Chase Challenge

[ratleikur]

Has Ali Powell got a double, or is he just a quick mover ?

BTW ratleikur, Miffy says shorts were possibly not a good idea:

Gone down a lot, but still itchy...

Ran in shorts at the Meroc long-o - the chase would have been mild in comparison! I cope with pain better than heat....

[HOCOLITE]

Great Photos. Was Gareth going to take the lady presenting the prizes for a dance

[Stodgetta]

Err, no. She's married, they were her kids and she'd make mincemeat out of him. You don't mess with K

[Miffy]

Just arrived back at work after pre-planned morning off to recover! Had to pop to chemist to buy anti-itch cream for the legs - if anyone complains that I now smell like a chemist I'll forward them the photo of my legs!

Great fun weekend even if I'm rubbish at bike riding and can't run very far - it's the challenge that counts. I challenged myself to the 2 shortest options and finished both days!

[Klebe]

You don't mess with K

She deals in pain - scary !!
Sorted me out though.

[Stodgetta]

Just had a thought. Next year (?!) instead of advertising sponsorhip from Mammoth Lifestyle, we could advertise sponsorhip from "Karan - S & M masseuse" and see if that bumps up the entry numbers

There may be a few more in the hunt for the elusive voucher

To be fair to K, she did do the MTBO course before presenting the prizes, and the family are club members. Gary put in an appearance on his bike on day 2, too, but wouldn't rise to the challenge of the Long-O. Next year....

[stodge]

Just a posting to point anyone who has heard any bad feeling about WCH from the other TCA Midlands Clubs after the Chase Challenge weekend to a reply from Chasers on the TCA forum to clear things up.

[Mrs H.]

Ha ha ha, did they really tear up your entry and send it back

(Now if only we had thought of that at the CompassSport Cup round after the broadside in your mag about the clash of our league event and your club champs - we might have got through to the final )

you'll have to watch it Stodge - Chasers will be getting a reputation

[Adventure Racer]

I've read the bit on the TCA forum http://www.trailquest.co.uk/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?389, but thought I'd comment here rather than there (since I'm a BOF member, but not a TCA member, to the surprise of some at the British MTBO). I've no knowledge of the politics surrounding Midlands MTBO / TCA, but it does seem a shame that people can get so nasty in such a small sport. Is there also something against MTBO from those in the TCA hierarchy? Personally I much prefer that on proper maps to boring old trailquests.

My point though is that I, and I'm sure some others would have loved to do the Chase Challenge, but personally I had team commitments at the ACE race. I appreciate there are a limited number of weekends available, but you seem to have managed to clash with several different events, all of which took away potential competitors. Please don't schedule it against a popular adventure race next year!

[Stodgetta]

Adventure racer, you are right - events like the Ace Race, Mountain mayhem etc did take away some of our potential entrants, but it's a case of looking at the calender to see which weekend suits best amongst club, personal and national commitments.
Also, whilst we would have loved to have you and other big AR stars at the event, the idea behind it was to attract local non-orienteers to have a go.
The event was widely advertised amongst trailquesters, mountain bikers in general, local running clubs and local tri clubs. I think the club feel that the Atherstone event took away more of our primary target participants and are stung by the criticism aimed at us.
We felt that by putting on events like the Chase Challenge we could compliment the events that were already happening on the Chase with some "cross fertilisation" (several of the comitted orienteers who have never done bike O finished on Saturday asking about the next mtb event they could go to), but it appears to have been taken personally by a small number of people who have the ability to make a large noise.
Given Stodges foot injury, mtbo and trailquests are the main form of competitive navigation he can take part in, and to have him singled out and banned from local events because he happened to be coordinator of last weekend just seems to be a little OTT.
TCA/Midland politics is a nightmare!

[stodge]

Dont worry it will be scheduled at our next events and mapping meeting in 3 weeks time so we will have more weekends to choose from. Trouble is you are always going to clash with something in May,June and early July as these months are chocker with events....
Saunders, Challenger World, RAT races, Loweapline, Ace Races, Trailquests, etc etc etc

[Adventure Racer]

Sorry - I think my post comes across as more critical than intended. I totally appreciate how crowded the calendar is (LAMM & Rat the weekend before, SLMM, Polaris, and most importantly MADO the weekend after). Just wish it had been on an otherwise free weekend for me! Trouble is, even if you get your date in first, I imagine many of the other events I will otherwise be committed to probably won't pay attention to your dates when sorting out the calendar - there is plenty of congestion there as it is (and I would have dumped all else for a place in a team at PQ in Utah if that had come off!)

[HOCOLITE]

Crumbs Stodge they don't seem to like you, are they afraid that their members might take up Orienteering or something You seem to have tried very hard to sort things through. Not being a biker was the Eastnor event one of those mentioned.I have done mountain bike orienteering at a couple of events but what are the trailquest events and other type you referred to?

[stodge]

Trailquests - 2 to 5 hr Score events on bike, mixture of Roads, Lanes, Bridleways and the odd forest road using OS map 1:50,000 extracts - covering huge distances - 30 to 80km in the time available. winner is the person with the highest score.

MTBO or MBO - shorter score events using 1:15000ish maps or fixed order orienteering very similar to foot O.

The event at Eastnor was Mountain Mayhem - its a huge Mountain Bike Team 24hr Enduro event, just straight head to head racing on a fixed course.
http://www.nopesport.com/td/mapdisplay.php?map=4828b3075f7b85b65476a9aa52edfaef.jpg for last years event that I did.

[alcumbria]

The event was excellent dont let any detractors put you off organising another one.
The way I look at it is I got three events in one
MTBO,trailquest and a Long foot O
All were good in there own rights
Regarding clashes with other events, you will always have them in summer, but for my own personal calender it fitted in well.