Category: Orienteering

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

With the Walton High School gym, our normal venue for WCH club circuit training, closed for half term, Cath organised another Tuesday night ‘orienteering in the dark’ mini training event on the Wildwood estate in Stafford this week. This time we were to be using the fruits of a her winters nights of OCADing a brand new A3 1:4000 map, complete with every house, fence and wall plus the surrounding parkland.

My calf not being 100% for running and it being very low key (15 runners) I decided to go off last and use my bike (and be very careful not to run anyone over). I started well but at number 3 smelt trouble as I dropped the bike to punch a control on some steps going down to the playgrounds and sports pitches.

A large group of youths were on their way, bottles in hand, to get smashed in the park. Most walked on but as I rode away I saw two getting quite intimate with the control. At over £100 each I took the decision to bin my ride and go and get it. I got a fair bit of catcalling but just rode off ignoring it but got a loud cheer when I couldn’t get a gear on a steep bank and had to get off. Returning the control to Cath about 400 m away at the finish she told me there was another one at risk on the shorter course, so I had to return to rescue it from where it had been thrown. This time I got a lot more abuse and started to feel a little intimidated, but I managed to get it out of the tennis court and away to safety. I then had to go and stand at the previous control on the short course to tell runners to miss out the ‘youth’ control, but I didn’t manage to catch one runner who had a nice chat with the youth as he hunted around for it!

Unfortunately we also lost one other control, I suspect by the same group of kids. At £100 to replace it was an expensive training session, but we will leaflet the few houses around where it went missing to see if it ended up in a garden !

The weather forecast said snow, in fact Sheffield had enough for snowballs and sledging on Saturday. After checking the event was still on, I left the house with the car thermometer showing 6 degrees. Slowly, as I climbed up out of Ashbourne towards the event, the temperature started to drop. Parking up in Biggin (glad I don’t use satnav so I didn’t make the mistake a fair few other people made by going to a different Biggin some 15 miles away) the temperature had got down to 2 degrees and a cold wind was blowing from the East.

The penultimate round of the Dark and White Winter series 2010/11 had brought us right down to the more rolling South of the Peak District again, but we noticed from the map samples before hand that some of the deceptively contoured hilly terrain around Yougreave was included. The key to navigation in this area are the several long distance cycle trails, which wind themselves around hugging the contours. Although gravel and not as fast as the roads, they are relatively flat and good for getting around quickly.

The foul weather of the previous few days had taken its toll on the car park so we all had to park on the roads around the village. A control had also been removed from the course as it was a quagmire, apparently.

I got ready but had this nagging feeling I had forgotten something. Rolling up to the start line I realised what it was – map board. Muppet, it was at home, still on my other bike.

After 20 minutes of stress and phaffing trying various DIY options, I eventually decided just to carry it in my hand.

I started stressed, and, not being able to see the complete map unless going very slowly, I immediately picked a daft route to number 1, not noticing a quicker way up onto the Tissington Trail, but after than things went OK. I rode one handed a lot, I stuck the map in my mouth and down my shorts a lot, but I didn’t lose too much time to it.

The wind wasn’t strong, but it slowly sucked the energy out of my legs and I felt I was not riding as strongly as normal. The mud in places was horrendous. Other competitors noted afterwards that my lack of mapboard had resulted in my face receiving more than its fair share of muck, and I struggled at times with it getting in my eyes more than normal (I don’t wear and glasses whilst competing as they seem to steam up, perhaps I should try it again).

After a couple of hours my map situation was becoming desperate, the plastic bag muddy and the map scrunched up inside making it more and more difficult to navigate and even more difficult to plan ahead more than a couple of controls. With 30 minutes to go I had to take a risk and go for another loop north on the old railway line. I gave it everything but my legs were really starting to tire. Turning for home and number 8, I had a nightmare. I found the tape marking the site but not the SportIdent timing box. After checking the descriptions and looking about for a couple of minutes I had to eventually assume it had gone missing and head for home, but the control had seemed a little out of place.

I eventually skidded to a halt at the finish, quads on fire after giving it all, about 7 minutes late and a few points down on the winner. Apparently, the tape for number 8 had been moved by persons unknown so hopefully I will, like a few others, be credited with that extra score.

Another well planned event from Dark and White and with just one more challenge left the league is very close, so an exciting finale awaits.

Update:
D&W have now released revised results – http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results/2010DWWinterLeagueRnd5shortv2.html

showing me winning M21 and 2nd overall behing Killian Lomas, perhaps I should leave my mapboard home more often 😉

The area surrounding Hope and Castleton in the Peak District is one I know fairly well, from both previous Dark and White events and countless New Years celebrations in Castleton as a student. Oh, and I had my stag do there, but the less said about that the better (I did, however, notice that the trough outside a pub that I ended up in now contains flowers, not water and goldfish!).

The day was cold and crisp and the ground fairly dry with no recent rain, so it looked likely that conditions would be fast. I duly pumped up my tyres as hard as I dared and set off.

I always prefer a downhill finish so headed off up the Edale valley on to tracks I knew fairly well, whilst sorting out the rest of the route as I went.

The rocky descent down into number 10 had me wishing I hadn’t put quite so much air in my tyres as I bounced around, trying to keep a smooth line, but luckily a sheep track alongside the main path made the re-ascent a little easier. I always love riding the bridleway that goes via today’s number 8 as I seem to come across lots of recreation bikers, mostly on very expensive full-suspension machines, either slowly picking their way down the steep rocky descents or off and pushing on the ups. It’s a nice feeling to blast past them, up or down, on an XC race bike and watch their faces.

The planning was very good and I was struggling to see a good route to hoover up the controls to the Ssouth. There seemed no way to circumnavigate the course without some vicious climbs.

The one up to Chapel Gate was cruel, the only plus being it could have been so much worse if not frozen, but my poor overshoes took a pounding, as, like everyone else, I was off and pushing/carrying at times up to the top of the 250 metre ascent.

Moving south I had a decision to make: to leave number 7 in Bradwell or not. I knew things were going to be tight and in the end, although only 750 metres off my route, I decided not to descend and get it. Given I was 4 mins late this was the right decision, but winner Mark McPhillips, who took the same route as me did get it.

The views out over Castleton and the Dark Peak to the north were stunning as I climbed over towards Mam Tor before dropping down into Castleton. I have never ridden the bridleway down from Hollins Cross before, and I will probably avoid it next time. It was slippery, steep and un-rideable in places, making me slower than planned hence being a little late back.

After getting the last control, it was a 2.5km blast back along the road to the finish in Hope punching in 5 minutes late. There were lots of big names about today and I felt sure, although I’d had a good ride, that I’d be down the leader board; but download showed me equal second with Killian, another great result and showing that my continued concentration on strength this winter is starting to pay off.

Thanks Dark and White for another great event, and also great to see Steve Heading back on a mountain bike after his shoulder injury last year (and yes he did ride from Matlock, do the event and ride home again – legend)

Stats: 52.8km, 1200m climb

Results available here : http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results-cross-country-fell-races.asp