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2003 Race 2: Midland Night Champs 8/3/03
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 Duncan and Rollins cruise to victory
After a day of mud and rain for the mountain bikers, conditions were good for the night race with a cold but clear evening. Those who had competed in the morning were grateful for the short course lengths, however they were in for a nasty surprise...
Due to an OCAD error the course lengths had been miscalculated to be 66% of their actual distance. This meant that winning times were significantly longer than expected, and most runners were initially horrified by their slow minutes per km. In addition, several Sport Ident units ran out of battery life, leaving numerous holes in the split times.
Despite these problems, the courses were challenging and well planned, with the emphasis on route choice and fitness rather than fine navigation - a perfect test of early season form for the top elites. Jon Duncan put in a controlled performance on his old home terrain to take a comfortable win over a minute ahead of Alastair Buckley (who had taken 12th place in the mtbo earlier in the day). A further minute behind was Alan Bogle earning himself some useful cup points.
Meanwhile in the women's race, Sarah Rollins destroyed the opposition with a 7 minute winning margin over Great Britain team-mate Hannah Wooton. Helen Winskill took 3rd place, but suffered physically after coming 2nd in the mtbo just 8 hours earlier.
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