Straight away I’ll point out this is a bit of a strange posting as I retired, so for a change the map below is my 6 yr old daughters yellow course…..
The mist cleared as we headed down the M5 to Malvern for the National Interclubs – Compass Sport Cup qualifier, held on Worcestershire Beacon. I had a very early start and after a quick bus ride to the start area, a very steep climb brought an exposed start area and cold hands. I started ok but after 4 controls of contouring my old right foot injury started to hurt, so much so it was also distracting me and I made a couple of daft mistakes. Knowing there was good representation from other club members on the Brown course and I still had most of the course ahead of me I decided to retire and jogged back to the finish. I then shadowed Holly round her Yellow course which enabled me to enjoy the awesome views to the East and West from this ridge.
Retiring is always something difficult to do, particularly when representing the club but I could not risk another long term foot injury. With some good results under my belt in foot orienteering recently I was being tempted to do more and more but I have decided to reign in the running and get back to the bike which has to remain my core focus this year.
Unfortunatley Chasers did not qualify in the end but hopefully the new crop of very young juniors will start to come through over the coming years and we will regain our strength in depth.
Strathpuffer 24 Video
Really good Strathpuffer Video diary from Stu Thompson showing how we should have done it…. 24 degrees in their tent – humphhh .
About 13mins long with some adverts at the beginning (i’m in it a couple of times – that’s me coming through the orange smoke !)
Strathpuffer 2010 Photos
Jon Brooke of Right Place Right Time Event Photography who covered the event has kindly given some images for my blog. His site has hundreds of images taken from various parts of the course in very challenging light conditions and give a great feel of the event. He covers various adventure races throughout the year.
Event Report – 2010 Strathpuffer 24hr Winter Enduro
.jpg "Strathpuffer Logo")
The Strathpuffer 2010 24 hour mountain bike enduro race is branded as the worlds toughest. Taking place in the depths of Scotlands winter it brings extreme weather conditions and lots and lots of night riding. The event is based in the forested hills above Contin approx 25 miles north of Inverness and this year with the long spell of sub zero temperatures and heavy snow fall running up to the race there was a question as to would it take place. The organisers pulled out the stops in the week before the event however digging out the 10km loop of fireroads and singletracks and the internet forums were buzzing with discussions on tyre choice…..
Originally entering as a quad (4 riders taking in turns for the 24 hours) Alan and myself eventually
ended up as a pair. This saw us piling 4 bikes, camping equipment, toolboxes and bags and bags of clothes and food into a focus estate on Friday lunchtime in Shap before driving the 300 miles up to the event. After a quick stop for Haggis and Chips in Aviemore we arrived to a very frosty, snowy campsite (well side of a forest road really) and made our base about 200 metres from the start / changover.
The first thing we learnt about the Puffer was the infastructure some of the teams bring. We took a while to get used to the constant hummmmmm of many generators powering the old caravans, gas blower heated easyups, covered service areas, braziers and general scottish banter about tyre choice, mudguards 29ers and singlespeeds (especially at 3 in the morning).
Saturday morning brought a final bike fettle, porridge spilt on the floor and decisions on what to wear before all too quickly it was 10am and time for the Le Mans style run from the start to the bikes (only at Le Mans they dont tend to have ice on the road).
Riding first I intended to do two laps so Alan could support SportIdent’s Martin Stone on the timing system as the first riders came through. I deliberatley held back on the run but soon found myself slicing through the field on the first fire road climb, even though I was keeping my heart rate in check . Then on to the first of the single tracks where immediatley we were off and running with the bikes in the sugary slush, it must have been carnage further back in the feild.
I nearly came off three times on that first lap, hitting unexpected ice under the snow but I managed
to recover it somehow, but others were not so lucky (including the presenter of the Scottish Adventure show, who ended up in hospital). Down into the finish for the first time and then back up the fireroad after punching in to record the lap whilst eating an Eat Natural bar was something to do again and again and again, the laps taking about 1 hour.
The second lap was much quicker, with less traffic, the course starting to cut up and the worst of the snow and ice starting to clear off the racing line.
Alans lap-times were faster again for his two, and by the time I completed my 4th the course was completely ridable for the brave, though I chose to run one rocky section throughout as it was quicker overall than messing about trying to ride it on a rigid bike.
The course has some very technical sections, and with the added complications of snow and ice it was very challenging. Towards the end of my second stint (doing 3 laps ) I started to get tired, and on top of this my rear brake failed completly. As darkness fell I struggled down the icy, treachourous descents into the finish with copious amounts of scootering and handed over to Alan for his 3 lap stint. I was not in a great state. Looking back it was lack of food and proper rest. Alan did not fare any better and our brake pad situation became critical, even though we had 6 pairs with us. Alan ended up using his spare bike to complete his 5th lap whilst I ate and bike mended and unfortunatley punctured as well. I headed out onto another 3 lap stint whilst Alan retreated to the tent to warm up. I backed off a bit up the climbs and felt much better, the proper food inside me and the drying conditions making the laps quite fun. At 10 o’clock there was a huge bang which nearly made me fall off as a firework signalled the half way point. There are several marshalling points around the course and the music blaring, braziers blazing and shouts of encouragment were most welcome and thanks to all those manning them, particularly the last one before the short steep climb that never beat me beacuse of the shouts and whoops everytime I came at it.
Unfortunatley, Alan at this point was at a low point both in food and bike maintenance and we decided that, although we were running in a
battle for 3rd place, a sleep was sensible and we accepted that we could not keep up that sort of pace and look after ourselves. Though sleep was interrupted and uncomfortable, it was the right decision to make.
Alan started a lap at 5.30am and then I went out for two glorious laps and saw the dawn rise over a fantastic snowy landscape. At 8.30am I’d had enough and let Alan do the last two laps, which he really enjoyed with full daylight and the course in its best condition, feeling better after a tasty quiche for breakfast !
We ended up 11th out of about 40 teams which we were quite pleased with considering of our 18 laps only 5 were done in the second 12 hours. In fact my 10 laps would have placed me 18th on Solo!
The learning curve with this event is enourmous, and really it is obvious now that to compete at the sort of level we were trying to, you need a support team to keep your bike working and to feed you to enable you to just concentrate on recovery.
Three memories stand out for me: riding fantastically difficult icy conditions with practically no brakes (character building!), the clear frosty, star-filled skies of 11pm as I really enjoyed a couple of laps, and, finally, changing brake pads with a torch between my knees and a cheese roll balanced on the seat in the dark at -2 centigrade.
Oh and I rode the whole thing on my Hutchinson Pythons, phaaa who needs ice tyres…..
Results available at
http://lappedenduro.sportident.co.uk/home/event/publicresults.html?&eventid=906b739d-b5c2-4b38-a255-3373ba5f2567
Lots of Photos available below by Jon Brooke who braved the cold :
www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk
Preview – Strathpuffer 24
In a moment of madness a few months ago I agreed to ride in a Team of 4 at the Strathpuffer 24 hour MTB race near Inverness. Unfortunatley for various reasons this is now a team of 2, Alan Hartley and Myself riding as ‘bmbo.org.uk’ (British Mountain Bike Orienteering
Held just outside of Contin about 25 miles north of Inverness the Strathpuffer 24 is known as the most challenging 24 hour enduro race in the UK, as being in January there is often snow and because of the latitude not much daylight so lots of night riding. The big question over the weekend was ‘is it still on’ but the organisers have had teams out clearing the snow from the single-tracks and it is, as long as we can get there.
So Alan and I are currently getting our kit together and talking about the relative merits of spending £80 each on ice tyres (we aren’t and will just wing it but to be honest we cant find any in the UK anyway)
Our current plan is for me to start and do 2 or 3 laps and then settle in to 3 to 4 lap stints depending on the laptimes. As you tuck yourself into bed on Saturday night, please spare a thought for us camping in the snow !
Throughout the event Sportident UK will be displaying live results at
http://lappedenduro.sportident.co.uk/home/event/publicresults.html?&eventid=906b739d-b5c2-4b38-a255-3373ba5f2567
so you can see how we are doing……..
New Years Day Score – Rough Wood
After a late night of partying (including Wii Fit at five minutes to midnight for some reason!) the thought of running 
around a West Midlands grotty country park for an hour wasn’t especially appealing, particularly given that the area description in the advertising was hardly flattering, but I de-iced the car and headed down to Walsall as it was only 30 minutes away.
After registration the 25 minute walk to the start, next to a frozen canal, was also not inspiring. The local youth have spent the Christmas break seeing what bizarre objects they could try and throw on to the canal to smash the ice. I think those who tried the rolled up carpet or the loaf of bread didn’t quite have the right idea though!
Onto the area and things started to look good, lots of semi-open heathland, a bit of contour detail and, of course, the canal, separating the two halves of the map. The format this year was to get as many as possible on the first map before exchanging for a second. With an A4 1:5000 map I went out with the strategy of clearing both. After a slightly disorganised mass start, approximately 140 orienteers dived off in various directions. I went hard and fast for the nearest control and, turning after punching, was pleased to see a huge crocodile stretched out behind me. It then settled into a good race with me and a chap in a SHUOC top (whose name currently escapes me). I lead through the first 14 controls until he passed me as I lost 
about 1.5 minutes stupidly faffing about around an unmarked track junction when I should have just looked at the contours. I then just dug in on my own and was surprised at the map exchange to be back in the lead, probably having passed him in the low visibility light green areas of the map.
I then made another silly error which cost me 30 secondss and got confused by the control code which lost me another 20 secondss. Just still in the lead I then 
managed to let “SHUOC top” catch and pass me at number 2 and he pulled away from me on the next two long running legs. I ran the rest cleanly and managed to clear up with 4.5 minutes to spare.
I thoroughly enjoyed then event, but it did turn into an hours hard running and I’m sure I’ll suffer in the morning as the last time I ran was back in late November! In fact it would make a cracking little sprint/middle race area.
I then did the decent thing and collected some controls to warm down and then chatted to “SHUOC top” as we jogged back collecting in the tapes back to the car. No results at present as HOC were having computer issues (they need to get AutoDownload, plug plug!) but, as far as I know, I was second. A great start to the year.
Happy New Year – may you always ride/run in sunlit forests!
Oh, and “SHUOC top” is also known as Andrew Llewellyn – well done to him, good race!
Bye bye to ‘Trailquest’ and the TCA, Hello to MBO Score and BMBO
At last, the words that bring looks of confusion from anyone you tell what you are doing this weekend are gone. At last, we ditch that Dungeons and Dragons, Beard and Lemon Curd branding of ‘The Trail Cyclists Association’. At last, the governing body of the sport I love is brought up to date with a great new image and a fantastic new website.
At last, foot orienteers will sit up and take seriously this growing discipline. From now on all ‘Trailquests’ will be known as ‘MBO Score’ and all MTBOs as MBOs (but I suspect MTBO will stick). The new website masterminded by BMBO Chairman John Houlihan is slick, provides all the information needed by riders and also behind the scenes makes the life of an organiser much easier.
Launched on the 1st of Jan 2010 the site may take a while to fill out with events and content (Iv’e got a few bits to do yet on MTBO) but it looks fresh and the new name ‘British Mountain Bike Orienteering’ follows the trend of British Cycling and British Orienteering, its closest stablemates.
Oh, and yes, I know the acronym is going to be shortened to Bimbo, but why not ! www.bmbo.org.uk
Race report -Military Challenge
The Military Challenge is an annual event using training areas closed for the Christmas stand down. This years was back in the Aldershot area after a couple of years further south. The event allows mountain biking or running or if you are completely bonkers both in the same day. I was worried the event might be canceled due to the weather but the website assured me this morning that it was on and the morning dawned with clear blue skies over the frosty ground, in fact it was -8 as I defrosted the car to head south. The access road up into the event was very slippery and as I parked I wondered how on earth we would get any traction on the 40km course.
At registration I was given a GPS tracking unit to try and after picking up my hire E Card I had a look at the 10 yes 10 maps that would take us on our journey ! 
I had a late start which didn’t particularly help much as there were lots of other MTB tracks around. I fluffed #2 losing a couple on minutes, confused by the transition into the OS portion of the map taking a wrong track but talking to others there is something not right with the north lines mapping in this area, perhaps the OS being stretched to fit the O map?
On to the more urban part of the course and the conditions were treacherous with ice covered roads making this a Military skating challenge. Scared off by the slippery roads I took a bad decision on #4 and took the path option which had countless gates, boardwalks and doggy walkers to contend with. To top it I cocked up coming out of #4 getting stuck the wrong side of a one way street and lost a few more minutes. Onto map 3 and I passed a very sore Jon Marsden who called out that he had tumbled 4 times already on the ice. Through maps 4 and on to 5 and I was flying, confidence building in the bike and keeping the nav together. On the way to #12 I took my only tumble, a spectacular over the handle bars dive as I broke to avoid missing a track junction on ice. I had a very near off as I turned an icy corner near #14, but mostly if you were careful you could keep going fairly quickly on the edges of the roads. I lost a bit of time on map 7 taking a safe option round a round about and over a bridge to avoid a level crossing which I was stopped at for 5 mins a few years ago but was still riding well through map 8.
Looking back I think I was tiring at this point probably needing some food, I then made two stupid mistakes, a 180 coming out of #19 and a rubbish route choice along a fence after #21 giving me a huge rollercoaster climb rather than a simple singletrack around the top, which probably lost me the race, they certainly lost me 2nd place. On to map 10 then and the last few controls. The route to the last control was down a snowy land rover track, the difference between the ‘season mountain bikers’ and those not so used to it the very obvious as I and several others screamed past a few riders picking their way gingerly down the hill. Unfortunately due to my lack of granny ring I had to run up to the finish. Results and GPS tracking are not out yet but I was 4th when I left, having compared splits, burger in hand on patio chairs in the snow with Alan (2nd place he beat me by 26 secs). The event was not as good as previous years with probably too much road and not enough controls in the technical areas but I enjoyed it all the same. Andy Conn was 6 mins clear of three of us all within 30 seconds showing my mistakes were costly. Looking at the Splitsbrowser graph I probably could have just won, but its a good result at this point in the season which I am pleased with.
stats – 40km course – 52.8km riding, 600m climb – 2 hours 46 mins
results here