Category: Orienteering

Its now just one month to the 2011 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships to be held in Northern Italy. This years MTBO WOC is being heavily publicised and is still bringing on board sponsors. It promises to be a great event in a supurb location.

Unfortunately this year I had to choose between putting myself forward for the World and European Championships (not enough holiday or cash to do both). In the end I chose the Europeans in Russia as the terrain will suit my skill sets better so I will not be in Italy this year 🙁

The 2011  GB MTBO WOC and Junior WOC team are

Emily Benham W21
Helen Clayton W21
Lucy Harris W21
Ifor Powell M21
Chris Brand-Barker M20

Keep up to date at  www.mtbo2011.org

The final round of the Staffordshire Summer Bike Orienteering series was held in Clifton Campville. On the border of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire this flat rolling countryside has fairly big areas of farmland criss crossed by few roads. It is also bisected by the west coast main line. All in all the event was geared towards some very interesting route choices.

Getting ready I had lost my SI card. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it and in the end had to get a hire card.

Starting from the Green Man pub (after pre-ordering some food for 8.45) I spent nearly a minute pondering route choices before setting out which is unusual for me. It was obvious that it was not clearble at all and that also some controls were in the middle of nowhere, up to a couple of km from roads, down bridleways which most probably could be across fields.

Down the first bridleway skimming across corrugated mud I was very tempted to stop a pick a strawberry or 20. We literally rode through a kilometre of them, all nestling under plastic tunnels. The next control featured potatoes, but I wasn’t so tempted by those.

After clearing the first loop I headed off to the west. At one point concerned I had collected a large insect in my helmet I stopped and took it off. Out fell my missing Si Card – very lucky I didn’t lose it through a vent.

I got lucky on the next control getting a tow off a young roadie who did his utmost to drop me. I think it annoyed him to have a set of mountain bike tyres howling away behind him, but I said thanks as I peeled off on a roundabout.

After a control down a bridleway which crossed a grass runway (a watch out for planes sign was quite amusing) it was a blast south to Whitington and Hopwas woods. I was hopelessly over committed on time and punched the last control in Hopwas with just 15 mins left some 14km away from the finish. I got my head down and went for it….

I picked up number 34 on the way in which was a mistake, I should have left it and carried on in on the road as my 15 mins late lost me 50 points. I still won but by the skin of my teeth and luckily I finished just as my food came out of the pub.

The national MTBO series moved back to Warncliffe Forest, north of Sheffield this weekend. We last raced at Warncliffe at least 5 years ago and since then permissions have been difficult to obtain. Lucy, Helen and team did a grand job of getting us back in there….. until this morning when they were told one of the other landowners they did not know about would not give their permission for a section of the forest.

With controls out already, some frantic re-planning and map scribbling followed and the race was back on, great effort.

I had a while to wait before I could get a map and started 3rd last but this suited me fine, chilling out, nattering. The map unfortunately was a mess following the re-planning and it required careful checking to make sure you knew where the next control was.

My strategy being a middle race on a reasonably steep area was to give it everything on the hills, knowing I could keep it going for an hour. The single-track descents were a nightmare though, completely out of my comfort zone. I even burped my rear tubeless tyre for the first ever time, losing quite a bit of air. I decided to leave it a bit flat and enjoyed the extra traction it gave me on some of the climbs though I was bobbing a fair bit on the faster flatter sections.

The decent from 14-15 was completely bonkers, 6 inch bikes and full face helmets were needed really and I chickened and ran down most of it, mind you that was hard in itself. I lost about a minute on this leg as I didn’t see the slightly better path option to the north that many took.

The climb up through the last 3 controls was punishing, but I kept it going out of the saddle giving it everything. It all paid off and I came in second, just 19 sec’s behind Iain Stamp and 1 second in front of Killian.

To top a great day I also won the fastest ‘run in split’ and got a lovely bottle of Cherry Lambrini for my troubles, though winning an up hill leg like that has really given me confidence in my ability to climb.

results available at http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=17852&ct=true

 

routegadget here http://www.syo.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=38&kieli=en

 

The UK MTBO calendar returns to Warncliffe Woods this weekend for the first time in several years following permissions issues.

Better known for its extreme downhill routes, Britain’s best mountain bike orienteers with their race spec XC hardtails will raise a few eyebrows from the local armour-clad downhillers as they navigate the same trails.

Info and online entry here  http://www.bmbo.org.uk/calendar/details.php?event_id=167

More info about riding in Warncliffe Woods here http://www.wharncliffe.info/

BMBO Chair John Houlihan has sent me one of the photos he took in Sweden, thanks John http://www.witness.co.uk/ 

This years British MTBO long distance champs was held at Longleat. The last time I orienteered at Longleat was 1989 ! It was my 17^th birthday and I drove home afterwards, probably scaring my Dad half to death !

I seem also to remember writing ‘CHEESE’ in huge letters with electrical tape on my tent when we camped that weekend at the Shepton Mallet showground, no idea why…… happy days.….

With the Center Parcs right in the middle of the map now, planning was always going to be challenging. Unfortunately some confusion over the marking of out of bounds roads overshadowed what was a fantastic area with some challenging route choices and some vicious hills.

I had a reasonable ride, a little unsettled when I realised I had been OOBs but felt happy with my split times generally. A great ride by Andy Simpson, an old MTBO stalwart returning to the sport after a break of a few years, gave him the win. Em Benham took the women’s race.