I had intended to do the last round of Manchester Midweek MTB Madness last night. The Bow was clean and serviced and I was very organised with a box of kit in the car to go there straight after work. As 5.30 approached the sky grew darker and then it started to rain really hard.
Getting to the car I suddenly realised I had no contact lenses with me. In the dry this wouldn’t be a problem by riding in glasses in the wet and mud is impossible and riding with reduced eyesight would be dangerous so reluctantly I turned for home. As I approached Stafford the rain just got worse and worse. My training for the week though was depending on a hard session so I pulled out my training mountain bike and headed out to meet the Thursday night Chasers run. By the time I got to Marquis drive I was covered in sand and mud, the bike sounded like sandpaper and I was soaked. Unfortunately I missed the others so headed to Kitbag hill to do some reps on my own. I got some bizarre looks from riders returning from The Monkey Trail the other side of the railway as I bombed down only to turn straight round to climb back up again.
Getting changed afterwards was foul, sand and mud everywhere, even in my ears. Isn’t August meant to be summer ? Returning home later I checked out the results of the race I missed. The photos showed it to be just as bad, but the muddy faces were smiling so it must have been fun !
Manchester Midweek MTB Madness – #5
I have not done any XC races this year, nor any cyclo cross races and have been missing the buzz of head to head racing. With a couple of months before the next World Cup race I thought I would try and find a couple of XC races to do. As I work on the outskirts of Manchester, the Midweek MTB Madness series organised at Clayton Vale Country Park, in the Shadow of the National Cycling Centre, seemed ideal.
Held every two weeks throughout the summer tonight was the 5th race in the series with one more to go.
The event was well run with plenty of marshals to keep things safe for the 38 riders of all ages who started the race. The 10 min lap design uses a mixture of fast cinder tracks, short power climbs and whipping singletrack descents, all designed to bring a smile as the course winds its way around the Country Park. The race format is 40 mins plus one lap.
The start immediately goes into singletrack after just 75 metres and I got a bit stuck behind some riders for the first minutes but soon overtook them and settled into a head to head race with up and coming junior rider, Northwest MTB Centre’s John Mackellar. We played cat and mouse working together for the first two laps until eventually I pulled ahead once more to keep the lead for the next 3. He seemed stronger on the climbs and I pulled away a little on some of the corners getting better lines but we were very well matched.
On the last lap I started to get tired and backed off a little, but he quite rightly stayed tucked in behind looking for his chance to get away. On the granny ring steep climb, mid lap, he got it when I stupidly got off and tried to run the steep climb. He pulled about 40 metres on me which I could not get back on the rest of the lap.
Still I was very happy with 4th place and enjoyed the swoopy single-tracks and the great feeling of getting the very fast lines right through the blind entry points to the forested bits.
My legs, arms and hands though zinged all the way home in the car from the overhanging nettles on one of the climbs. On every lap they seemed to encroach more and more. I wondered at the time if they would start to lose their bite as time went on but they didn’t seem to!
I’m looking forward to going back in two weeks time, hopefully with an entourage of Pozzoni work colleague bikers in tow to give it a go !
Results and a few photos available at http://www.taptiming.com/results/hfril/
Montalegre, Northern Portugal
The venue for this years World MTBO Championships was Montalegre, in northern Portugal near the city of Chaves. Nestled in hills of forests and open scrubland, the vistas seem to remind me of a mixture of various UK landscapes. A sort or Dartmoor crossed with the the Peak District (but bigger), all with a distinctly rustic Portuguese flavour. The area is famous for its tourism: outdoors and the lakes (created by great dams), smoked meats (which feature on all the menus) and witches
Montalegre itself is based around a castle perched on top of a spur overlooking a river valley. Its medieval, narrow, cobbled streets are lined with a mixture of old and new buildings sitting comfortably together and seemingly endless cafes and restaurants, little shops and small squares. The Event centre was Montalegre Pavilion, a huge exhibition centre/theatre in the heart of the small town, a great asset for an event like the MTBO World Champs.
Team GB enjoyed the landscape for its spectacular views, and its towns and villages for their old world charm. The owner of our appartment showed us a gorgeous, not quite secret, swimming river with a series of waterfalls and sink holes, creating a perfect place to unwind after a race in the cool water.
A family adventure holiday in this region would be simply fantastic and I would love to return, but perhaps with a decent phrase book as I have been
doing much pointing and gesticulating this week. The food has been good value and the residents warm and friendly. A great World Championships, well organised and in a wonderful location.
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.
Staffordshire Newsletter
http://www.staffordshirenewsletter.co.uk/Sport/Orienteer-Stodgell-rides-on-after-injury.htm
I am in the local paper again this week !
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
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
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.