Category: Mountain Biking

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.

A very tired Stodge rocked up at the first Staffordshire Summer Bike O series after a little commute from Sweden to Manchester on Tuesday morning.

Planner Neil had deliberately planned a course that could not be cleared in the time available making me think hard before blasting off into the lanes North of Hoar Cross.

The area is deceptively hilly and it seemed to take a while to cover the ground.

The two controls 43 and 36 made me laugh. Coming out of 43 across a field and through a ‘horse’ gated garden in a building site, I came to a lane, turned right and took the next bridleway sign back into the same field about 40 metres from where I had just been. All nice and legal though!

After that it was out onto the escarpment and a series of controls with a fairly obvious route. It was here that I made a huge mistake, probably my worst in all forms of orienteering for years and years, Ill put it down to tiredness.

Coming out of 31 going to 47 I did a classic parallel error but very magnified, descending a road to early and only when I got to what I thought should be the control site did I realize I was nearly 2km away from the actual site. Id thought a few times on the way in that things didn’t feel quite right – doh!

This then meant that the only sensible route to the real control site was a cross field trudge which cost me even more time. I think all in all it cost me about 10-12 mins.

After that I just got stuck in and did as much of my original plan as possible but had to miss out number 44 as there wasn’t time.

Time for a rest ready for the British Championships on Sunday I think. It was a great first event, a little low on numbers but a beautiful area and one I’m sure we will come back to.