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The blog of Mark Stodgell, Orienteer and Mountain Biker. In his spare time works as an IT Director
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D&W Winter League Success.

The Dark and White Winter Mountain Bike Orienteering Series league results for 2010/11 have now been announced. After 5 years competing in D&W events I have finally had a good consistent season and am really chuffed with 2nd in class and 3rd overall behind Darren Alexander and Killian Lomas. Over 350 competitors have ridden in the six 3 hour events throughout the Peak District this winter, with conditions ranging from sunshine to snow and freezing temperatures. As always the Dark and White team have provided good quality challenging events with a friendly atmosphere, suitable for all levels of fitness and ability. It was particularly good this year to see so many female entrants.

I was worried as I missed a round before xmas through illness and also missed the last round as I was skiing that I would not have any leeway with the scoring, it being the best 4 scores from 6 to count. This was compounded by the fact that 8 people cleared the course, therefore being placed 1st equal, on the round I missed before xmas putting me at a disadvantage.

I really feel that the concentration on strength training this winter, particularly on the hills is what has brought me this result and puts me in a great position going forward into the international season starting in April.

Thanks too to Dark and Whites Sponsors, I wonder if anything might turn up in the post soon 🙂

http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results/d&wwinterleaguefinaltable1011.xls

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New Helmet

Up until now I have had just one helmet. It was a Specialized one I got on a breakage deal after smashing my previous one in Lithuania after having a head-on with a Dane (I braked too hard and went over the handlebars and over him). Being over 2 years old I decided it was probably time for a new one as I know they get affected by UV from the sun and the padding is rotting nicley.

As part of the Cycle Shack support I have access to a number of brands, one of which is KasK helmets who supply the SKY team. These high end Italian made helmets are the Rolls Royce of protection.

After a trying on session (no mirror – shock horror) I decided on the top of the range MTB helmet the Vertigo in white, complete with leather chin strap.

http://www.cycleshackonline.co.uk/Helmets__MTB.html

I picked it up today. It is simply the most comfortable helmet I have worn by a big margin and seems to have lots of ventilation. I’m not sure I want to test any of its other properties any time soon……. but if I do ill let you know.

I wonder whether the deal with Kask would extend to this swanky figher pilot style ski helmet 🙂

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Preview – Wiggle 6 hr Enduro

Ive just put my entry in for this popular event, held over the first May Bank Holiday weekend just down the road at Catton Park. The 6 hour enduro is a ‘parc ferme’ meaning I will have to have all my food, drink and spares in a box in the pit area, but this wont be too much of a problem, being used to 3-6 hour mountain bike orienteering challenges where you have to be independent anyway, its just a case of balancing the carried weight against the number of stops. Riders compete solo or in pairs.

I will be riding solo for CycleShack, my new Heath hayes Bike shop sponsor, but if owner Matt Williams is riding I might just have to let him beat me 😉

more details can be found here http://www.provelosupport.co.uk/?page_id=300

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Earthquakes!

St Luke's Church, Christchurch

The last month has had many of us in the UK very glad we do not live in an area of the world prone to huge earthquakes. First Christchurch and now Japan. The Christchurch earthquake particularly scared me as in 1997 Cath and I lived and worked there for 6 months following leaving university.

I am still trying to find out if our old house is in one piece, it is located in the ‘red zone’ on the corner of Manchester and Peterborough Streets, in the cordoned off CBD in the centre of the city which currently still has no public access. The Church of St Luke’s next door is more or less completely destroyed from what I can see of photographs published on the web and the Collapsed Pyne Gould Building just round the corner was on my morning walk to work !

Both of us had permanent job offers in the city and so easily could have emigrated. We also know quite a few people who have moved to South Island, New Zealand, it being such a wonderful country, just scary…

So my thoughts go out to all those families who have lost so much both in the South and North Pacific in the past month, I just cant imagine what it must be like to go through something like that………

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Chasers Assessments !

As part of my orienteering club, Walton Chasers, development program, club coaches Cath and Iain had devised an assessment ‘course’ on a little used part of Cannock Chase, Brereton Hayes. This was a deliberate choice of map area so that the Chasers old guard didn’t simply navigate by ‘I know which pit that is’ memory.

Everyone was given a GPS tracker to wear and also thoroughly debriefed afterwards to see what their current standard is and to find out if there are any particular problems that need addressing. Individual coaching plans are now to be devised based on the results.

The course was designed to test different areas of navigational, physical and psychological skills: Long legs with route choice, short legs, difficult legs, uphill and low visibility.

I started well and ran the first 5 cleanly losing no time and picking good lines through the terrain. However I completely fluffed 6, confused by the contours hidden under the no.12 lettering and thought (though unconvinced at the time) I had overshot. I backtracked and took the wrong earth wall only to find Iain’s decoy control in a parallel position on the earth wall. I knew I was wrong and immediately started relocation by running straight through to see where I would come out. Noticing the marshy scattered trees 20 secs later I knew where I was and re attacked the control successfully on the correct earthbank. I then, other than a 10 sec wobble on 12, ran the rest cleanly, finishing in 27 mins for the 3.6km.

As a navigational test it does not get much harder than this in the West Midlands and many Chasers struggled, losing time both physically in the tough terrain and to mistakes, especially in the intricate contour and low vis areas.

Downloading my GPS it looks like it lost signal under the tree canopy so I don’t have a trace for my mistake, but I know where I went wrong so it’s not really a problem.

Cath and Iain are now looking forward to reviewing lots of GPS tracks and split times in ‘Quick Route’ after they have warmed up from 2 days of shivering coaching and getting some feedback to the club members.

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Zip Vit LCCC Sponsorship launch

10am this morning saw Holly and I rushing to get to Zip Vit’s Headquarters building in Rugeley after a very broken nights sleep, as Holly had had a sleepover for her birthday, but not a huge amount of sleeping was done.

We were a little late so missed the mass photo session but managed to get our new kit on in time for some racing around the enterprise park, Holly in charge of the lap boards.

I only had my mountain bike, complete with map board, so decided the B race might be a better idea than the A. With no warm up I sat on the start line with 10 others on various carbon racing steeds feeling a little daft. On the whistle I went off hard, not really knowing how long the course was, how fit my fellow competitors were, just knowing it was 10 laps. I lead the first few laps before those tucked in behind powered past at the end of the back straight as we turned out of the wind. Rather than tuck in and have a rest I stupidly raced back up to the front again. This carried on until eventually after passing holly ringing the bell we settled into the last lap. I kicked far too early and blew up just before the last corner, shattered I backed off as the peloton surged past me on the finishing straight leaving me in their wake. I learnt two things, 1) a little about racing tactics and 2) I was cornering faster than the road bikes meaning either I was being foolhardy or they all need to commit more to their cornering speeds.

We then got cool Zipvit goody bags packed with bars, gels, beans and a couple of water bottles. Thanks to Zipvit, whose contribution to the club is substantial, we now all look smart in subsidised kit and also have some tents and feather flags to raise our profile plus investment for the future.

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MTBO – MOD Stafford

Phew, what a few days. Planning and organising an MTBO event more or less on my own (thanks to those that helped on the day, to Cath for helping sort out the map and Pam for smoothing the permissions) took its toll, I slept like a log on Monday night.

I thought a quick look behind the scenes might be useful.

Permissions and politics played its part to start with. I had been intending to leave Beacon Barracks for a year and try and stir it in to a World Ranking event bid for 2012, however withdrawal of permissions by the County Council on the Chase meant I had to move fast to find a new area. Having a club member working inside meant that getting permission was a doddle, and I soon managed to get hold of the map from British Army Orienteering after a few emails.

Of course getting in to check the map and reccy the courses was also a challenge involving the signing out of keys, passports and vehicle passes and many strange looks from personnel as I scooted round the base.

Online entry takes lots of hassle out of organising and allows for less manpower on the day. I used Fabian 4 but BMBO now has its own system that can be used too.

I was going to do a traditional sprint but Cath worked on me to persuade me to try the cloverleaf idea which although complicated in the end worked a treat. The main issue was trying to get it to not only look OK on the map (using CONDES for the first time in anger too)and be safe but also so the event software Auto Download would process the results.

Putting out controls on Saturday afternoon I came across every organiser / planners nightmare, a late withdrawal of permissions. The off road driving area had had a unauthorised training session on Wednesday. The chap in charge was very unhappy, threw his toys out of the pram and changed the padlock. He then refused to give anyone access. I had no choice but to ditch the 4 controls in there and do some last minute changes to the courses. Luckily I tend to only print the courses after I put the controls out.

So Sunday morning dawned, more keys, signing and passes and I was opening up the hanger and putting out the last couple of controls. The weather was beautiful, blue skies, just above freezing. Then came torrential rain….

The event went well, in fact from my point of view perfectly. I got the winning time on the prologue spot on, and if it weren’t for the loss of the off road area the final would have been correct too.

I enjoyed doing a little bit of commentary, getting the heads up on approaching riders from a wired pre warning ‘radio’ control and was gobsmacked by the closeness of the results. 1st and 2nd tied to the second and 3rd place 3 secs down. All after 37 mins of independent racing !

So time to look forward to the next events in early May. A sprint with a prologue and a final again on another Army area, Swynnerton Camp, where we now have confirmed permissions and a middle race on Hanchurch Woods, hopefully Ill get a little help with the planning on one of those but I’ve started on the Hanchurch map already.

Thanks again to those who helped on the day and thanks to those who travelled so far to compete.

Full details and results here http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/?p=190