From looking at it, as a spectator, that looked the better way, but yeah i only remeber 2 people doing it.
Blair was hypothsising on the commentary that people would do it, as a last throw of the dice, but everyone seemed to be shattered and following.
Looking at the map (assuming it's the same as the mens) left is shorter, but with an awarkerd descent, with a probable fence crossing made it look cumbersome. Whereas the bit we could see on your route, looked real fast!
Good work on all the races grace!
I am surprised that more people didn't do it, if only as a tactical measure - if I were in or just behind a pack at the second-last control and didn't expect to be able to outsprint them, my strategy would have been to do the opposite of what the pack was doing, whatever that was. In particular I'm surprised that Peter Oberg didn't try this - why not try something that has perhaps a 10-20% chance of success when the alternative is something which has a 0% chance of success? Perhaps everybody at this level thinks they can outsprint everyone else?
(You learn a few tricks for trying to break up packs late in a race when you don't have a sprint of your own. The deliberate punching of a wrong control, as successfully deployed to gain eight places in a 1996 mass-start World Cup race, was a personal favourite).
I almost did it to try to get past Murray but was concerned about the downside risk of losing places (as I assumed the people behind me would go straight). That and blindly following was much easier on the brain when I was as shattered as I was. Wish I'd given it a go now though.
Well done Grace, and Matt also - it would be interesting to see what the Aust team as a whole could achieve if more people managed to train the way you guys do.
(Blair really did that? I will have to rethink my estimation of him as someone who is incapable of being devious...)
Thanks Keith and Jenny, I was actually really pleased with my week. Some really tough but fun races! :)
Re the last control, I guess the left route looked pretty straight and with a nice fence hand-rail the whole way. It would have looked a good choice if you were too tired to consider contours! (she says with a smug look on her face :)).