OHV Mountain Bike Orienteering Series Winter 2010

This year I did two of the four MTBO events in the OHV MTBO series, the first and the last. Mountain Bike Orienteering is a great cross of the two sports, orienteering and mountain biking. Riders are given maps and have to find certain controls, by selecting their route well. It is riding with a purpose. In a normal MTBO event you have about 10 control points marked on a map. You have to visit them in order, using the track info to find the best route. Competitors start at intervals, and the fastest to do the course is the winner. Control points are easy to find, they are all on or beside tracks, it's all about finding the best route. The map shows how good the riding is on all the trails, and how steep the country is. Courses are usually designed to be won in about an hour.

The first one (13 June) was held at Makara Peak on a rather gloomy and miserable day, so it wasn’t a surprise that not too many people turned up. The course that I did was quite short and simple, a good choice for a day like that. Although everyone there got muddy and cold, fun was had by all and it was a very well run event.

The second one that I did (11 September), and the last in the series was held at Wainui, a particularly good place to have it, as round two of the PNP series was to be held there the week after so it was good to ride around the area and get a feel for the tracks. This time the sun was shining brightly and lots of people had come to give it a go. I found the course really good, although I did get slightly off course whilst finding the penultimate control, just as I was thinking I was very lost indeed, I somehow managed to stumble across it. I definitely enjoyed this event and it was nice to have such good weather and so many people.

The sport in Wellington relies heavily on Michael Wood of OHV and his small but committed team who put in a huge amount of time and effort to ensure these events are as enjoyable as possible. I definitely recommend people give MTBO a try, it’s awesome fun.

Series winners 2010:
(http://www.mapsport.co.nz/hvoc/mtbopoints10.html)
Junior Men: Jonathan Barnes
Junior Women: Hannah Barnes
Open Men: Simon Kennett
Open Women: Rachel Ockelford
Vet Men:Chris Sherwood
Vet Women: Jo Holden
Super Vet Men: Graeme Silcock

Details of the whole series at -
http://www.mapsport.co.nz/hvoc/mtboresult10.html

Where can you try it?
The next event in Wellington is a pre-Christmas combined MTB-foot rogaine on 12 December (http://www.maptalk.co.nz/events/event.cfm?e=2884). In late January will be the 4/8 hour Ak-attack, somewhere in the Akatarawas (the starting location is only revealed a week or so before the event).

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PNP Mountain Bike Series: Round Two - Wainui

Despite the predicted ‘weather bomb’ the weather for this race was definitely better than for Makara. The blue skies on the way over Wainui hill were a nice change to the usual overcast and windy conditions we Wellingtonians are used to. Much to my pleasure, Caitlin Pilcher had decided to race so I was not alone in my grade.

This year we D graders didn’t have to go up the huge climb up Konini Firebreak 4WD track to begin with, instead we went up Jungle Scout, Jungle Gym and down Snail Trail twice then back home. The first time up Jungles was pretty congested. After a hectic scamper to get onto the single track first it settled down into a steady train of riders, until someone fell off on a switchback or someone’s chain came off. By the time we got to the top it as a bit more spread out and I could see Caitlin, my arch rival for the day, ahead of me. Going down Snail Trail was awesome. It was so easy to get into the rhythm of the track...until all the Under-17’s came charging by in hot pursuit of one another.


At the bottom of Snail Trail we had a fast little bit on the flat then back up Jungles to do the loop again. It was going up Jungle Scout that I finally managed to overtake Caitlin, and I was then going as fast as I could not know whether she would catch me or how far behind me she was. I managed to get to the finish in a time of 47 minutes, only two minutes ahead of Caitlin.

As the D course was so short we had a while to wait for the prize giving. Once the race was over Caitlin and I were friends again and it was nice to have some female company at a bike race again. I made sure I waited for the spot prizes again as last time my name was called out first but I wasn’t there, so this time I was definitely staying. My name wasn’t called out first again, but it did near the end when there were only lolly bottles left, so I still got something.
















Next race is in three weeks time at Mt Vic, a park famous for getting lost, getting muddy and having fun. I’m looking forward to it and to racing Caitlin again.

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Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs - 12 Sep 2010

The Wellington Champs were held in Trentham and consisted of three events: the hill climb, time trail and the criterium. For each event riders get points and then the overall champion is worked out by adding up riders points. We arrived at the YMCA where registration was and I was very pleased to find that there were four girls racing in Under 17 with me this year.

Soon enough it was time to start the hill climb up Wallaceville Hill. Although not too steep or too long, when you’re really pushing it this hill definitely hurts. I got to the top and my legs where on fire, if it had been a few metres further I’m pretty sure my legs would have exploded in flames. I later found out that the two Palmy girls had both beaten me by two mins, but I had gone as hard as I could, so I was still pleased with my effort.

The time trail course was a 10km there-and-back over the other side of the hill. On the way to the turn around I was looking forward to coming the other way as I thought I would get a tail wind, but when I finally did get to the turn around realised that no, that actually I had a headwind coming back.

There was a good wait between the TT and the final event, the criterium, so we could go back to the YMCA and have lunch and relax a little before our next race, which was last on the agenda. By this time I was really starting to feel the first two events and my legs felt vaguely like lead. This showed during the 10 lap race where I was dropped early on and only just got lapped in the last straight.

It was a good hard day of racing and I’m glad I went, but I was definitely very tired the next day! Although the two Palmy girls were 1st and 2nd overall, they are from outside the Wellington Centre, so I did manage to take the title of Wellington U17 Girls Champion. Lots of kudos to Gary Gibson and Marty Grenfell for organising a great day that ran very smoothly with over 80 competitors.

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