Adrian Jackson: UK update

Well, my UK part of my trip is over, and I have once again been rather slack in keeping the blog up-to-date with what's been happening. My time in Germany went very quickly, with the testing I was doing at DLR for my PhD taking right up until the last moment to get completed. I also raced in the Albstadt MTB Marathon in the last week I was there. This is one of the biggest marathons in Germany, and on parts of the course there were barricades set up and spectators were lining the course 10 deep screaming and yelling - a bit like a MTB version of Mont Ventoux! I had an average race, once again finding myself losing contact on the steeper climbs. In the end I finished 15th in a top class field, less than 10min behind after just over 3 hours.

Next it was on to the UK; more specifically Edinburgh for the 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, where I was presenting a paper and attending a weeks worth of presentations from the worldwide composites community. I flew into London 5 days before the conference, and took the time to drive up through England and Scotland, taking detours to places like the Lakes District along the way.

The week in Edinburgh flew by as well. Presentation went well, and my head is now full of ideas and thoughts from the pretty intense program. On my last weekend in Scotland I rode in one of the UK Merida Marathon series; these aren't 'races' but mass particiaption events. The front guys still go pretty hard, but it is all a bit more relaxed - especially compared to the racing I was doing in Germany. I felt good, but had a flat early on the razor sharp rocks. I got a 2cm cut right on the top (despite it being a thick tubeless tire), and the tube I put in was bulging out past the energy bar wrapper I used to try and patch over the hole. This lasted till about halfway of the 85km course, when the tube finally gave out. I was in the lead and had to wait a minute for the next guy who was good enough to give me a tube and CO2 cannister; unfortunately the cannister he gave was empty, and I waited for the next few guys who were again kind enough to throw me one. Finally I was back going and passed people until I could see the leader on the last couple of km of flat road, and finished just a minute behind him.

In a couple of hours I get a plane to Tel Aviv, Israel for the MTBO world champs in just over 1 weeks time. We will be training for the next week, getting used to the Israel maps and terrain. My blog is going to serve as the main outlet for the teams updates, but also check out the Orienteering Australia website for news.

Waterfall and peaks in the Lakes District