Category: Mountain Biking

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European MTBO Champs Travel day – Model Event

As always travelling with a bike brings is challenges. At Gatwick we were marched off to have our bike bags weighed at the oversize luggage check in before we were formally allowed to get our boarding passes. Luckily I thought we had 23kgs so when I found out we had 25 I squirrelled a few of the heavier items out of my hand luggage to take it to 25. This was fortuitous as they then proceeded to weigh our hand luggage, oops, I was way over but a smile and shrug got me through without any payment.

And so to Russia. Our first brush with very slow official formality we were to find time and time again was car hire. It took nearly two hours! After that it was an unscheduled visit to the centre of St Petersburg where we relocated on the Winter Palace before finally getting the right road out towards Vyborg and our accommodation which was a very pleasant surprise. Its a sort of upmarket center parcs without the swimming pool. The food is great and we could not ask for anything, its all provided. The lengthy process’s of form filling and judicious use of huge rubber stamps continued though and our passports whisked away to ???

Daylight saw us to be in a gorgeous sandy forest with huge pine trees stretching straight and true towards the sky. Another pleasant surprise was the SFR punching system which turns out to be much easier to use than EMIT which it is closest competitor. After a leisurely morning we completed the model events before a visit back to the forest for some team building and photo taking before a quick ride round the sprint model area. We even have a bike wash outside our block which I had to use a little earlier than I intended after riding through what we can only assume was Bear poo, it went everywhere and stunk

Tomorrow brings our first race the Sprint in Vyborg.

Some photos here https://picasaweb.google.com/mark.stodgell/EuropeanChamps2011?authuser=0&feat=directlink

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Orifix Mapboards

With my old trusty Miry getting very tired, Orifix have kindly leant me a new Orifix MTBO map board to try. I tested it today using the optional height raising pieces and I like it. I will try it on the model race on Sunday at the European Championships but first impressions are good and I will probably use it in the finals.

Thanks Orifix

http://www.orifix.net/index.php

 

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Run up to the European Champs

I’ve had a woolly summer of training, a few niggly injuries has made it a bit disjointed, but I have been continuing to concentrate on strength. I’ve been feeling great during the last month so now it is a case of tapering to next weeks championships. This week I have been doing a fair bit of MTBO practice on areas locally I think are most similar to what we can expect in Russia. Cannock Chase, Sutton Park and Delamere Forest have been great with a few bits of urban thrown in – local housing estates that are mapped to sprint specifications. I’ve also done a little fast cadence turbo session and a lap of Cannock Chase’s Monkey trail to get speed up my legs and get my eye back into more technical XC riding.

Off the saddle I have given the bike a thorough service and have spent a few hours trying to find Russian versions of Google street view to have a look at Vyborg. I also now have my Russian visa, which took some getting….

So it’s now time to pack the bike, make sure I haven’t forgotten anything and get myself to Gatwick on Saturday !

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Somerset Mountain Bike Orienteering

A new facebookpage at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Somerset-MBO/ is listing a new series of Mountain Bike Orienteering Score events in and around Somerset.

Its great to see this taking off, there is some great terrain down there. Lets hope I can tie a few events in with visits to my Parents in Taunton !

SW League 2 is provisionally booked for Oct 23rd at Ashburton & South Dartmoor,
SW League 3 is provisionally booked for Nov 27th on the Quantock Hills
SW League 4 sometime in Jan possibly in the South Hams
SW League 5 Jan/Feb Dunster and North Exmoor
SW League 6 TBC…

they are hoping to put on a 2 day event next summer, some mid week evening events and an enduro.

 

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SFR Orienteering Timing System!

Over in Russia we will be using the SFR punching system, not EMIT or Sportident.
Ive always found EMIT hard work on a bike, mainly due to its size, although after a whole week of it in Denmark last year I was starting to get more confident with faster punches.

In Russia we have 2 days to get used to a totally new system for us – SFR.

There are various versions of it, but we seem to be using one which is more like EMIT than SI in that a brick has to be place the correct way round in a shoe and it has a backup paper punch card. There is also a separate pod which goes on the fork of the bike, I assume for rolling finishes. With the Sprint being the first event I think the new system could be interesting, lets hope we get lots of time to practice.

Lots of photos of the IOF advisor trying it here http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/o-sport-ru/album/167417/?

 

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Vote for Chase Trails in the Final of the Lottery Awards

You might remember this posting http://www.stodgell.co.uk/?p=2830 from a while ago. Well Chase Trails got through to the shortlist. Please cast your vote if you have ever ridden on Cannock Chase and help them win.

Volunteer trail building group Chase Trails was founded by local riders in 2003 with the aim of building and maintaining high quality, sustainable mountain bike trails on Cannock Chase. Working in partnership with the Forestry Commission, they have built 15 miles of mountain bike trails which they are continually working to maintain and improve. To date it is estimated that over 25,000 hours of volunteer time have been invested in the trails.

Chase Trails rely on volunteers to build and maintain the trails. They hold trail building sessions every week and are always looking for new volunteers to come and get involved. Visit their blog for find out more about volunteer trail building. http://chasetrails.blogspot.com/

By voting for Chase Trails you’ll be showing your support for the trails and the work the volunteers do to build and maintain them. We’d encourage everyone to get behind them and support this fantastic project.

Click here for more information and to vote http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-sport-project/141/ 

 

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European MTBO Champs 2011 – Preview

Its just 10 days to go now until the European MTBO Championships 2011 near St Petersburg in Russia.
Bulletin 3 is now out with much more information. The racing looks interesting, exciting and varied, the terrain fast and furious.

A small team of 4 is riding for the UK : Mark Stodgell, Iain Stamp, Andew Douglas and Ruth Sheddon, it being a debut appearance for Iain, Andy and Ruth. The Team are travelling out on 17th September and start competitions on Monday 19th September with the Sprint in Vyborg. Hopefully there will be live coverage on the event website at  http://www.o-worldcup.spb.ru/

  • 19.09 Mon Opening Ceremony, Sprint Final (EC, WC-Final, EJC, EYC);
  • 20.09 Tue Middle Final (EC, WC-Final, EJC, EYC);
  • 21.09 Wed Relay- 3 legs (EC, WC-Final, EJC, EYC);
  • 22.09 Thu Sprint Mixt Relay-4 legs (1m+1w) (EJC, EYC),
    Model Long: Sprint Mixt Relay-non-official race (EC, WC-Final);
  • 23.09 Fri Long Final (EC, WC-Final, EJC, EYC), Closing Ceremony, Banquet;

 

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30%

Up in the lakes for the bank holiday weekend I had a pass for a couple of training rides in the afternoons. Staying in Hawkshead youth hostel the obvious thing was some MTBO training in Grizedale forest which I did on Monday, but what to do for the other session. I’ve heard people taking about Hardknott and Wrynose passes in the past and thought a ride encompassing these would be good so hatched a plan involving a sketch map with no contours, an out and back ride and dinner in the youth hostel booked for 7pm.

I soon realised that the climb involved in this little adventure would be fairly significant as I started the hill out of Skelwith Bridge and then the even stiffer climb up into Little Langdale. Coming out of Little Langdale I came across a nose to tail stationary traffic jam. A call of ‘good luck getting through there mate!’ met my ears as I squeezed past the cars and hedges, eventually coming across some irate motorists remonstrating with an elderly jaguar owner who had blocked the road completely with his car. He was muttering something about electronic gearboxes and not being able to move the car until the AA arrived. Trouble was the AA wouldn’t be able to get within ½ a mile of him with the jam. I mooched on weaving through the jam and left them too it but I couldn’t see how they were going to sort it out even if he did try and move it. There was simply a logjam with nowhere to go !

I started the climb up Wrynose steadily, wondering what the fuss was about until it suddenly opened up in front of me. I followed the line of the road with my eyes and it took my breath away. Its not like an Alpine road that winds it’s way up, it just goes up, steep up, 30% up.

I passed a chap stood next to his car ,pulled into one of the many passing places towing a huge trailer tent, a distinct smell of clutch wafting after me. Only one car over took me but the many coming down the pass all pulled over to watch me suffer my way past, windows wound down with waves of encouragement. Eventually I crested the summit into a ferocious headwind, donning a cag I hoofed it down ready for the next challenge, Hardnott pass. Looking at my watch I knew I wasn’t going to have time to drop down the other side before turning for home so decided to turn at the summit. Hardknott although steeper was not as long and I soon grunted up the last slope (30% again) into a another huge headwind. I quickly noted the view and tuned for home. My brakes were fine coming down and I was soon getting a little wind assistance back over Wrynose. Id like to say I sailed over in middle ring but I was starting to tire now and it was hard work. Coming down into Little Langdale I was getting frustrated by the cars and managed to get past them and let the bike open up and get some speed. After a bit I could see a car coming up in the distance so needed to scrub some of speed. Ive not had brake fade on a bike before. Its scary !

I did managed to get off enough velocity to get into a passing place to let him past but the brakes were full on and I was not coming to a halt.

By the time I got into the village the jam of earlier had cleared and I sailed through behind yet another queue of cars but they soon pulled away as I ground my way back towards Skelwith Bridge and home.

The passes are certainly a challenge and a lot harder that I thought. I rode them out and back without stopping and didn’t get into my lowest 2 or 3 gears of a 27 speed MTB but a road bike would certainly be tough and without a triple upfront, probably almost impossible without a couple of rests for all but the best athletes. 50k – 1150m climbing