Doman doin' it tough at MTBO world champs

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Last Updated: Wednesday, 31 July 2019 11:18

Tim Doman has had a rough introduction to elite mountain bike orienteering with mispunches in his opening two events at the world championships in Denmark.

Our Newcastle rookie - who only took up MTBO last summer - was faring creditably on his international debut in Sunday's Sprint but made a massive noodle en route to #19, ended up at #21 and was then bamboozled. He backtracked to #20, returned to #21 but forgot to go to #19.

The race was in a very complex map of the old city of Viborg. They closed the whole city for this event which offered up cobblestones, alleys, stairs, archways, stone walls and more.

Kiwi and training partner Tim Robertson cost himself a likely medal with a mispunch early in his race to add to the woes of the Oceania touring party.

In Tuesday's intricate Middle race (31 controls), Doman went to nearby #4 a second time instead of #26. We've all been there at some stage!

To his credit, Tim has shown in Denmark that for such a newbie he's by no means outclassed against vastly more experienced rivals. 

WA veteran Ricky Thackray loved the Middle: "It was one of the most navigationally challenging Middle distance races I've done.

"There was an extremely dense network of single track throughout the course with the southern part of the map being a mountain bike park before we crossed a paddock into the northern section, also laced with twisty single track although not sanctioned so not as clear as the earlier section.

"Riders on the M21 course were thrown straight into the deep end with a long leg to the first control with several route choice options."

You can follow the action on the event website here and via the Australian team Facebook page here. Wednesday evening AEST is the Long Distance race.