Watching TdF yesterday up to Ax-3-Domaines raised a lot of thoughts inside. Andy Schleck was really riding pathetically in the yellow jersey caring of nobody else but Contador.

The climbs in this year's Tour are anything but vintage so far. They left the Alps without doing any of the big classics. Neither Morzine Avoriaz, nor the Col de la Madeleine impressed me. Furthermore, they had the Jalabert climb in Mende, which with it's 10% gradient is the steepest climb in this year's tour.

On the contrary, the riders had to climb the Zoncolán during this year's Giro. Which one is the harder?

Also, I was looking for some more eventful TdF races. So here's the story from 1971 (source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx):

Merckx chose a different preparation for his third Tour de France in 1971. In order to arrive fresher and as well to be in better condition in the autumn, Merckx choose not to defend his title at the Tour of Italy and instead rode two week long stage races, the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Grand Prix du Midi Libre, both of which he won the first stage and held on to the lead of both races until the end. Merckx arrived at the start of the Tour which began that year in Mulhouse to the pre-Tour hype which was summed up by former winner Jacques Anquetil who, speaking on French television program Les Dossiers de l'Ecran the day before the race began, said he wished that Merckx would be defeated. The only rider of the period to shake Merckx was the Spaniard, Luis Ocaña, who lived near Mont-de-Marsan in south-west France. Ocaña cared little for Merckx's reputation and attacked him on the Puy-de-Dôme, dropping him but not taking the yellow jersey. Three days later, Ocaña attacked when the race reached the Alps. By Orcières-Merlette he had taken 8m 41s out of the Belgian. By then resentment had built at the way Merckx was winning everything. Chany wrote that

There was a feeling that it would be good for cycling if he lost.

The title on the front page of Paris-Match was: "Is Merckx going to kill the Tour?" A rider at the Grand Prix du Midi Libre was quoted as saying: "When you know how much Merckx is earning, you sometimes lose the will to make an effort if you're paid in loose change [rabais]." The resentment left Merckx to chase Ocaña without help. One rider, Celestino Vercelli, said:

Merckx never let anybody break away. But that day... we don't know.... The start was on an upgrade and he wasn't that brilliant in the beginning. Maybe he was still warming up and his adversaries, Luis Ocaña, Joaquim Agostinho, Joop Zoetemelk, noticed that and decided to break away immediately. It cost him dearly because the stage was long and very hard and there were four or five climbs. He took it badly, because it had never happened to him to be behind and lose so much time. Usually he was the one who was nine minutes in front the others!

A rest day followed and then a stage from Orcières-Merlette to Marseille. It started with 20 km downhill, followed by 280 km along a valley. Merckx and his team attacked from the start, led by Rini Wagtmans, immediately gaining several minutes. But the speed downhill and the heavier braking needed for bends led rims to overheat, melting the glue that held tyres to the rim. It happened to several riders and Merckx lost some of his teammates as a result. Vercelli said:

Merckx needed to recover the nine minutes he lost and he meant to do so by arriving in the valley with several minutes' lead with a good group of about eight riders. This way it would have been very difficult for the rest of the peloton behind to catch them in the 280km of the valley. In the 280km of flat road he personally pulled the group for 250km on his own! And of course the peloton behind him went very fast. There were all Merckx's adversaries and they were all interested in catching him. They all worked together for that. It was basically Merckx alone against all the others.

Merckx got to Marseille half an hour faster than the fastest expected time. The entire Kas team finished outside the time limit but were reinstated. Only 1,000 spectators were at the finish early enough. Among those too late was the mayor of the city, Gaston Deferre, who decided to see the finish at the last moment but arrived after the riders had left for the showers and the officials for their hotels. He forbade the Tour to return to the city for the rest of his career. It next stopped in Marseille in 1989, three years after his death.

Despite a stage that averaged 45.4kmh, Merckx cut Ocaña's lead only to 7m 32s. He waited for the Pyrenees. There, on the col de Mente, hail and rain flooded the road. Pierre Chany said:

... [Merckx] attacked in a rage several times, out of the saddle and bent over his bars, Ocaña in his wake. He multiplied the attacks, changed from one side of the road to the other ceaselessly to get Ocaña off his wheel, but in vain.

Unable to shake off Ocaña on the way up, Merckx tried to do so on the way down. The storm broke at the summit. Pierre Chany said:

... worse than a storm, ... a cataclysm. ... "hail fell, visibility was zero, brakes no longer worked; riders were taking the descent with their feet on the road to slow them."

Merckx missed a bend, hit a low wall and fell. He got up straight away but two spectators had gone to help him. Ocaña ran into them, crashed heavily and was hit by Zoetemelk and then two other riders who had been following by a few seconds. Merckx who was descending the mountain fell a further two times before hearing what had happened behind him. Ocaña's fall had took him out of the race and gave the yellow jersey to Merckx, although he declined to wear it next morning in respect for the Spaniard. Merckx won the Tour by 9m 51s over Zoetemelk and 11m 6s over Lucien van Impe. After the Tour, the Belgian Cycling Federation named the team for the world championships and despite his wish to have several trade teammates on the team, Merckx would only have one trade teammate. In response, Merckx re-arranged his post-Tour schedule and trained with complete resolution to win. On a challenging circuit in Mendrisio, Switzerland Merckx attacked several times and broke away with Felice Gimondi who he beat in the sprint to take his second rainbow jersey.

As I'm quite psyched up about the antiques of Eddy Merckx, I will write about him next time.

As the Tour de France is about to begin tomorrow, I took some time off to watch a number of epic videos. First in line should be no other than the king himself, Björn Daehlie winning the 50 in the Nagano Olympics in 1998. Just look at his face after finishing!

The race was traditionally run on the last day of the Olympics. These two weeks were marred by bad weather conditions, but all of a sudden, this Sunday the sun was out in full swing. Also, it got horrendously hot and thus the snow got really wet. They were running three loops because of the wet snow (good times with individual start!) and they had to re-schedule the starting order also. Smirnov started first, the Jonsson, Daehlie and Hoffmann.

Jonsson got off to a slow start and was soon caught by Daehlie. But Hoffmann was also gaining ground, and all of a sudden, they were a group of three at half-way.

And what makes it miraculous is that it was of course Kung Björn, who won the race!

Daehlie drove hard, and soon after 33k, Hoffmann was dropped, but not by much, and he was doing his own race. At 41k, Jonsson tried to jump the old man, but with no success. Still ha pushed the tempo even harder. By 46k, Daehlie got dropped. As you can see on the video, Daehlie, albeit being dead tired, had the race against Jonsson kind of under control. But you don't often see such an exhausted man after finishing. Just look at his face in the snow: right-left-collapse. Masterful!

Although, I have always been rooting against the Norwegian cross-country skiers, Björn Daehlie is my idol since this very emotional Sunday morning.

Enjoy some Kjell-Erik Kristiansen commentary with Björn's golden moments!

I spent the first week-end of June in Northern Italy, in Friuli, in Paluzza. We helped the locals organise a round of the Coppa Italia plus a district Sprint Champs. Initially, I was happy to go, escaping competition organising at home (which wouldn't have happened anyway due to the adverse weather conditions), but it was much-much better, than expected. Everything seemed perfect, we could enjoy the present! What an experience!

Since I didn't find the time to post a report, when the memories were fresh, I will only add the pictures from Paluzza and 10 really short thoughts. The pictures tell it all anyway :)

Pictures from different authors: http://picasaweb.google.hu/aronless/Paluzza2010

Greatest hits:

1. coolness of the terrains: Timau and Paluzza - two wonderful forests

2. friendlyness of the locals - Paolo di Bert, Andrea Di Centa, Paolo Sbrizzi

3. Zoncolán - the legend of the Giro always had an eye on us

4. Giro remnants - the Giro went through Paluzza 12 days before us, everything was pink

5. pasta - ate it twice a day, but was hungry for more @ home

6. Paluzza - picture postcard village, coming out of your imagination

7. Di Centa - meeting two local Olympic Champions - Manuela & Giorgio Di Centa - in 24 hours

8. Alpe Carnico - we had some great views throughout

9. Sunday's course - Janó truely outclassed himself on a fine-fine course

10. WW1 remnants - hundreds of ruins and caves in the neighbouring forests

I'm very strongly hoping to come back one day. As I told Janó, Paluzza is a place, where I can see myself living my whole life.

I spiced myself up quite a bit once again on course setting trends. This time, it was the Hungarian WOC-selection races near Pécs, that frustrated me. Just a quick look at them, as there is not much positive to speak about.

Sprint

The sprint was held in Komló, like last year's National Sprint Champs. The actual terrain was the final part of the sprint qualification terrain. You can see the W21E map of this year's WOC-selection race here: tajfutaspecs.hu/images/stories/Image/20100522_sprint_valogato/kep000_sprint_terkep_n21.jpg

Thinking back to the actual competition last May, I really enjoyed the terrain. It was mixed forest and housing estates, there was climbing, there were route-choices. This WOC-trial was planned only in the open part. You can see the forest to the east, but the courses stayed only in the boring part. No really interesting legs. For an elite runner, going left or right in the housing estates is not interesting. It's not orienteering. It's pure running.

János Kelemen, former Hungarian Team runner, now a professional meddler, but also a former winner of course planning competitions, was involved in the actual planning. This course wouldn't receive any kind of award. Mostly, it's worth forgetting.

Long distance

Just three days later, the long distance WOC-Trials took place in the mountains. The question was: can it get any worse than that? And the answer was a deliberate yes. János Kelemen was once again involved, this time as the event controller. I'm more than happy, to have sat out this week-end, as this course should have been no fun whatsoever. Being nostalgic, I remember the days, when I heavily criticised this course near Pécs: http://img594.imageshack.us/i/0504jakabhegy.jpg/ Now, 7 years on, I have to make a compliment for this course.

Ok, let's see the opposition!

Men's course: tajfutaspecs.hu/images/stories/Image/20100524_mk_3_nap/terkep_mk_3_f21e.jpg

Women's course:  tajfutaspecs.hu/images/stories/Image/20100524_mk_3_nap/terkep_mk_3_n21e.jpg

I first saw the men's course and was utterly surprised and disgusted to see this relatively good terrain for long distance races being modified to an extended (and unenjoyable) middle distance race. Why? And I found no answer ever since. The course could have been really nice, with 18 controls, lot of route-choices, etc. But this way, it looked more like a drawing of a little kid, who saw a lot of controls and just drew short lines between them. This is definitely not the way a long distance course should look like!

Just on a quick footnote, the middle distance race from Mecsek Cup looks much more quality, then these two courses: tajfutaspecs.hu/images/stories/Image/20100522_mk_1_nap/kep_terkep_n21e.jpg

Good sprint course

I also promised something fine for today. Hummel Sprint Cup in Brno should have been a really fun race to participate in this weekend. Looking at the map - fine! Looking at the course - enjoyable!

www.bestik.cz/mapy/show_map.php

The good news is that orienteering is not dead after all.

The Hungarian Night-O Championships were held last night near Ruzsa. Although, the setting was beautiful, I came home very disappointed. In fact, I did an OK race, quite good to my standards, but I was feeling empty. The most exciting minutes of my race were spent analysing the battery status of my lamp. Will it hold on the whole 14,3 km or should I make a pit stop to change the lamp at the public control at 54% of the course. At the end, I opted to stay with what I had (my SILVA 480), and in fact we managed to scrape through the woods. I was very pleased with the lamp after all the disappointment, I had wit her. I finished 15th out of 29 finishers, a massive 27 minutes behind. I had about 15 minutes of mistakes, and I made four larger errors. I fought 85% of my course on my own. I also managed to narrowly edge out some tough competition, like Oszi (7 seconds), Vöcsök and Antal András, by around a minute each.

Map 1 Map 2

But OK, this has really been a fairy tale story so far, what has gone wrong?

Last year, I was the course setter for the Night-O Champs. I was widely criticised for courses, that were deemed too tough and long. On the contrary, a few people said, that it was great, it offered really challenging orienteering at last. In fact, that was my plan - to offer some real orienteering.

Yesterday, I didn't get this feeling of real orienteering. The terrain was very straightforward with the usual flat forest. I never liked to run in forests like these. The roads were very fast, even after 100 minutes of running, I was still averaging under 4-minute kms on the roads (btw. I was flying in my INOV-8 X-Talon 212s). It was almost always faster to go around on roads, than going over the forest. This made the race very easy, even for a very bad night runner, like me. The terrain and the course didn't give me the challenges I was looking for, so I had to look for them elsewhere. That's why, I was thinking a lot about my lamp, of my shape and form (whether it will last) and also that's why I went over some rough forest a couple of times, just to give myself some mental challenge. To be honest, it was boring. Obviously, I can't remember the last time, I was this bored during a serious orienteering course.

So what was the problem? In my mind, course setting was a bigger problem, than the terrain itself. I have never planned a competition course on such flat terrain, and even last night, I wasn't sure, whether an improvement was possible or not, but now I have a very clear vision about it. Yes, it can be improved. By a lot.

The problem with courses in the plains in Hungary is that we get very much the same all the time. This means mostly middle-length legs, with no change of tempo. You are just grinding and grinding and grinding... and then you finish. Boring. So how is it possible to improve all this stuff?

- break the rhythm! Use very short legs (2-3-4 after each other) + very long legs (up to 3 kms). 

- use as difficult control locations as possible. Forget about white forests and think of green, more than ever! This map would have offered some great possibilities for hidden controls, but it just never happened really.

- use more, than 36 controls for a course! For God's sake, we just simply cannot afford courses like the Ultra-long Champs, with 27 kms and 30 controls. The Federation has SI-chips, that are capable of registering 50 controls. For certain championships, we would be more than happy to hire them for M21E for no price, if it results in better courses!

- last year, some of the courses were gaffled. This year, I seriously lacked gaffling, on a terrain, where gaffling would have not made any compromise to the courses. On the present course, I would have made it something like this: S-3 (straight), 4-11 (gaffle AB), 11-16 (gaffle CD), 16-20 (straight), 20-24 (gaffle AB), 24-28 (gaffle CD), 28-F (straight). Right now, we have some terrific GPS-coverage from for example the Norwegian Night-O Champs, from which we can and must learn! I consider myself a course setter, who is working with a really wide set of ideas, but I always get some great inspiration from races like these!

In general, I'm very far from being satisfied with Hungarian competitions. My biggest problem is with middle distance races. Most course setters are by no means aware of what middle distance means. It is very far from a 35-minute orienteering course. For example, this year we had a middle distance race in the streets of a flat town! I wouldn't even call it sprint orienteering, as it was that straightforward! I'm hoping to make a change of how Hungarian course-setters see this. I'm also hoping, that at least the Middle distance Championships will make it to a high quality event in the long-term.

Because this Night-O course was anything, but high quality.

After my ankle-injury in early-March, it seems as if my training is back in motion again. My training got a fresh restart exactly 3 weeks after the ankle got sprained, and things were not looking good at that time. My shinbone hurt immensely, most probably because it got a long rest. It's not yet fully sorted out, but I feel very little pain there nowadays.

So I had two weeks to get ready for the relay at Nógrád GP, which went fairly according to plan. I did everything I could, but wasn't strong enough. Btw, we got disqualified, as Celin did not read out on his first lap. Oh well, it wasn't a big deal after all.

The week after, we had Szarvasűzők, a university-based relay road race through the Bükk. Overall, I was doing fine, as I ran my 6,4 km in 30:35 and got 10th place out of 68. Oh, I forgot to mention the 350 m of climbing. But disaster struck - my left ankle (the healthy one) and my shoe in which I ran all winter long didn't really like each other, and the ankle got swollen. So I changed shoes.

Last week, we had some horrible weather here in Miskolc. As much as 100 mm of rain came down in a matter of 36 hours, which made the mountains a pure sea of mud. But for some strange reason, this made me run more. Last week, I made 65 kms of training from 6 efforts, 3 of which I mightily enjoyed. On Saturday, we ran down to Bogács through Hór-völgy, which was fantastic!

This week, I got even more desperate. I made three really hard trainings in 3 days:

• Tue: 5X5 minutes orienteering intervals on Komlóstető (3 minute rest in between)
• Wed: 4 hill intervals (330/60 m) - could barely move afterwards
• Thu: Tour de Bükkszentkereszt: Stadion - Vaskapu - Bükkszentkereszt - Esőház - Stadion. Started out fairly easy on this one, but got up to Vaskapu in 31' (5,3 km / 300 m). As I reached the top of the climbs, the cruising speed was all gone, and I started to run hard. Reached Bükkszentkereszt in 61' (11,1 km / 550 m) and then dug in deep. Was fairly tired from this point, but still managed to run the whole route (21,8 km / 650 m) in 108'. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30977914

But this was all the hard training I planned for this week. My legs are stuffed as, so it will be really nice to do a recovery run - District Night Championships - tonight. Focus will be all on technique, and I will try to do the 6,8 km course in a sub-60' time. For some reason, my night-O confidence is right now on a high, so we shall see, what happens.

Future plans

My ultimate goal this spring is to get fit. To enjoy training as much as possible. This is of course half-done, but there are still some competitions of course. Hungaraian Relay Championships are on 13/6 and I will most probably run in DTC's second team. If the team is strong enough, the goal will be a top-6 finish. I will also start the Middle Champs, but will concentrate on a controlled, error-free run in the Qualifications and will see what happens. Two weeks before that, I'm running the Hungarian 24-hours relay, just for training. On the May 15 weekend, I'm running Mátra Cup, which should be some nice forest experience, with a forest-sprint, a relay, and a long. In 15 days, I will run the Hungarian Night Champs, with the only expectation to enjoy myself (and get my headlamp repaired by then :)

The most important thing right now is that I'm enjoying running again!

 We saw a perfect demonstration of team tactics paying off yesterday night, when Sweden demolished the rock-hard field in the 30 k double pursuit in Vancouver. Watching XC Skiing for 20 years, I can say, that this was one of the biggest competitions I have ever seen - and this time, with a rare happy ending!

Just to mention some past great races:

- 1991 - WCh 50 Val di Fiemme: Mogren turns on Gunde The Great

- 1993 - WCh 50 Falun: Mogren strikes again

- 1994 - Olympics 50: Daehlie beats veteran De Zolt

- 1994 - Olympics Relay: Italy beating heavy favourites Norway at home

- 1996 - WC 50 Štrbské Pleso: Smirre comes in from behind to beat an ailing Daehlie

- 1998 - Olympics 50: Daehlie survives the scare, hurting himself into a much-deserved gold

- 1999 - WCh Relay Ramsau: Norway comes back on Austria, but fail eventually as Hoffmann outsprints Alsgaard in an unlikely way

- 2003 - WCh Relay Val di Fiemme: Jörgen Brink loses Sweden a gold medal, that was already deep in the pocket

- 2003 - WCh 50 Val di Fiemme: Koukál, the underdog makes the race of his life

Back to today's heroes. The story was a fight between Northug and the rest of the world. There has been talk about how to beat the Norwegian - go alone and go hard. But teams were never strong enough to make it in the past. Northug has always been able to climb back on somebody else's shoulder - as for the last few years, he lacks a team. Truly, this Norwegian men's troop is the most embarrassing they've ever had! So we had Hellner, Olsson, Södergren and Rickardsson and everything went well until the transition. Although Rickardsson was off the back, Northug lost all of his men. Olsson attacked and the others let him go. Södergren and Hellner were controlling the peloton in what turned out to be a winning tactic. Legkov attacked at the right time, 5 kms from home. Södergren pulled out soon, as work was done.

Until this moment, Northug was not seen in the front. Mostly he was sitting on Cologna's tale and waiting for the end to come. Not sympathetic at all! Northug managed to follow Legkov, but seemed to be suffering. Olsson was slowly reeled in by Legkov, but Northug was still in the back of the 4-man pack. At this point, Northug broke his rod, and the others managed to take a 10-metre lead. This was the first point, when Northug was forced to do something on his own. But he never managed, was short of energy and broke.

So as Northug was broken - a very rare occassion, but I have to say, that we saw it this year in Val di Fiemme in the 20 k classic mass start, but those were some really difficult conditions -, Sweden have initially succeeded, and they also managed to harvest the fruit: Hellner (5th in the WCh sprint in 2009) easily outsprinted Angerer and won! Olsson also managed to hold on to a much-much deserved bronze! So my heroes from yesterday are:

1. Johan Olsson - made today's competition one not to forget, unusual tactics paying off

2. Anders Södergren - out of form, but put everything into team tactics, deserves a relay medal

3. Marcus Hellner - initial winner and one who would have sacrificed his own race for his teammate's win

+1. Jocke Abrahamsson - kudos to the mastermind coach behind the operation

Thank you for an unforgettable experience, guys! Takk Sverige!

 Lukáš Bauer gave the field of the Cross-country skiing World Cup a sheer demonstration of strength and power today up the Alpe di Cermis. Victory was well-deserved for the man, who is doing orienteering as a hobby - in my category M21B. Restecp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO7w3WNdq98

A much awaited run on a unique terrain, that didn't disappoint. My expectations were really high, but they got fully fulfilled. The goal was to enjoy every second and showcase my problems in orienteering. I made a lot of mistakes, all by my own fault :)

Weather was awful, raining in places and mist. Stones were quite slippery and it was difficult to move around.

To the third control, executing the route-choice was difficult, slope orienteering doesn't get any more special - up-and-down all the time on the rocky soil. You are often moving at the direction, where it's less stony. Also at the end, I made a parallel mistake.

On the fourth control, I made another parallel mistake - running off the top of the final hill in the wrong direction. During the leg, I also didn't manage to spot a tourist path.

Next mistakes were to 6 and 7 in the far eastern corner of the map, at Vecsem-bükk. Executing the route-choice was the problem on both occasions. It was also here, where I realized, that I was the only person in the woods and what a tremendous feeling it was. I really felt free here. This was the best feeling I had during the race.

I was caught by Viktor Nagy at 7, but we were on different route-choices to 8. To 9, he made a massive mistake and also dragged me into a smaller one. Parallel mistake once again. I also fell on my shoulder here and it ached for some days.

Small mistakes followed to 10 and 11, where we had some massive rocky areas, here it was difficult to even move and the wet conditions didn't make it any easier. I had my best running feeling to 12, slightly downhill, with not that many stones :)

Big mistake then followed to 14, where I ran around the last depression from a totally wrong direction. To 17, I didn't look properly at the map and wanted to search for the control a depression too early. Viktor Nagy also caught up here once again.

We went together a few controls, but then I didn't enjoy the pace and had no reason to follow the pace. Frankly, this last km was fairly straightforward, but I still made a little mistake on 22.

Altogether, I missed 10:45, far too much. But did I enjoy it? Absolutely yes! FUN, FUN, FUN!

My route:

 I got to use my new INOV8 X-Talon 212 shoes on Sunday. It was definitely a better start, than for other shoes. Will not use them for training, as they are sooo light! My feet cannot get used to good things, otherwise they won't feel the difference for the better. I may only use them for orienteering and winter running (in snow) as well.

 Great stuff. More about it on my AP-log: http://www.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_4407 Maybe I will post my map later.

 I'm a proud owner of a new INOV8 f-lite 230. It's not my first shoe, but maybe the first, with which I came to terms sooo fast. It's simply great - looks great, feels great. Maybe I'll get hold of another pair soon...

 Why do you like orienteering? I often ask myself this question these days. Just a week to go until the start of WOC (and 16 days to the end), I'm just getting way too much of it. In fact, 2 weeks ago, I had enough and had to go out for a night run, which calmed me down a bit. At least I'm not breaking cars or such, not an expensive hobby fortunately (although the headlamp I ran with is worth 400 EUR).

Today, I was just ready with almost all map issues concerning WOC and really wanted to go out. As I enjoyed it very much the last time, obviously I waited till it became dark. I went for Esőház, which is 13 km, with 350 m of climbing, and it took me 72 minutes today.

Running at night in the woods is always special. You are on your own. Your world consists of only the next 30m, which you can see in the light. It's an extreme example of living in the present. It's just you and ... No it's just about yourself. When running at night, I often feel like the man himself, Enzo Molinari - this is where I belong. Unless, that I won't ever die in the dark woods.

Gratulálhatunk magunknak. 400.000 ember nem érti, hogy 2009-et írunk. Szánalom.

[edit 06-20] túlléptem rajta

 Wednesday, 03 June

I'm at Brázda, in the middle of the big rough open area. Weather is changing rapidly, we had a thunderstorm an hour ago, then the sun was shining, and it's getting worse again.

I'm collecting controls after the Czech long 'nomináčky'. I have to pick 13 of the 30 controls. Planned to run 2 hours. No compass as usual. Awesome stuff! After the torrential rain, nothing can disturb me. I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

I can hear the T-storm coming from the west. I don't mind. In fact, it's not just a normal thunderstorm, ice is also falling. In under a minute, I'm totally wet. The only thing, that bothers me is that I have no idea, where I am. The only thing I know, that the Brázda tower is to the west. After some 20 minutes in the thunderstorm, I get back to my 3rd control (was looking for the 5th). Missing another 2-3 minutes until getting to the 5th.

Life is still wonderful.

Rain has stopped. The sun has come out, but not for long. Ice is coming once again. I'm almost spot on to the 6th. But shit happens once again, as I drop another 10 minutes to 7. Not managing to follow the plan, going the wrong direction on one of the ridges. At least I know, where I am. The thickets are very wet, I get a cold shower every 2 minutes. Who cares.

Getting all the other controls without major mistakes. Running with 13 control stands in a super-nice forest. Just 1,5 k to go. Really regretting it. At last, I meet Radek, he is relieved, that he can go home. I'm not. I would stay forever. I would like to lose my way every day. Because of myself. Then you know, you still have limits. No perfect race.

That's why I love orienteering.

Order still tbd

Cornershop: Brimful of Asha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSi1d7F6bgo

Jimmy Eat World: Middle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVP0b8qvZg8

Tal Bachman: She's So High https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEZ-Azs2rxM

Ravel: Bolero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-4J5j74VPw

Blümchen: Nur geträumt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maSCDZPGMCU

Blink182: All the small things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAEasqYox8s&feature=fvst

The Caesars: Jerk It Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7vRPtdm4mA&feature=related

Others stiil to come.

An awesome map by Janó!

Today is the stage between Passo Rolle and Seiser Alm. It's kind of funny, that the start point is the venue of JWOC 2009 and the finish is of JWOC 1993. It's gonna be an awesome stage!