World Inline Cup CHUNCHEON

Last Sunday the WIC marathon in Chuncheon, Korea was held. With being in Haining the last few weeks it was only a short flight to Korea so that was nice for a change. The temperature was a bit cooler too so it was refreshing not sweating 24/7 like in China. It was my first visit to Chuncheon and I would have loved to stay there longer. The WIC was in conjunction with the World Leisure Games so the city was buzzing.

The course was one lap around lake Chuncheon and it was a really interesting route with a lot of variety. There were a few hills, fast downhill sections, flat, smooth, rough, long straight sections and a lot of right hand turns. After looking at the course the previous day I thought the finish would have suited me a lot better than a long straight line finish. Going into the last corner the road was slightly uphill then a 90 degree right hand corner and about 100m to the finish line. I have no problem crossing the other way so I thought if it came down to a sprint with the right hand corner so close I would have a good chance.

The biggest hill was about 2.5 km into the race, it was a pretty reasonable size and dragged on for about 2km. After seeing the course I decided this would be one place I would try attack. On race day once we got to the hill a lot of the top contenders were sitting on me so I wasn’t able to get a run on like I had hoped for. After about ¼ of the way up and the pace not on I decided I would hit the front. About half way up the hill most of the pack had fallen off and by ¾ of the way up I pulled out for someone else to lead and there was only Giovanna, Nathalie and Cecilia left. No one was keen to take a lead so that indicated to me that they were hurting. I started picking up the pace again and by the top Cecilia had dropped off and there were three of us left.

Heading towards the first hill - Photo - 김천수

My only concern about attacking up that hill was that if we did get a gap a big pack might have been able to easily reel us in down the long downhill drag. Giovanna and myself continued skating down most of the hill to ensure the gap wasn’t closed down easily. Once we got back down to the flatter section I could see Giovanna was starting to tire. We continued to share the leads and I put in a few long ones to ensure the break was going to stick.

Over halfway into the race there was a long section that was rough and slightly uphill which continued onto a bridge that crossed the dam. After leading I moved over and looked behind to see Nathalie struggling to hang on. I waved Giovanna through but she had no gas left either, so I went to the front and kept grinding up the rough road. At the top I glanced back and a big gap had formed.

I led the rest of the way back into town and with about 200m to go gapped Giovanna and went on to cross the line 1^st. Nathalie wasn’t caught by the pack and came in for 3^rd place.

Photo - Dr Spark

The main pack came in around 13 minutes later and the sprint was won by Kim Miyong from Korea.

Pack Sprint - Photo - 김천수

Women 41 km Marathon Results

1. Nicole Begg (X-Tech MPC) NZL 1:09:02
   
2. Giovanna Turchiarelli (ALESSI) ITA 1:09:04
   
3. Nathalie Barbotin (Powerslide) FRA 1:11:54
   
4. Kim Miyong (Korea) KOR 1:22:33
   
5. Cecilia Baena (Powerslide) COL 1:22:34

The mens race was won in a break away also. Initially Joey and Yann broke away and then Joey went on to win solo by a few minutes. Peter Michael also skating for X-tech and racing in his first WIC race this season finished 4th.

Men 41 km Marathon Results

1. Joey Mantia (Simmons Schankel) USA 1:03:24
   
2. Yann Guyader (Powerslide) FRA 1:05:11
   
3. Kalon Dobbin (Powerslide) NZL 1:09:32
   
4. Peter Michael (X-Tech MPC) NZL 1:09:32
   
5. Nam Yoo Jong (Powerslide) KOR 1:09:32