Scott Fraser, in his backyard and aiming for shorter races this year* should have been the favorite, here's how it panned out...
Jon Duncan grabbed an early lead at his first control of the year, then on a long route choice leg Russian JOK chasing Sprint Champ Jegor Kostylev pulled away. On the short leg to 3 Oli Johnson took over, only to find GG becoming the fourth leader in as many controls. GG led to 7, Then Speakey hit the front, until Scotia finally got ahead at 8. Six leaders in eight controls now. Between 9 and 15, Speakey and Oli traded the lead before Scotia produced a phenomenal fast finish to record an 18 second win.
It really was quite a race.
In the women's race, youngsters Hollie Orr and Cat Taylor shared the lead until half way, before falling away to let the more established runner through: Sarah Rollins winning, by 7 sec from Rachael Elder.
* post-Trossachs edit: so much for the idea Scott was specialising in the middle and short distance then
! (and I was 68th, just sneaking into the top half)
