Round 2 of the British Mountain Bike Orienteering Score League came to Cannock Chase. Although I was organising, fellow Chaser Neil Lawford kindly planned the courses and updated the map allowing me to compete locally for the first time in years.
With the clocks changing, a houseful of friends on Saturday night for my birthday and feeling generally tired after organising and planning the middle race the day before, I stood in ZipVits car park feeling decidedly ropey but I soon felt better after a quick warm up.
There was, again, lots of interest in my Corratec Bow, many taking in the fine curves of it’s frame and having a quick squirt round the car park.
After helping Neil set up it was time for me to get going. I decided I would hits the lane network north of Rugeley first with fresh legs and really get them spinning. I pumped up the tyres really hard, knowing I could handle anything on the chase like this and as I zoomed through Armitage and in to the lanes, the Pythons were howling on the smooth tarmac. It felt great. Although I tend to ride the road bike on some of the lanes, many were new to me, as were all the off road sections. I looped back towards Rugeley, flying, feeling I might be able to clear the course.
I made a small error at #173 when I went down the wrong side of the canal, losing me a couple of minutes but then came th cluster of 3 30 point controls all on bridleways in farmland north east of Little Heywood.
Essentially the map going into #151 from Coton needs some work and the bridleway is not obvious on the ground. I, like many, lost the track and ended up jumping ditches and fences trying to get back in the right place. I’m not sure how much time I lost but it was very slow riding on the edges of ploughed fields. The going got worse on the way to #152 and the map round all the farms again needs some work and I lost time making sure I wasn’t straying onto private roads or footpaths. Coming back-out, again confused, I decided Id lost too much time and binned the last 30 pointer and headed for my comfort zone, Cannock Chase. Luckily I know this part really well so I didn’t really need to navigate, just head down and blat the hills.
I knew I was going to be late but desperately didn’t want to get later than 10 mins and start hemorrhaging all those hard won points. In the end I skidded to a halt at 3hours, 9 mins and 59 secs, phew !
I think those competitors entering the farm track section from the west probably had a slight advantage but I was very happy with my 3rd place.
Many thanks toZip Vit sport for hosting us in there car park and donating a gel to all the competitors and thanks to Neil for planning , enabling me to ride.
No GPS today so no idea how far I rode, full results on the Walton Chasers website
I think I should have taken one of those jels, it might have made me ride better. Jaffa cakes just does not cut it.
Could have done better, missing and riding past three controls just because I forgot was not the best thing to do. Lost it after that because I was so annoyed with myself.
Like other’s I suppose I got really confused going around that farm by controls 152, 150 and 151. To try and work out all the small singletracks, roads, doubletracks etc on the ground when they all looked the same on the map got me scratching my head.
Must try harder next time.
Yes we really need to sort the map out there, and I know in the past we have talked about coming up with a symbol for right of way not really visable on the ground requiring complex nav in terms of hedge and fence lines.
Do you fancy planning one on an OS map down near you ?
The planning of these events must require a great deal of personal time/dedication to the sport, organisation, hard work and stress.
So for me to plan one of these events I don’t really feel that I have the skills that would be required. To follow on with what have been great events organised by members of Chasers would be a tough act to follow.
I have enjoyed all MTB events that I have done and any frustration/lack of success is all of my own doing.
So getting confused out on the course shows a weakness in my own ‘O’ skills that I will develop in the future rather than anything to do with the organisers/mappers.
But looking at the results I did not do as bad as I had thought but could do much much better.
Anyway, I thought my brakes were noisy, were those yours that were squealing in the car park?