World of O News
The course is from 2011 – but can still maybe be categorized as a “classic”. Today’s course in “January Classics” is the National event in Savoie in May 2011 – used for several teams as WOC selection race ahead of WOC in France later the same year. Thanks to Jonas Mathys for the tip!
– This is the toughest race I have run until now, Mathys writes in his e-mail. – The terrain is extreme. Extremely slow. Extremely difficult. And the day was extremely hot.
Thierry Gueorgiou won the race with 9(!) minutes – nobody was prepared like the French specialist in technical orienteering.
– Quite soon it was all about surviving, Mathys comments. And the same is probably true for most of the start field. Matys finished 68th of 169 starters – 39(!) minutes behind Gueorgiou.
This is undoubtedly a classic, even if this is not the original map.
-> Jan wrote two articles about the competition http://news.worldofo.com/2011/05/29/le-revard-loooong-distance-gueorgiou-9-minutes-ahead/
http://news.worldofo.com/2011/05/31/gueorgiou-it-is-still-a-long-way-to-the-world-championships/
The second with based on some additional background information.
-> Many big names on the result list but not all took it as serious. Still Thierry showed that he already at this stage was able to master this terrain and a headstart towards the 2011 epic WOC he never lost later on.