LENGTH 1500 m - CLIMB 70 m CONTROLS 19 MAX TIME 120

Many surprises and a tight fight in the first stage of PreO at Malga Millegrobbe; a control was voided after a protest. It's been a long day in Millegrobbe; the 100 competitors are brought to the start and come back to the arena by minibus and have to face 12 tasks and 2 timed controls after the decision to cancel the last part of the course because of the heavy rain during the previous days. Between control 1 and control 7 the athletes make only few mistakes, but the last tasks are extremely challenging and force many big names to go out of the time limit. In the Open class Kyrychenko, Andersson and Pérez are the best on the course but all three go over the 75­minute limit, so the Slovakian Dušan Furucz is unofficially the leader. After two protests, one of which (from the German team) is accepted, the 10th control is voided and the Italian Elvio Cereser, 7th this year at the European Championships, becomes the winner of the 1st stage. Furucz is second and the Japanese Koji Chino third. Five other competitors have the maximum point score of 11/11, among them last year's bronze medalist, the Swedish Marit Wiksell.