British Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships

[kedge]

It has taken a long time to come to fruition but details of the British MTBO Championships weekend are now being finalised, with the Long course on Saturday 13th June in Wareham Forest organised by WIM/WSX and the Middle Distance course organised by SARUM on the Hamptworth Estate on Sunday June 14th.
http://www.wimborne-orienteers.org.uk/wim/Brit%20MTBO%20Champs/HamptworthMTBO2009.pdf

Entries will be taken up to the day of competition but the preferred method is via http://www.fabian4.co.uk/

[ifor]

I thought my desiding what to do that weekend had been finalised once the Enduralife people scraped the Polaris style event, just leaving the sumer Polaris in the peak district and now all of a suddend I have a choice again....

Ifor

[EddieH]

One has to beg the question of how serious a British Championships it is with less than 1 month's notice

[DJM]

I'm tempted to enter, but I have little idea of what I'm entering. For example, what are the characteristics of Long and Middle MTBO events? What might the winning times be for each course also?

Is there anywhere where the competition rules/guidelines can be found?

[awk]

One has to beg the question of how serious a British Championships it is with less than 1 month's notice

No less serious than putting on a British Champs at the start of a season when nobody has had a chance to prepare properly......

Given the shortage of people willing to put such an event on, I think it's more a case of congratulations to the organisers. Sadly, a bit too far south for us in the middle of exams, but hope it goes really well.

[kedge]

In replying to previous postings I should point out that I'm only the messenger boy in all this

I think it would also be true to say that when the events were first mooted, they were intended as events to coincide with the beginning of National Bike Week and that it was not our intention that these events were to be "The British Championships"

However - they are now!

I know that the Long Distance map of the Wareham Forest area is being redrawn to IOF MTBO specifications.

I can find no MTBO guidelines on the British Orienteering or Trailquest websites, but the IOF has recently published updated guidelines for MTBO events in which it states that the

The courses shall be set to give the following winning times in minutes:
women men
70 - 90 90 - 110 Long distance
40 - 50 50 - 60 Middle distance

http://www.orienteering.org/i3/index.php?/iof2006/content/download/2428/11128/file/IOF%20MTB%20Orienteering%20Competition%20Rules%202008.pdf
and I believe that these are the figures the planners are working on.

[DJM]

OK - looking at the IOF Rules I see that these are the times for WOC and JWOC. Is the intention to use scaled down winning times (as is the case for Foot-O) for other classes?

If not, how does (say) a W50 have a Long winning time of 70-90 minutes on the same course which an M60 expects to win in 90-110 minutes??

It would be good if the planners revealed a little more about their courses ...

[Gross]

MTBO seem to be very last minute anyway.... according to BOF website the teams announced for European Champs starting on June 22nd are required to confirm their availibility by............ June 22nd

[EddieH]

I don't wish to knock any initiative to do anything new, but a British Championships with less than 1 month's notice at a time of year when most contenders have probably already planned their weekends well beyond that time does not equate to a British Championships at an undesirable time of year with what should have been over a year's notice.

The former will mean that potential champions will not turn up because they cannot make it. The latter means that they may not turn up because they choose not to.

[kedge]

EddieH wrote

I don't wish to knock any initiative to do anything new, but a British Championships with less than 1 month's notice...

The fixtures appeared on p24 of the Spring edition of Focus, which came out in late March/early April,albeit with the races in the wrong order. Rather more than a month's notice.

Negotiations with landowners/forestry etc then hit a few problems which have taken a while to resolve, hence the delay in finalising the publicity.

[Jon Brooke]

I'm the planner of the Long on Saturday. When we started talking about doing this it was a middle race and not the British Champs.

Wareham Forest is essentially ancient heathland that has previously been covered in farmed conifers but is now being restored to heath. The biggest hills are only in the order of 30-40m climb, but there is a reasonable amount of contour detail, so there are some route choices based on long flat V short hilly. There are quite a lot of wide forest tracks, but also some singletrack (or "desire lines") as the FC like to call them, which I am trying to make the most of. There are hardly any dotted (potentially unrideable) tracks on the map. Because of bridleways to the N of the map there is a small free order section as part of the men's long course - i.e point to point for most of the race but with a block of 6 (or maybe will become 5) controls to be taken in any order. The women's and junior courses are regular point to point but there is also a novice score event.

The winning men's route will be at the 90 minutes end of the range, possibly even slightly below that as I'd rather keep the course technically interesting rather than add uninteresting distance.

[Jon Brooke]

Also, if anyone is tempted to travel down and make a holiday of it I/we can point you in the direction of some lovely riding nearby on the Isle of Purbeck. Let me know if you want details: jon 'at' speaksoftly 'dot' co 'dot' uk

[mharky]

Spent my whole summer riding around Purbeck. Some nice short & sharp climbs. Apparently Robert Millar lives round there too.

[stodge]

All the usual suspects will be coming, its a selection race for the worlds as well, perhaps with a couple of the scottish contingent missing ( mind you it was up north last year )
Considering that there are two governing bodies involved in the sport things are actually fairly well resolved and the dates have been in my diary for ages.

What we need is more competitors to give it a go.
How come when the JK or Scottish 6 day has an MTBO added to it we get a huge entry but other events only draw 40-70 competitors ?

MTBO gives you a very simliar mental experience to city or short racing - ie intensive concentration.

For those who want to see what its all about have a look at
http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/results ... 9MTBO.html