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Grizedale Forest MTBO

Results available here http://www.bmbo.org.uk/images/event/a90c64978cb9da70dd8b24b25f08330e.html

Grizedale Forest’s autumn colours greeted us for the last round of the British Mountain Bike Orienteering national league of 2010.

A long pull up to the pass north of the forest visitor centre brought us to the start, where the usual jockeying for a late start time seemed to be missing for a change. It was another event with the usual November issue of deciding what to wear, I went brave with shorts, normal gloves and a light thermal, which in the end seemed about right, particularly on the long climbs, but my fingers were a little parky on the descents.

The route choice to number one was a difficult call, straight out of the start gate, with two options. Without an actual contour count I punted for the lower route which in hindsight was a bit slower, but it did give me time to tune in to the rest of the course and figure out my route for the next few legs.

I made a stupid mistake turning up the wrong track on the way to number two, concentrating too much on planning ahead and not on the leg in hand, and losing about a minute before piling back down the hill.

I then rode cleanly picking some good routes until a small mistake at number 6. I was looking for a smallish track and therefore turned back at the big track junction I really needed, assuming I had somehow overshot and playing safe. After backtracking for 200 metres or so I realised that it must have been the correct track and returned but I perhaps lost another minute.

Now not trusting some of the track ridabilities marked on the map, I then made what now turns out to be a great decision and double-backed for number 8 using a track I had already eye-balled, avoiding an unknown track which turned out to be a steep loose climb which lost even the fittest riders nearly a minute to me (see comments below).

The rest of the course passed in a blur of puffing and pain as I fought hard to keep up the pace on the long punishing course.

Other than the two mistakes and the route choice to number 1, I felt I had a great ride and was very pleased with the way my strength training is starting to pay off, my number of mistakes reducing as I relax a little and was pleased with 4th, a couple of minutes down.

The weekends racing was excellent, with the Brand Barkers putting on some very well planned courses on two classic MTBO areas, Whinlatter and Grizedale. 

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15 Replies to “Grizedale Forest MTBO”

  1. Mostly we took the same routes, will be interesting to see splits. What was your rationale for #8 route, the northerly track you took was sooooo much better than the southerly one from near the finish, but obviously you didn’t know this at the time.

  3. My rational for 8 was that I knew one of the paths up was bad riding from doing AR events there but was not sure which. The northern route had looked ok when passing it going to 7. I also though there was less climb that way. The road to the southern path is undulating then the path has a drop before the routes join.

  4. My rationale for the southern path on 8 was simply it is shorter, but that is definitely the bad path! In fairness to the mapping the recent rainfall had made it much looser.

    I think your #1 is better than mine and Stodge’s. I just didn’t look at it enough at the start and then very nearly changed my mind at the junction.

    Interesting route to 3, I didn’t even see that one. Splits will be interesting.

  5. I was very indulgent with my route and included as much singletrack and technical riding as possible.

    I also did the southern route up to number 8. A great technical challenge, I nearly cleaned it but had one dab!! However, I was good for nothing after that.

    Looking forward to trying more of these events next year.

  6. Ill put up a report soon, just up to eyeballs with work….

    I had just made a mistake on 6 because of the track definition, I was riding along looking for an icke track similar to the ones on the way to 3 not a fire road for 6. Hence after passing the northerly track on the way down to 7 and eyeballing it, decided it was less steep the the southerly one and looked OK. I had no idea what the southerly track would be like so went safe.
    Did anyone get lured down to the road for 3. I did look at it…

  8. Results now up, splits are very interesting, have emailed Tony to see if I can get the files to get a splitsbrowser up that will be easier to read.
    Looks like my route to #1 was very slow compared to the top. Splits show my mistakes on #2 and #6 plus my route to #8 being quick. Killian seemed to be rocket powered on the way to 12

  9. Very interesting, I thought I’d had quite a good ride but looks like I lost a hat full of time on 1 and 8. Looks like the lower route on 11 was faster as well.

  10. Shocking how much I lost on the long leg as at the time I thought I was hammering it for most of it. Looking closly at the data from my computer I see I spent 70 secs stationary at the control which was changeing the map which I should of tried to do on the bit of uphill on the main track. I also took my mudgaurd off as it was bust and banging on the wheel which lost some more time. Heading back up the hill I was far from quick over the rocky stuff taking 200seconds to get to the road. Down was undoubtedly a better option but maybe not for getting into 11. It would be interesting to go back and experiment.

  11. Hello. Interesting reading all your routes. I went on road to 3 and slow track to 8 (rode about 20% of it…). On long leg I think splits depend on how long it took to change map like Ifor said. I got in a right faff and couldn’t punch the mapboard cover through the map for ages. Killian said he’d changed the map over at number 8 or something and memorised his routes to 11. How?!

  12. Hey Stodge, not only is this a blog site, it’s also now a route choice forum…

    For Killian turning the map over he only had to remember where 2 controls were, the paths were all on the other map too! Not that I managed to turn it over before 11, I tried to have a look on one of the climbs by half unfolding it, totally unable to see the other end of the line so gave up. I thought better of trying to refit 2 pieces of A3 in a bag while riding, probably should’ve not taken a bag but have seen too many disasters without – ask AndyC about one of the Cannock Chase events – over the handlebars and mapboard directly into a puddle, ending up missing a control out.

  14. Didnt know about all this chat!!
    I was on a mission to number 12, knew I needed to make up some lost time. Map memory can be risky but I wanted to win and had nothing to loose after Saturday.

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