5th and last leg Smålandskavlen.
Headed out in 3rd place about 1.5mins back on Tisaren and 12.5min behind IFK. Felt like a noob on the first control as I opted for the direct routechoice, only to remember that snow slows down small track and forest running compared to the longer road choice. Oops. Worked my way steadily through the first few controls, feeling a bit like a wreck on the hills and not hugely better on the other bits.
Then, out of nowhere, I got a glimpse of Josefine (Tisaren) about #7. She did a couple of disappearing acts over the next controls, where I'd spot her going an odd direction, but then she'd appear at the control just ahead of me. I chased her down on the way to #10 and passed her at #11. But then I hesitated on the vague hillside to #12 and she got a 10s break on me again. A hair-raising chase down the rocky hillside from #13, and I snuck ahead at #14 by dodging an unnecessary patch of light green.
From there it was a matter of cleanly navigating the short legs through to the finish. I knew that most of my team had had issues with a splitting in here, but glancing at my codes it didn't seem I had it.
Wrong.
I had a gap of maybe 20s through the pre-warning control, and headed up the slope to my penultimate control. However, coming on to the top of the hill, things stopped making sense, there were rocks and knolls everywhere, and the control on the rock just to my side was definitely not mine. I saw Josefine come over the rise behind me, but didn't panic, as she headed questioningly to the rock control. She was obviously in the same fix as me. I quickly relocated and found my control and glanced behind to see what where Josefine was, only to see her ahead and almost on the track to the last control already. Sh*t!! Obviously we did have a split!
From there it was a long sprint to the finish. I didn't want to burn out, so didn't go full guns from the outset. But after the final hairpin bend I put on the burners and started reeling her in. Alas, got caught 1s short on the finish line.
Slight salt in the wound is that it shows I was 20s behind on the official results, thanks to the finish punch being well beyond the finish line. I mean, I didn't scandi flop, but it did take me a while to waddle my way to the finish punch :(
Anyway, 3rd place and a really fun weekend all up!
Livelox: Although it seems to show a blank map, not the course, so that's fun.
https://www.livelox.com/Viewer/Smalandskavlen/Dame...