Mountain Bike Orienteering World Cup introduced a new relay on the second round of the 2010 World Cup this weekend: mixed relay. Each three-rider team included at least one woman, and the teams could freely decide which rider would take which leg. Most teams chose to have the woman ride the first or the second leg. The two best teams, Czech Republic and Finland, both started with the female rider.

All countries could enter four teams to the relay, and especially Czech Republic’s results were impressive: their first two teams finished first and third. Also Finland had two teams amongst the five best.

For more information and results, please go to the organisers’ homepage. The Mountain Bike Orienteering World Cup continues with World MTB Orienteering Championships in July in Portugal.

Leading results:

1) Czech Republic 2:52:34 (Barbora Chudikova, Jan Lauerman, Jaroslav Rygl)

2) Finland 2:54:07 (Marika Hara, Tuukka Turkka, Jussi Laurila)

3) Czech Republic 2:55:02 (Frantisek Bogar, Hana Dolezalova, Marek Pospisek)

4) Austria 2:56:17 (Tobias Breitschädel, Michaela Gigon, Andreas Rief)

5) Finland 2:56:52 (Ingrid Stengård, Pekka Niemi, Juho Saarinen)

6) Russia 2:57:08 (Ksenia Chernykh, Victor Korchagin, Anton Foliforov)