus all the way – also on the easier parts.

Men (MEN): 5-6 (Legtimes) 1. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 5:38 +0:00 2. Edgars Bertuks 5:44 +0:06 3. Adam Kovacs 5:45 +0:07 4. Gustav Bergman 5:48 +0:10 5. Scott Fraser 5:50 +0:12 6. Olav Lundanes 5:53 +0:15 7. Frederic Tranchand 5:53 +0:15 8. Anders Holmberg 5:54 +0:16 9. Kiril Nikolov 5:54 +0:16 10. Kalvis Mihailovs 5:55 +0:17 19. Matthias Merz 6:06 +0:28 33. Philippe Adamski 6:24 +0:46

Men (MEN): 5-6 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 17:35 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 17:42 +0:07 3. Adam Kovacs 18:27 +0:52 4. Edgars Bertuks 18:30 +0:55 5. Matthias Merz 18:34 +0:59 6. Kalvis Mihailovs 18:41 +1:06 7. Anders Nordberg 18:48 +1:13 8. Hans Gunnar Omdal 18:53 +1:18 9. Tuomas Tervo 18:54 +1:19 10. Gustav Bergman 18:57 +1:22 14. Philippe Adamski 19:05 +1:30

Men (MEN): 6-7

This is a leg which looked very interesting up front with several different choices. Both the left and right options around on the road (both quite long) look tempting as you get good runnability. However, looking carefully at the map, you can see that (1) there is very little extra height to be taken on the direct route and (2) if you orienteer accurately you can manage mostly in white forest and on paths (and not the smallest paths either) if you go direct. Based on the split times, the routes around are too long in the mens class – the best times being run direct.

Note that all the Top 6 run a direct right variant except Holmberg. Also note that both Adamski and Bertuks struggle in the middle of the leg – loosing 0:50 and 1:06 respectively (see comparison Bertuks – Lundanes below).

Note also that in the womens class for a very similar leg, the best times are run around to the left (Simone Niggli) – the start control is however 70 meters to the north making the left option more attractive.

At this point in the course Adamski is all the way down at 12th spot at +2:08 – Bertuks at 7th spot at +1:49.

Men (MEN): 6-7 (Legtimes) 1. Matthias Merz 6:45 +0:00 2. Tue Lassen 6:54 +0:09 3. Olav Lundanes 6:57 +0:12 4. Kiril Nikolov 7:02 +0:17 5. Anders Holmberg 7:08 +0:23 6. Valentin Novikov 7:14 +0:29 7. Fabian Hertner 7:21 +0:36 8. Mikhail Mamleev 7:22 +0:37 9. Yury Tambasov 7:23 +0:38 10. Anders Nordberg 7:26 +0:41 13. Philippe Adamski 7:35 +0:50 25. Edgars Bertuks 7:51 +1:06

Men (MEN): 6-7 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 24:32 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 24:50 +0:18 3. Matthias Merz 25:19 +0:47 4. Adam Kovacs 26:10 +1:38 5. Kalvis Mihailovs 26:12 +1:40 6. Anders Nordberg 26:14 +1:42 7. Edgars Bertuks 26:21 +1:49 8. Fabian Hertner 26:22 +1:50 9. Jan Šedivý 26:32 +2:00 10. Kiril Nikolov 26:37 +2:05 12. Philippe Adamski 26:40 +2:08

Men (MEN): 7-8

Another short leg with “the usual question”. Cut through the green or go around on the path. This leg is special because Merz goes direct while Lundanes goes around. Lundanes looses 15 seconds to Merz on the first half of the leg. Lundanes uses the path while Merz goes more direct here. Merz is seemingly lucky to find good runnability in the green.

After 27 minutes of running, Merz is only 32 seconds behind Lundanes. Thus Merz is very much inside the race even if he has made some smaller mistakes early in the race.

Men (MEN): 7-8 (Legtimes) 1. Matthias Merz 2:21 +0:00 2. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 2:24 +0:03 3. Fabian Hertner 2:27 +0:06 4. Frederic Tranchand 2:27 +0:06 5. Valentin Novikov 2:28 +0:07 6. Yury Tambasov 2:29 +0:08 7. Scott Fraser 2:30 +0:09 8. Edgars Bertuks 2:31 +0:10 9. Gustav Bergman 2:32 +0:11 10. Tomáš Dlabaja 2:33 +0:12 16. Olav Lundanes 2:36 +0:15 22. Philippe Adamski 2:41 +0:20

Men (MEN): 7-8 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 27:08 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 27:26 +0:18 3. Matthias Merz 27:40 +0:32 4. Kalvis Mihailovs 28:47 +1:39 5. Fabian Hertner 28:49 +1:41 6. Edgars Bertuks 28:52 +1:44 7. Adam Kovacs 28:57 +1:49 8. Anders Nordberg 29:00 +1:52 9. Jan Šedivý 29:06 +1:58 10. Kiril Nikolov 29:15 +2:07 12. Philippe Adamski 29:21 +2:13

Men (MEN): 8-9

The leg from 7 to 8 is the longest leg of the course – 2.4 km long. There are a lot of route choice options chosen by the competitors. Many seem to be afraid of the runnability in the forest (although you can find passages in white forest or green 1 forest m0st of the time on the direct routes) – or they want to rest the mind by running a lot of road. The best choice here seems to be to combine all the small parts of path along the direct route. You actually manage to run most of the leg either on paths or in white forest without moving much away from the direct line (running 2.6 km compared to the direct length of 2.4 km)

Lundanes has the fastest time with 11:05 – staying quite close to the line all the leg. On Lundanes route choice there is about 90% path or white forest – and no green 2 or slower. In addition this is very close to the shortest route – and thus there can be no excuse to run 20% longer. It seems like many runners did not take the time to connect all the paths on the direct route, and instead took the “easy way out” on the big roads to the right (many) or to the left (some).

Men (MEN): 8-9 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 11:05 +0:00 2. Frederic Tranchand 11:09 +0:04 3. Fabian Hertner 11:19 +0:14 4. Valentin Novikov 11:24 +0:19 5. Anders Nordberg 11:29 +0:24 6. Matthias Merz 11:31 +0:26 7. Tue Lassen 11:55 +0:50 8. Hans Gunnar Omdal 11:58 +0:53 9. Jan Šedivý 12:01 +0:56 10. Kiril Nikolov 12:02 +0:57 11. Edgars Bertuks 12:08 +1:03 14. Philippe Adamski 12:11 +1:06

Men (MEN): 8-9 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 38:13 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 39:11 +0:58 3. Anders Holmberg 39:35 +1:22 4. Fabian Hertner 40:08 +1:55 5. Anders Nordberg 40:29 +2:16 6. Valentin Novikov 40:58 +2:45 7. Edgars Bertuks 41:00 +2:47 8. Jan Šedivý 41:07 +2:54 9. Hans Gunnar Omdal 41:15 +3:02 10. Kiril Nikolov 41:17 +3:04 14. Philippe Adamski 41:32 +3:19

Men (MEN): 9-10

Another quite short leg where you can choose between going direct through mostly white forest with some green stripes or running nearly 20% longer around on a path to the left. Direct and left look very similar in time from the splits, but more of the runners running direct loose time as it might be a bit hit-or-miss to get well through the green.

All three medalists run the direct choice – but Lundanes makes it 17 seconds better than both Merz and Bertuks. It looks like Merz has bad compass direction in the middle part of the leg, and probably also finds some slow, green areas.

Since the 8th control Lundanes has increased his lead by another 45 seconds to 1:15 – this really has started to look like a gold race for the Norwegian.

Men (MEN): 9-10 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 1:56 +0:00 2. Fabian Hertner 1:56 +0:00 3. Jan Šedivý 2:03 +0:07 4. Philippe Adamski 2:03 +0:07 5. Lauri Sild 2:03 +0:07 6. Alessio Tenani 2:05 +0:09 7. Mikhail Mamleev 2:06 +0:10 8. Aleksei Alekseyonok 2:06 +0:10 9. Frederic Tranchand 2:07 +0:11 10. Tue Lassen 2:07 +0:11 16. Matthias Merz 2:13 +0:17 17. Edgars Bertuks 2:13 +0:17

Men (MEN): 9-10 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 40:09 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 41:24 +1:15 3. Anders Holmberg 41:49 +1:40 4. Fabian Hertner 42:04 +1:55 5. Anders Nordberg 42:47 +2:38 6. Jan Šedivý 43:10 +3:01 7. Valentin Novikov 43:12 +3:03 8. Edgars Bertuks 43:13 +3:04 9. Frederic Tranchand 43:26 +3:17 10. Kiril Nikolov 43:26 +3:17 12. Philippe Adamski 43:35 +3:26

Men (MEN): 10-11

Another short leg where Lundanes takes time on all the others. 48 seconds for Lundanes – 56 seconds for Merz. It looks like Merz has bad direction out of the control.

Men (MEN): 10-11 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 0:48 +0:00 2. Philippe Adamski 0:49 +0:01 3. Adam Kovacs 0:49 +0:01 4. Yury Tambasov 0:49 +0:01 5. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 0:49 +0:01 6. Vilius Aleliunas 0:49 +0:01 7. Anders Holmberg 0:50 +0:02 8. Fabian Hertner 0:50 +0:02 9. Jan Šedivý 0:50 +0:02 10. Kiril Nikolov 0:50 +0:02 14. Edgars Bertuks 0:52 +0:04 32. Matthias Merz 0:56 +0:08

Men (MEN): 10-11 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 40:57 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 42:20 +1:23 3. Anders Holmberg 42:39 +1:42 4. Fabian Hertner 42:54 +1:57 5. Anders Nordberg 43:41 +2:44 6. Jan Šedivý 44:00 +3:03 7. Valentin Novikov 44:03 +3:06 8. Edgars Bertuks 44:05 +3:08 9. Kiril Nikolov 44:16 +3:19 10. Frederic Tranchand 44:17 +3:20 11. Philippe Adamski 44:24 +3:27

Men (MEN): 11-12

Another short interesting route choice leg with three clear options: Left on the path/road, direct through partly white / partly green stripes / partly green 1 or right on a road and in white forest. The rightmost option has too much running in forest and extra height compared to the extra length you need to run – and is the slowest option. For this leg, the direct option also seems to loose you some time compared to to the left option (especially due to the extra risk), because the left option is not much longer and is almost only on path/road.

Adamski and Nikolog run left and are both within 11 seconds of the best time for this leg (run by Kovacs left). Lundanes runs direct, and looses 11 seconds even if he is running very fast here. Merz and Bertuks also run direct, but do not find that good ways through the green and loose 34 and 55 seconds, respectively.

Men (MEN): 11-12 (Legtimes) 1. Adam Kovacs 3:59 +0:00 2. Rasmus Djurhuus 4:04 +0:05 3. Mikhail Mamleev 4:05 +0:06 4. Rasmus Thrane Hansen 4:05 +0:06 5. Kiril Nikolov 4:08 +0:09 6. Vilius Aleliunas 4:09 +0:10 7. Olav Lundanes 4:10 +0:11 8. Jan Šedivý 4:10 +0:11 9. Philippe Adamski 4:10 +0:11 10. Tuomas Tervo 4:11 +0:12 32. Matthias Merz 4:33 +0:34 37. Edgars Bertuks 4:54 +0:55

Men (MEN): 11-12 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 45:07 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 46:53 +1:46 3. Anders Holmberg 47:10 +2:03 4. Fabian Hertner 47:15 +2:08 5. Anders Nordberg 48:00 +2:53 6. Jan Šedivý 48:10 +3:03 7. Valentin Novikov 48:22 +3:15 8. Kiril Nikolov 48:24 +3:17 9. Adam Kovacs 48:28 +3:21 10. Philippe Adamski 48:34 +3:27 13. Edgars Bertuks 48:59 +3:52

Men (MEN): 12-13

A short 1 minute leg with no real route choice options. However, Lundanes gains another 12 seconds on Merz here. It looks like Merz looses most of the time due to insecurity on the last part of the leg.

Men (MEN): 12-13 (Legtimes) 1. Frederic Tranchand 1:11 +0:00 2. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 1:11 +0:00 3. Anders Holmberg 1:15 +0:04 4. Jan Šedivý 1:15 +0:04 5. Ionut Zinca 1:15 +0:04 6. Olav Lundanes 1:16 +0:05 7. Adam Kovacs 1:18 +0:07 8. Tue Lassen 1:19 +0:08 9. Tomáš Dlabaja 1:20 +0:09 10. Philippe Adamski 1:21 +0:10 11. Edgars Bertuks 1:22 +0:11 18. Matthias Merz 1:28 +0:17

Men (MEN): 12-13 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 46:23 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 48:21 +1:58 3. Anders Holmberg 48:25 +2:02 4. Jan Šedivý 49:25 +3:02 5. Anders Nordberg 49:32 +3:09 6. Adam Kovacs 49:46 +3:23 7. Philippe Adamski 49:55 +3:32 8. Frederic Tranchand 50:04 +3:41 9. Edgars Bertuks 50:21 +3:58 10. Kiril Nikolov 50:44 +4:21

Men (MEN): 13-14

This is another quite long route choice leg with several options – the runners dividing themselves into 8-10 different variants. Lundanes wins the leg with 19(!) seconds by his left route choice. Holmberg, however, runs the same route 34 seconds slower. When looking statistically on the leg, no clear top route choice is found. The three top times on this leg are three different route choices.

Thus, it is Lundanes speed more than his route choice that gets him this great time on the leg. Merz looses 53 seconds on Lundanes – this seems to be partly due to his route choice and partly due to Lundanes being faster in this phase of the race.

At this point in the race, Lundanes suddenly has 2:36 lead on Holmberg with Merz in 3rd 2:51 down. Thus Merz is actually faster than Lundanes on the rest of the course. Bertuks is 4:30 down on Lundanes at this point in the course – he looses only a few more seconds in the complete rest of the course.

Men (MEN): 13-14 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 6:48 +0:00 2. Ionut Zinca 7:07 +0:19 3. Kiril Nikolov 7:09 +0:21 4. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 7:16 +0:28 5. Tomáš Dlabaja 7:17 +0:29 6. Edgars Bertuks 7:20 +0:32 7. Anders Holmberg 7:22 +0:34 8. Adam Kovacs 7:26 +0:38 9. Jan Šedivý 7:32 +0:44 10. Yury Tambasov 7:35 +0:47 12. Philippe Adamski 7:36 +0:48 14. Matthias Merz 7:41 +0:53

Men (MEN): 13-14 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 53:11 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 55:47 +2:36 3. Matthias Merz 56:02 +2:51 4. Valentin Novikov 56:07 +2:56* 5. Jan Šedivý 56:57 +3:46* 6. Adam Kovacs 57:12 +4:01* 7. Philippe Adamski 57:31 +4:20* 8. Frederic Tranchand 57:40 +4:29* 9. Edgars Bertuks 57:41 +4:30* 10. Anders Nordberg 57:43 +4:32*

Men (MEN): 14-15

This is a leg with only one good option: Going quite direct and using the paths as much as possible. All top runners take the same routes on this. Merz goes more direct than the others – going through some green 1 areas instead of taking a small detour on paths. Merz actually gains some time on this. Lundanes is 12 seconds behind on this leg.

Men (MEN): 14-15 (Legtimes) 1. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 4:33 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 4:35 +0:02 3. Philippe Adamski 4:35 +0:02 4. Anders Holmberg 4:44 +0:11 5. Yury Tambasov 4:44 +0:11 6. Olav Lundanes 4:45 +0:12 7. Fabian Hertner 4:47 +0:14 8. Tue Lassen 4:48 +0:15 9. Edgars Bertuks 4:50 +0:17 10. Anders Nordberg 5:02 +0:29

Men (MEN): 14-15 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 57:56 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 60:31 +2:35 3. Matthias Merz 60:37 +2:41 4. Valentin Novikov 61:12 +3:16 5. Philippe Adamski 62:06 +4:10 6. Jan Šedivý 62:23 +4:27 7. Edgars Bertuks 62:31 +4:35 8. Fabian Hertner 62:36 +4:40 9. Anders Nordberg 62:45 +4:49 10. Kiril Nikolov 62:56 +5:00

Men (MEN): 15-16

A very short leg – there is nothing but direct to be done here. Lundanes looses 35 seconds – this is his poorest leg of the day. It looks like Lundanes direction is off to the left – giving him a significant mistake on the control.

Men (MEN): 15-16 (Legtimes) 1. Gustav Bergman 0:22 +0:00 2. Bartosz Pawlak 0:23 +0:01 3. Vilius Aleliunas 0:25 +0:03 4. Valentin Novikov 0:26 +0:04 5. Fredric Portin 0:26 +0:04 6. Anders Nordberg 0:27 +0:05 7. Yury Tambasov 0:27 +0:05 8. Adam Kovacs 0:27 +0:05 9. Kalvis Mihailovs 0:27 +0:05 10. Tue Lassen 0:27 +0:05 13. Matthias Merz 0:28 +0:06 14. Edgars Bertuks 0:28 +0:06 31. Philippe Adamski 0:34 +0:12 43. Olav Lundanes 0:57 +0:35

Men (MEN): 15-16 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 58:53 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 61:05 +2:12 3. Anders Holmberg 61:17 +2:24 4. Valentin Novikov 61:38 +2:45 5. Philippe Adamski 62:40 +3:47 6. Jan Šedivý 62:54 +4:01 7. Edgars Bertuks 62:59 +4:06 8. Fabian Hertner 63:04 +4:11 9. Anders Nordberg 63:12 +4:19 10. Frederic Tranchand 63:31 +4:38

Men (MEN): 16-17

The leg from 16 to 17 is one of the longest legs on the course. The only good choice here is to keep quite close to the line and use the path were possible – and take white forest and green 1 where it is necessary. However, quite a few runners run very long detours in order to get more path/road running. This seems to be a quite bad choice.

Olav Lundanes is fastest – 6 seconds faster than Adamski. Merz looses 14 seconds here, seemingly on the last part of the leg.

Men (MEN): 16-17 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 8:25 +0:00 2. Philippe Adamski 8:31 +0:06 3. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 8:37 +0:12 4. Matthias Merz 8:39 +0:14 5. Frederic Tranchand 8:48 +0:23 6. Edgars Bertuks 8:52 +0:27 7. Valentin Novikov 8:56 +0:31 8. Kalvis Mihailovs 8:56 +0:31 9. Fredric Portin 9:02 +0:37 10. Kiril Nikolov 9:07 +0:42

Men (MEN): 16-17 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 67:18 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 69:44 +2:26 3. Anders Holmberg 70:31 +3:13 4. Valentin Novikov 70:34 +3:16 5. Philippe Adamski 71:11 +3:53 6. Edgars Bertuks 71:51 +4:33 7. Frederic Tranchand 72:19 +5:01 8. Fabian Hertner 72:20 +5:02 9. Anders Nordberg 72:32 +5:14 10. Yury Tambasov 72:43 +5:25

Men (MEN): 17-18

Men (MEN): 17-18 (Legtimes) 1. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 1:00 +0:00 2. Philippe Adamski 1:01 +0:01 3. Edgars Bertuks 1:01 +0:01 4. Lauri Sild 1:03 +0:03 5. Artem Panchenko 1:04 +0:04 6. Valentin Novikov 1:05 +0:05 7. Kalvis Mihailovs 1:05 +0:05 8. Yury Tambasov 1:06 +0:06 9. Diogo Miguel 1:07 +0:07 10. Matthias Merz 1:08 +0:08 28. Olav Lundanes 1:19 +0:19

Men (MEN): 17-18 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 68:37 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 70:52 +2:15 3. Valentin Novikov 71:39 +3:02 4. Anders Holmberg 72:09 +3:32 5. Philippe Adamski 72:12 +3:35 6. Edgars Bertuks 72:52 +4:15 7. Fabian Hertner 73:28 +4:51 8. Anders Nordberg 73:45 +5:08 9. Yury Tambasov 73:49 +5:12 10. Frederic Tranchand 73:57 +5:20

Men (MEN): 18-19

Men (MEN): 18-19 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 1:26 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 1:26 +0:00 3. Gustav Bergman 1:27 +0:01 4. Edgars Bertuks 1:31 +0:05 5. Tue Lassen 1:31 +0:05 6. Fabian Hertner 1:33 +0:07 7. Tomáš Dlabaja 1:34 +0:08 8. Anders Holmberg 1:35 +0:09 9. Matthias Kyburz 1:35 +0:09 10. Jan Šedivý 1:36 +0:10 30. Philippe Adamski 1:49 +0:23

Men (MEN): 18-19 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 70:03 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 72:18 +2:15 3. Valentin Novikov 73:22 +3:19 4. Anders Holmberg 73:44 +3:41 5. Philippe Adamski 74:01 +3:58 6. Edgars Bertuks 74:23 +4:20 7. Fabian Hertner 75:01 +4:58 8. Kiril Nikolov 75:44 +5:41 9. Anders Nordberg 75:46 +5:43 10. Frederic Tranchand 75:49 +5:46

Men (MEN): 19-20

A short leg where the medalists are the fastest. The best choice is quite obvious.

Men (MEN): 19-20 (Legtimes) 1. Edgars Bertuks 2:53 +0:00 2. Olav Lundanes 2:56 +0:03 3. Matthias Merz 3:00 +0:07 4. Philippe Adamski 3:05 +0:12 5. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 3:05 +0:12 6. Scott Fraser 3:08 +0:15 7. Fredric Portin 3:09 +0:16 8. Fabian Hertner 3:11 +0:18 9. Tue Lassen 3:12 +0:19 10. Yury Tambasov 3:17 +0:24

Men (MEN): 19-20 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 72:59 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 75:18 +2:19 3. Valentin Novikov 76:54 +3:55 4. Anders Holmberg 77:02 +4:03 5. Philippe Adamski 77:06 +4:07 6. Edgars Bertuks 77:16 +4:17 7. Fabian Hertner 78:12 +5:13 8. Kiril Nikolov 79:03 +6:04 9. Anders Nordberg 79:09 +6:10 10. Yury Tambasov 79:18 +6:19

Men (MEN): 20-21

Again a leg with few route choice options.  You need to follow the road for most of the leg, but cut through on the middle of the leg. And again the three medal winners have the three best times. This time even in correct medal order…

Men (MEN): 20-21 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 6:55 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 6:55 +0:00 3. Edgars Bertuks 7:02 +0:07 4. Ionut Zinca 7:04 +0:09 5. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 7:08 +0:13 6. Philippe Adamski 7:10 +0:15 7. Tomáš Dlabaja 7:13 +0:18 8. Scott Fraser 7:17 +0:22 9. Fredric Portin 7:23 +0:28 10. Kiril Nikolov 7:25 +0:30

Men (MEN): 20-21 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 79:54 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 82:13 +2:19 3. Philippe Adamski 84:16 +4:22 4. Edgars Bertuks 84:18 +4:24 5. Anders Holmberg 84:30 +4:36 6. Valentin Novikov 84:50 +4:56 7. Fabian Hertner 86:01 +6:07 8. Kiril Nikolov 86:28 +6:34 9. Anders Nordberg 87:06 +7:12 10. Frederic Tranchand 87:09 +7:15

Men (MEN): 21-22

In the last part of the course (control 21-31), there are not many route choices. Also, nothing much happens up in the Top 5 in this part of the course.

Men (MEN): 21-22 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 0:42 +0:00 2. Anders Holmberg 0:43 +0:01 3. Kiril Nikolov 0:43 +0:01 4. Tue Lassen 0:43 +0:01 5. Ionut Zinca 0:43 +0:01 6. Matthias Merz 0:44 +0:02 7. Edgars Bertuks 0:44 +0:02 8. Kalvis Mihailovs 0:44 +0:02 9. Jan Šedivý 0:44 +0:02 10. Matthias Kyburz 0:44 +0:02 26. Philippe Adamski 0:48 +0:06

Men (MEN): 21-22 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 80:36 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 82:57 +2:21 3. Edgars Bertuks 85:02 +4:26 4. Philippe Adamski 85:04 +4:28 5. Anders Holmberg 85:13 +4:37 6. Valentin Novikov 85:37 +5:01 7. Fabian Hertner 86:49 +6:13 8. Kiril Nikolov 87:11 +6:35 9. Anders Nordberg 87:53 +7:17 10. Kalvis Mihailovs 88:03 +7:27

Men (MEN): 22-23

Men (MEN): 22-23 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 0:48 +0:00 2. Edgars Bertuks 0:49 +0:01 3. Gernot Kerschbaumer 0:49 +0:01 4. Fabian Hertner 0:50 +0:02 5. Matthias Merz 0:51 +0:03 6. Philippe Adamski 0:51 +0:03 7. Frederic Tranchand 0:51 +0:03 8. Jan Šedivý 0:51 +0:03 9. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 0:52 +0:04 10. Rasmus Djurhuus 0:52 +0:04

Men (MEN): 22-23 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 81:24 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 83:48 +2:24 3. Edgars Bertuks 85:51 +4:27 4. Philippe Adamski 85:55 +4:31 5. Anders Holmberg 86:21 +4:57 6. Valentin Novikov 86:32 +5:08 7. Fabian Hertner 87:39 +6:15 8. Kiril Nikolov 88:04 +6:40 9. Anders Nordberg 88:56 +7:32 10. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 88:59 +7:35

Men (MEN): 23-24

Men (MEN): 23-24 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 0:57 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 1:00 +0:03 3. Jan Šedivý 1:00 +0:03 4. Fabian Hertner 1:01 +0:04 5. Valentin Novikov 1:04 +0:07 6. Kiril Nikolov 1:04 +0:07 7. Gernot Kerschbaumer 1:05 +0:08 8. Rasmus Djurhuus 1:05 +0:08 9. Ionut Zinca 1:05 +0:08 10. Tue Lassen 1:06 +0:09 23. Philippe Adamski 1:09 +0:12 25. Edgars Bertuks 1:10 +0:13

Men (MEN): 23-24 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 82:21 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 84:48 +2:27 3. Edgars Bertuks 87:01 +4:40 4. Philippe Adamski 87:04 +4:43 5. Valentin Novikov 87:36 +5:15 6. Fabian Hertner 88:40 +6:19 7. Anders Holmberg 88:42 +6:21 8. Kiril Nikolov 89:08 +6:47 9. Anders Nordberg 90:04 +7:43 10. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 90:07 +7:46

Men (MEN): 24-25

Men (MEN): 24-25 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 1:16 +0:00 2. Edgars Bertuks 1:20 +0:04 3. Frederic Tranchand 1:22 +0:06 4. Valentin Novikov 1:23 +0:07 5. Gernot Kerschbaumer 1:23 +0:07 6. Matthias Merz 1:24 +0:08 7. Kiril Nikolov 1:24 +0:08 8. Kalvis Mihailovs 1:24 +0:08 9. Jan Šedivý 1:24 +0:08 10. Anders Holmberg 1:25 +0:09 17. Philippe Adamski 1:28 +0:12

Men (MEN): 24-25 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 83:37 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 86:12 +2:35 3. Edgars Bertuks 88:21 +4:44 4. Philippe Adamski 88:32 +4:55 5. Valentin Novikov 88:59 +5:22 6. Anders Holmberg 90:07 +6:30 7. Fabian Hertner 90:09 +6:32 8. Kiril Nikolov 90:32 +6:55 9. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 91:36 +7:59 10. Kalvis Mihailovs 91:37 +8:00

Men (MEN): 25-26

Men (MEN): 25-26 (Legtimes) 1. Edgars Bertuks 2:00 +0:00 2. Frederic Tranchand 2:00 +0:00 3. Matthias Merz 2:01 +0:01 4. Vilius Aleliunas 2:01 +0:01 5. Kiril Nikolov 2:02 +0:02 6. Olav Lundanes 2:03 +0:03 7. Fabian Hertner 2:03 +0:03 8. Ionut Zinca 2:04 +0:04 9. Valentin Novikov 2:06 +0:06 10. Tue Lassen 2:07 +0:07 20. Philippe Adamski 2:13 +0:13

Men (MEN): 25-26 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 85:40 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 88:13 +2:33 3. Edgars Bertuks 90:21 +4:41 4. Philippe Adamski 90:45 +5:05 5. Valentin Novikov 91:05 +5:25 6. Fabian Hertner 92:12 +6:32 7. Anders Holmberg 92:18 +6:38 8. Kiril Nikolov 92:34 +6:54 9. Frederic Tranchand 93:40 +8:00 10. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 93:50 +8:10

Men (MEN): 26-27

Men (MEN): 26-27 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 1:07 +0:00 2. Kiril Nikolov 1:08 +0:01 3. Vilius Aleliunas 1:09 +0:02 4. Fabian Hertner 1:10 +0:03 5. Ionut Zinca 1:10 +0:03 6. Matthias Merz 1:11 +0:04 7. Edgars Bertuks 1:11 +0:04 8. Frederic Tranchand 1:11 +0:04 9. Fredric Portin 1:11 +0:04 10. Matthias Kyburz 1:11 +0:04 13. Philippe Adamski 1:14 +0:07

Men (MEN): 26-27 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 86:47 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 89:24 +2:37 3. Edgars Bertuks 91:32 +4:45 4. Philippe Adamski 91:59 +5:12 5. Valentin Novikov 92:20 +5:33 6. Fabian Hertner 93:22 +6:35 7. Anders Holmberg 93:32 +6:45 8. Kiril Nikolov 93:42 +6:55 9. Frederic Tranchand 94:51 +8:04 10. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 95:04 +8:17

Men (MEN): 27-28

Men (MEN): 27-28 (Legtimes) 1. Olav Lundanes 2:36 +0:00 2. Ionut Zinca 2:36 +0:00 3. Frederic Tranchand 2:46 +0:10 4. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 2:48 +0:12 5. Philippe Adamski 2:50 +0:14 6. Edgars Bertuks 2:53 +0:17 7. Anders Holmberg 2:54 +0:18 8. Kiril Nikolov 2:56 +0:20 9. Matthias Merz 3:01 +0:25 10. Scott Fraser 3:01 +0:25

Men (MEN): 27-28 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 89:23 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 92:25 +3:02 3. Edgars Bertuks 94:25 +5:02 4. Philippe Adamski 94:49 +5:26 5. Anders Holmberg 96:26 +7:03 6. Fabian Hertner 96:28 +7:05 7. Kiril Nikolov 96:38 +7:15 8. Frederic Tranchand 97:37 +8:14 9. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 97:52 +8:29 10. Anders Nordberg 98:49 +9:26

Men (MEN): 28-29

Here Lundanes looses 15 seconds – bad direction into the control.

Men (MEN): 28-29 (Legtimes) 1. Ionut Zinca 1:10 +0:00 2. Edgars Bertuks 1:11 +0:01 3. Anders Holmberg 1:11 +0:01 4. Matthias Merz 1:13 +0:03 5. Fabian Hertner 1:13 +0:03 6. Tue Lassen 1:13 +0:03 7. Kiril Nikolov 1:14 +0:04 8. Vytautas Beliunas 1:14 +0:04 9. Gernot Kerschbaumer 1:15 +0:05 10. Vilius Aleliunas 1:16 +0:06 20. Philippe Adamski 1:21 +0:11 29. Olav Lundanes 1:25 +0:15

Men (MEN): 28-29 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 90:48 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 93:38 +2:50 3. Edgars Bertuks 95:36 +4:48 4. Philippe Adamski 96:10 +5:22 5. Anders Holmberg 97:37 +6:49 6. Fabian Hertner 97:41 +6:53 7. Kiril Nikolov 97:52 +7:04 8. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 99:13 +8:25 9. Frederic Tranchand 99:20 +8:32 10. Anders Nordberg 100:10 +9:22

Men (MEN): 29-30

Men (MEN): 29-30 (Legtimes) 1. Edgars Bertuks 0:42 +0:00 2. Olav Lundanes 0:46 +0:04 3. Kiril Nikolov 0:46 +0:04 4. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 0:47 +0:05 5. Matthias Merz 0:48 +0:06 6. Philippe Adamski 0:48 +0:06 7. Anders Holmberg 0:48 +0:06 8. Vytautas Beliunas 0:48 +0:06 9. Bartosz Pawlak 0:48 +0:06 10. Gernot Kerschbaumer 0:49 +0:07

Men (MEN): 29-30 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 91:34 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 94:26 +2:52 3. Edgars Bertuks 96:18 +4:44 4. Philippe Adamski 96:58 +5:24 5. Anders Holmberg 98:25 +6:51 6. Fabian Hertner 98:32 +6:58 7. Kiril Nikolov 98:38 +7:04 8. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 100:00 +8:26 9. Frederic Tranchand 100:13 +8:39 10. Anders Nordberg 101:02 +9:28

Men (MEN): 30-31

Men (MEN): 30-31 (Legtimes) 1. Edgars Bertuks 1:53 +0:00 2. Fabian Hertner 1:58 +0:05 3. Matthias Merz 1:59 +0:06 4. Gernot Kerschbaumer 2:01 +0:08 5. Olav Lundanes 2:04 +0:11 6. Kiril Nikolov 2:05 +0:12 7. Ionut Zinca 2:10 +0:17 8. Erik Rost 2:10 +0:17 9. Wojciech Kowalski 2:12 +0:19 10. Tuomas Tervo 2:12 +0:19 11. Philippe Adamski 2:13 +0:20

Men (MEN): 30-31 (Total times) 1. Olav Lundanes 93:38 +0:00 2. Matthias Merz 96:25 +2:47 3. Edgars Bertuks 98:11 +4:33 4. Philippe Adamski 99:11 +5:33 5. Fabian Hertner 100:30 +6:52 6. Anders Holmberg 100:39 +7:01 7. Kiril Nikolov 100:43 +7:05 8. Dmitriy Tsvetkov 102:13 +8:35 9. Frederic Tranchand 102:47 +9:09 10. Anders Nordberg 103:28 +9:50