Category: Orienteering

Posted on

OO Cup 2010 – Day 1

Click for full mapFriday seemed to be spent constantly drinking. It was so hot, even after 35 minutes spent jogging round the model event I was gagging for water! Saturday morning dawned about 10 degrees cooler and it even looked very ominous for rain as we drove the short distance, past a village name we cant pronounce but seems to us, much to Hollys amusement, to sound like ‘Lettuce’.

OOCup organisation is laid back but slick. Efficient enquires soon got me a hire SI card, mine still attached to my bike back in Stafford, while Holly went off round her course with Cath shadowing and I got stuck into my pre-event preparation before after Holly returned, happy!, as the heavens opened. It really chucked it down and soon, walking to the start, I felt like a drowned rat.

The route to the start passed beautiful meadows and dacha’s built into the hill sides with amazing views of forested valleys shrouded in wispy clouds.

After starting I made a mistake straight away on the way to number one, overshooting on the 1:7500 map. I only lost perhaps a minute though as I quickly realised the map wasn’t fitting the ground and got straight back out to a path junction to relocate rather than thrashing around, went back in and got it without further time lost. I made another small error on the way into 4, again overshooting as I tuned into the scale. After that I had a good clean run. I tried to not go too fast, saving my legs and ankles and making the navigation easier. I had a couple of other lucky legs finging controls just as I was starting to feel as though I was losing contact with the map. I took a good safe route choice to number 20 which I think saved some time before a very slippery run in to the finish where I backed right off after seeing someone in front go A over T.

Holly seemed to have enjoyed sitting in the car whilst the rain came down, rather than going into ‘kindergarden’ taking photos of various parts of the dashboard after we said she wasn’t allowed to take the camera out into the rain, but she got a great one of a chap wearing a chair. Results are not yet up, but I was after a clean run with no big mistakes, which I think I got. Preliminary results at the event had me about 5 minutes down on 2nd place (the leader was 4 minutes clear). The overall cumulative time for the week decides the final result so consistency with no epics is important this week.

Posted on

OO Cup – Preview

The OOCup, held each year in Slovenia is the connoisseurs orienteering holiday. Increasing in numbers each year with many of the same faces, orienteers from all over Europe descend on this little country for 5 days of some of the most complex, intense orienteering available with even top elites struggling to run 10 mins per km.

Cath, Holly and I have arrived to some fantastic accommodation at the Korosec wellness centre near the event centre in Nazarje and after a model event tomorrow start the event for real on Saturday. So do I try the headcam for foot O ?

Posted on

WOC MTBO 2010 – Travel Day

Getting up before 6am on a travel day to me is a psychological barrier. So, 6.01 & I was up, breakfasted and in the car to pick up Beth on the way to Gatwick.

Beth got into the car complete with flask of coffee and piece of toast with peanut butter and jam. On a china plate!

We had a good trip down with little traffic, Beth supplying the coffee all the way down. We dropped our car at Cophall Farm Parking (very good value and I would recommend them). As I loaded my bike bag into the minibus I noticed what looked to be a piece of toast on the ground, looking a little squished, half way between our car and the office. Much later on, on the airport shuttle Beth mentioned that I must remind her to find the piece of toast in my car when we got back which must of slid off her plate, and I realised it must have been hers on the ground. Beth had no idea but mentioned she might have stepped on some chewing gum and had shaken it off whilst walking to the car park office. She then looked down at her sandal and foot. It was covered with peanut butter and jam!

The slightly late take off gave Team GB a chance for its first bit of competition. Who can get the best value Boots Meal Deal. After a tense round of receipt analysis Andy Conn won by a clear margin, his vast international experience paying off with a massive £2.85 saving, the key being the £1.34 pudding option.

From Porto the drive to Montelagre was quiet apart from 10 minutes following a heavily laden small lorry carrying straw bales. Beth and I felt guilty watching the lorry balancing on the edge, one rear wheel almost off the ground every time it went round a corner, almost wanting to see it tip over but eventually we thought it better to overtake and get out of its way.

We arrived to find the accommodation booked by Emily to be fantastic. After some food in a local restaurant and a walk round the castle we spent the evening bike building on a huge balcony overlooking a river valley and wooded low mountains. There was even time for a shakedown ride whilst looking at the sunset.

Looking forward to the rest of the week, now.

Posted on

Micro Maze – Fete Orienteering

With our 7 year old daughter country dancing at the local parish fête this year we thought it was a good opportunity to publicise our club, Walton Chasers, which already has many members in the parish.

After getting the go-ahead from the organiser, Cath and I came up with a micro maze orienteering format using electric fencing posts and orange safety barrier mesh fencing. Cath drew the map in OCAD and planned two courses, a practice where people could go round as many times as they liked, and a prize course where competitors were only allowed one go.

We had about 40 competitors with a fairly equal split of children and adults running and walking round, some getting very confused. Using Autodownload I ran a live Sportident results system with a screen showing positions on the prize course as they downloaded. There were lots of cheers and groans as groups of friends and family ran against each other and crowded round the screen to see who had beaten who.

The summer sunshine made the fete very busy and I’m sure we might have a few new members to show for our efforts, too!

Results at www.walton-chasers.co.uk

Posted on

Preview – World MTBO Championships 2010 – Portugal


It’s now less than a month till the start of the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships 2010, to be held in Monalegre, Portugal.

I will be flying out on Friday 9th July with the rest of the British team, for 9 days of training and racing.
The event website at http://mtbwoc2010.fpo.pt/ is starting to come alive with details of entrants, and a trickle of more final details.

This years MTBO World Champs has entries from 25 countries totaling 96 men and 61 women. 80 juniors will also be racing for glory in the Junior World MTBO Championships.
The Programme for the week is as follows:

Friday, 09th July Teams arrival (afternoon)
Saturday, 10th July Teams arrival
Model Event Sprint
Sunday, 11th July Sprint Final (morning)
Opening Ceremony
Monday, 12th July Model Event
Tuesday, 13th July Middle Distance Final
Open Race (Middle Distance)
Wednesday, 14th July Long Distance Qualification
Thursday, 15thJuly Rest Day
Open Race (Long Distance)
Friday, 16th July Long Distance Final
Saturday, 17th July Relay Event
Open Race (Middle Distance)
Closing Ceremony, Banquet
Sunday, 18th July Teams departure

MTBO WOC /JWOC 2010 has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/people/Woc-Jwoc-Mtb-o-Portugal/100000749239311

Posted on

Driffield 3hr NYMBO Score

 Saturday afternoon brought a 3 hour MBO score from the same start finish area in the middle of the old airfield. The stiff breeze had dropped slightly but I decided it would be better to go out into the head wind rather than face it later in the event with tired legs.

I started strongly in an anticlockwise direction towards 1 and 11 but could feel the race from the morning in my legs on the gradual climb. Out of number 6 my route descended down a beautiful grassy winding valley past Cottam Village and its decaying ruined church. Dropping into the valley there were fantastic views out over the Yorkshire Wolds, an area new to me and quite sublime. Rolling farm land, secret valleys and small villages, where seemingly time has stood still.

The next climb took me up to Sir Tatton Sykes’s Monument, a spire visible even from the start , some 6 km away. At this point after hoovering up the centre of the map it was decision time. It was obvious that clearing even most of the controls was not possible, so riding up to 23 I did some maths and worked out the best route home via the most points. As I returned back from the in/out to number 25 I realised I was going to be on mission to get back in 3 hours so really started to ride hard. Luckily the drop down the bridleway from 9 was a good track, as was the one in the bottom of the valley.

However getting to the bridleway junction at number 21 I just could not find the control. The map was very out of date with the forest felled, and the track the control was on bared no resemblance on the ground to that on the map, it doubling back following the fence/hedgeline. I must have gone within about 10 ft of the control along the track but never saw it.

Looking at my watch I just had to bin it after a couple of minutes and head for home leaving others searching. Luckily the track was a very fast bridleway on the edge of a field, someone had even mowed it. I got a real feeling of ‘hedge rush’ as I blatted flat out with my handlebar almost skimming the crop.

I finished 7 mins late but the organisers wouldn’t credit the control (25 points) I couldn’t find. This is the fundamental problem with OS map based score events, be them adventure races or MBO scores. If the map is not accurate enough at the control you are relying on a written description. If someone else exits the control as you get there you get the control on a plate. If you are on your own well sometimes you just have to hunt and this makes the competition unfair. I know many people are happy with this and I suppose the event was not a national so I shouldn’t moan but it is the reason controllers exist in foot O and the reason many foot orienteers who try ‘trailquests’ or MBO score are put off and don’t return.

I felt that the rolling Yorkshire Wolds made a great location for a fast MBO score and I enjoyed the riding. The distribution of the controls was good and there was lots of route choice.
Stats – 69km 750m climb 3hours 7 mins
Results available here in a couple of days

Posted on

Driffield MTBO Sprint

As the sprint was an early morning event I travelled up to York the night before and stayed with SPLOT Helen, leaving me with a fairly short drive to the event on Saturday.

Unfortunately, with many of the students either still doing exams or in post exam party mode, plus the Polaris being on the same weekend numbers were fairly low for Andrew Windrum’s Driffield Airfield Sprint race.

I’d had had a look at the map and aerial photography before hand and knew that it was a 4WD/tank training area with lots of holes, and it was a shame the rain of the last few days had filled them with water.

Riding to the start in the sunshine, there was a very stiff head wind, but at least the recent rain was keeping the dust down. I started and immediately struggled to get into the scale of the map – 1:5000 – and overshot the first control losing 30 seconds. I rode well on 2 & 3 but on the way to number 4 I started to get fed up with having to ride around all the huge ‘puddles’ on the tank tracks so decided to ride through one. Not a good plan, it was about 3 feet deep and I exited the bike over the handlebars to a very wet landing as the water stopped me in my tracks.

Out of 4 and disaster: I headed out of the semi butterfly in the wrong direction riding for 15, instead of 5 (as did Andy Conn). It was only when I got there I realised what I had done. Back across the map then to the real number 5 and then the long run on the perimeter road to 5.  I then cocked up number 8, going for number 15 again and then heading to 14. I’m not sure what was going on in my head but once I realised what I had done I decided I’d lost so much time I’d turn it into a training race. So, rather than going straight to 8 I headed back towards 7 and started the leg again.

I then rode cleanly to the end catching Andy Conn at 13. We played cat and mouse to the end but my route choice round the quarry area to 16 rather than through it proved about 10 seconds slower and Andy finished just ahead of me.

Cycling back to the car, the bike was in a right state. The combination of muck, sand and water taking its toll, we wondered how on earth we could get them functioning properly again for a 3 hour score that afternoon. I even considered going off to find a jet wash. In the end I went and cleaned both myself and the bike in one of the huge tank holes and finished it off with some deftly squirted water from a bottle.

So not a great day for me, particularly after messing up number 5. It was won by Killian with Ben just behind.