Category: Competitions

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Stafford Borough Sports Awards 2008

I have just had a letter inviting me to attend the awards evening on the 27th February being nominated for ‘Most improved sports performer for 2008’ by my orienteering club, Walton Chasers. The top 3 nominees in each category get to go to the evening so Ill see what happens on the night. Two other Chasers are also in the top 3 nominees for their categories. Cath won the sports coach category about 4 years ago and it was a good evening so I am looking forward to it.
Ive now got to send them a photo of me in action, should I be smiling or grimacing ?

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Photos in Compass Sport Magazine !


It was very good to see a detailed report of the European MTBO Championships in Compass Sport Magazine this month. Emily Benham did a great job of writing it up and the editor has used many of the photos taken by myself and others.
Compass Sport is the premier UK Map sport magazine covering Orienteering, Mountain Marathons, MTBO, Trailquests and Adventure Racing. The low res versions below open up a full resolution 2.2Mb PDFs of the article, reproduced by kind permission of the editor.

 

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Event Report – Military Challenge 3hr MTBO

The Military Challenge is an event born out of the Around Aldershot races of the last few years. It takes place on normally out of bounds Army training areas in the South East closed for the Christmas Break. It consists of Ultra Long Mountain Bike Orienteering or long foot Orienteering races, this year based at Longmoor Camp, near Petersfield.
Organised by BAOC (British Army Orienteering Club)the MTBOs of previous years have taken place in freezing conditions so the mild weather of the weekend before Christmas this year was a pleasant surprise, with temperatures around 12 degrees.
The 2008 event was a 3 hour score with a map exchange once the first map (1:15000 Orienteering map) had been cleared, so well worth the long journey down south. The quality of the field was also very good with at least 6 recent members of the British Team present.
I really shouldn’t have ridden as I was still not fit post Man Flu, but MTBO opportunities are so thin on the ground I decided to ride anyway but to take it a little easier than normal.
The controls were well spread out across the map, with plenty of route choice. I decided to head north into the less complex terrain first, and although I should have collected a couple of controls in a more efficient order was riding well with no mistakes. I had no repeat incident this year of trapping my EMIT brick between brake lever and handlebar, which came as bit a shock on a steep decent last Christmas !

The riding was great, with lots of steep descents and rolling tracks formed by years of tank and vehicle training, although some of the tracks were so sandy and muddy it was like trying to ride through soup.

I was feeling particularly rough about 2 hours in, but decided at the map exchange that as there were only a few controls left I would complete the 3 hours. I thought that rather than risk being late and losing points I would leave out one control, however I ended up finishing 10 mins early, so easily could have bagged it which would have brought me up one place.

Overall given the state of my lungs I was very happy with 6th, although Killian (winning by clearing up in 2.5 hours) is so far ahead of the rest of us at the moment it is going to take some serious training commitment to wind him in.
Full Results here….

Mark Stodgell ( stodge )
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A much, much better day at the office

Event report – Dark and White Winter League rd 3 – Grindleford

My training diary on Saturday showed no training for 10 days due to a cold I picked up off of Holly. With the cold still there I wasn’t sure that I ought to race today really. Manic bike maintenance on Saturday night after driving home from Somerset didn’t help either but I put the bike in the car anyway and decided to make a decision on Sunday morning.

Trips up through The Peaks are always a pleasure early on Sunday mornings with no traffic on the road and this morning was no exception. Arriving at the event centre in Grindleford it was good to see Emily Benham, Britain’s current MTBO superstar who bagged a silver out in Lithuania, though being a poor student she was forced to cycle to and from Sheffield to take part. After my last effort at a Dark and White Event I spent a good 1.5 mins having a look possible routes and realised that again it was not going to be possible to get them all.

I decided to leave the lower value controls around Eyam to the end and headed out up on to Baslow Edge, with stunning views out to the west.  The day was characterised by vicious climbs and very fast descents, but as I am still without a replacement for my GPS I didn’t get a total height gain or max speed.
I decided to put a physcological demon to bed my diving down into Cressbrook and attacking the long climb out after bagging a control. A bad experience in the past given me the knowledge that the climbs are much bigger than those indicated on the map and I was a little hesitant at going back down there.

Looking at my watch I was ahead of schedule so a quick bit of re-planning brought in another huge climb at the end up through Eyam to Sir William Hill, again with stunning views back across the valley. However the climb told and I arrived at the control with no time left so I let rip on the final 250m decent into Grindleford.

A mistake on a road junction added to my lateness  by a minute or so but I was only 51/2 mins late in the end.

Now full results are published and I was 3rd (several Vets upgraded themselves into Open) which I am very happy with.

Mark Stodgell ( Stodge ) 

     

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Brocton & Milford Regional Event

I’ve been looking forward to this event for weeks. I don’t do as much foot orienteering as I would like, mainly because we can’t be bothered with running on poor quality West Midlands country parks etc when we live right next to some of the best terrain in the region and are so busy doing other things. We tend to prefer to compete less often but don’t then mind travelling further to get the quality.

Living on the map should obviously give me quite an advantage, and calling in to the house for a quick hot ribena and buttered crumpet on the way to the start was a treat you don’t normally get at an event.

I basically had a cracking run. I was unsure whether I was now ready to tackle a M35Long course but I’m glad I did, winning by 8 mins, although still making a minute or so of mistakes. The course was very well planned, the weather lovely and a great atmosphere at the finish. Results here.

So it now looks as though I am now officially back to full length orienteering courses after 6 years in the injury wilderness. To say im chuffed is a bit of an understatement, and am looking forward to it hurting getting out of bed on Monday morning as its a feeling I’ve not had for a long time. I really feel like I can draw a line under my whole sesamoiditis injury episode and move on.

Mark Stodgell
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West Midlands Cyclo-X Rnd 8 – Solihull

I nearly didnt get to the race. A huge pile up on the M6 Toll in the horrendous weather completley blocked the motorway. It must have just happened as I was one of the first cars in the queue that quickly built up. As I didn’t witness it and there seemed plenty of people milling about getting things sorted I got going as soon as the motorway was partially clear. The weather all the way down was a combination of hail, lightening and torrential rain, but it eased off a little as I got to the event. The Vets/Ladies/Youth race was still in progress, so after I signed on I watched and cheered on my new clubmates. After lots of pondering I have finally decided to join Lichfield City CC. I can’t wear my own sponsors logos etc at Cyclo Cross and other British Cycling events once I get a racing license for various reasons, so I thought I’d join a club where I already know a few people.
Donning the club Jersey, quite a few club members introduced themselves and seemed to know who I was, I made to feel most welcome, and am glad I’ve joined.
The race itself was a bit star studded. Liam Killeen was in attendance (watching Mammoth’s Mechanic Darrell competing at cross for the first time on his old bike), and a Columbia Rider Roger Hammond. The mud was sticky and disgusting, the course tough with lots of running and huge head winds, plus the rain started again. I enjoyed the course, particularly outbraking the cross bikes on the slipperly decents, and other than being laped by Hammond mid race I only got lapped by the other top riders on the last lap. The gears just about held together only causing me a problem on thr last lap, but I didnt lose any time to them. I ended up 18th ( out of 44) which I am very happy with, I’m not sure how much quicker I would be on a cross bike, but I have decided to finish the season on the mountain bike. Results

        

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A bad day at the office.

Event report – Dark and White Winter League rd 2 – Hope / Castleton

My first 3hr event since my ‘proper’ training began in July of this year. To be honest I had high hopes of doing well, although I am considering the league as good training as opposed to a target for this year as 3hrs is much longer than a normal MTBO.  The weather was fine, with great views over the Peak District and beyond and I was looking forward to a good day out in the hills. The D&W events are consistently some of the best ‘Trailquests’ in the UK, which are well planned and use acceptable mapping on fairly accurate 1:50 thou OS maps. The controls are not hidden and are well marked on the ground with red and white tape. These differ to MTBOs by being score events, ie there are approx 20 -30 controls worth differing values are spread over a large area and the aim is to bag the most points in the 3 hr time limit visiting them in any order.
My normal technique is not to hang about at the start, just make a decision which control to visit first and get going, probably in less than 30 secs of getting the map, then plan my route on the fly. If you are going to be in the top few you really have to get most of the controls anyway, so this normally works for me.
BUT – Sunday was different; it was very well planned with lots of options. You would have had to been Superman to clean up, particularly with the condition of some of the tracks after the previous week’s weather, therefore I essentially blew it. I should have left out two lower value controls, towards the beginning of my chosen route at Mam Tor, which took in large climbs, rather than scooting around trying to get them all. When I realized this it was too late, I was already committed. I then compounded it by desperately trying to collect controls on the dash for home to improve my score when I was already late.
I could roll out some excuses about a dodgy bit of mapping by a dam which was obscured by the control circle which lost me a few minutes, or about the 20 or so horses I had to stop for, or the busy road I could not cross and the nightmare chain suck on the granny ring, but it was the same for everybody and it evens itself out over the 3hrs and is part of the event.
In ‘trailquest’ events with a fixed time you are penalised for being late on a ramped scale, i.e. a couple of mins late is fine, more than 10 and you start haemorrhaging points. Suffice to say I was 13 ½ mins late and lost 35 of my 205 hard earned points and ended up well down the field.
So time to take some positives forward, I felt I was very strong on the hills, particularly the climb up to Mann Tour from Castleton, and I’m sure if I had picked a different route I would have been up there with the leaders. Lesson learned, perhaps spend another 30 secs looking at the map before starting and don’t assume I’m going to get them all but a couple …..
Oh and to rub salt into my wounds I lost my Garmin 305 – GPS tracker and heart rate monitor – I had one small crash and some of the tracks were extremely rocky and it must have fallen out of its bracket – like I said, a bad day at the office….
Results available here….
Mark Stodgell

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Week of Contrasts

My week started with great news, my first sponsor, Eat Natural have given me lots and lots of bars ( I do tend to go through them), so thanks to the Eat Natural Marketing people. Please follow the link on the right to their website for more info on their tasty bars.

Anyway back to racing and training, Wednesday evening ride was great with fireworks going off everywhere, some bangs a little too close for comfort and a little scary to be honest though.

Fridays ride brought sunshine and a fantastic display of Autumn colours so I put the camera in my bag and stopped a few times to get some piccys. At the top of my first climb there were at least 20 deer wandering about, but it was too dark in the forest to get any decent pics. I then followed a circular route of the chase going down as far as Gentleshaw. The thought the best leafy displays were in Birches Valley and on the road from Longdon up to the Wandon cross roads, with the Beech orange’s almost glowing in the sunshine.

I had been looking forward to doing another Cyclo Cross race, and Sunday gave me the opportunity in Bromsgrove. Cath and Holly were off at the Yvette Baker Trophy Qualifier near Tamworth so I had a relaxing morning templating the new kitchen worktops and a quick blast down the motorway in time to see the Vets / Women’s race at 12.30 in which fellow Walton Chasers Neil Lawford and Beth Clayton were competing. It was getting very muddy and the rain came just before the end. At 2pm when we started it hadn’t got any better and there was a cold wind blowing from the SW. I had decided to keep my bike clean and didnt ride a recce lap, just walked parts of it. Even on the first lap it was very muddy, with parts of the course becoming unrideable. I had a good start and then started picking my way up through the field. The bike was becoming harder and harder to ride with the mud balling up round the gears and brakes. Then came a very painful hailstorm (well it is for me being bald as a coot!) whilst I was out on the most exposed part of the course. It only lasted a few minutes and then turned back into heavy rain. The great thing was that it seemed to clear the muck off the bike and from then on, although the going was harder and it became very slippery, the mud didnt ball up on the bike and the gears worked well again. I was very pleased with the 24th place but my legs started to tire on the last lap and my heart rate trace for this time was noticeably lower which reflects this. Getting changed in the car afterwards was a challenge with filthy clothes and I didn’t notice the state of my my face until after I had called into a petrol station for a choccy stop, no wonder the chap behind the till was giggling ! – Thanks to Neil for the X-photos
Mark Stodgell

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