Link here to Series Points
The M'tuk tracks can be hard to ride in bad weather so Steve Meeres and Bryce Lorcet planned shortish courses for the series final. But the week was dry and the day was beaut and fast times were set. Particularly by Open Man Simon Kennett, who lost the series last year to Andrew McLellan. This time he won the day AND the series, smashing the planners' predictions by 30 minutes! McLellan was second and the other series contender John Randal was third.
The Open Women were the other way round - Jenny Visser won the day but Jo Holden did enough for the series. The two women were only 3min apart.
And the other closely-fought class, the Vet Men had a bizarre outcome. Graeme Silcock and Stephen Betts could both win. Silcock had a rare navigational lapse, then on a nice downhill in the native bush hooked a little finger into a passing sapling. It pulled the finger back enough to break a bone in his hand, though he was able to continue at a slower pace. Meanwhile Betts visited a needless control and got misplaced on an indistinct track within earshot of the finish.
Although Betts was faster than the injured Silcock, the latter had a 4-point lead going into the race. Betts needed to win or be within about 3 minutes to catch up, and he finished 10min behind David King. A pity - the single-speed rider has planned two courses this year. But Silcock has also been a regular course planner, and after riding each series since the very beginning thoroughly deserves his first win.
Hannah Betts put in the only Junior Womens ride this year, while Tom Bradshaw who had Junior Men sewn up was away at the Secondary School road nationals.
An area fairly constrained to an obvious circuit was given a new twist by "bonus controls" which were worth 5min each off the total time. Some were "out-and-backs" in the nice forest at the top of the first hill; some were on a two-way route choice and had to be factored into the relative times; and a group of three was only a payoff if taken as a whole.
Andrew Bott from Hawkes Bay was narrowly ahead of former NZ rep Craig Starnes - and this could see him in the NZ team for the Aust-NZ Challenge. Bryce Lorcet and Magnus Bengtsson were 6min further back, with the top pair in last years series Simon Kennett and Andrew McLellan another 5min adrift. A tricky junction in the recent logging below Cannon Point may have been their undoing - the end of the wide track was close to the single-track downhill leading to #21, but the single-track actually led off a bend further up. A number of riders carried through the gorse here, with Gavin Scott picking up the NZ Blood Donor Service "best legs" prize for his efforts.
Paul Chaplow got his head out of studying for the first time in a while to be the fastest vet, and apart from Graeme Silcock no-one was within a quarter of an hour! Jenny Visser dealt to Jo Holden by EXACTLY ten minutes.
Net Results below followed by John's comments; visit analysis here.
John's comments:
From most to least popular (Control number/number of visits/comments):
Course planner and John Randal. Steve joins Graeme Silcock in learning to drive OCAD the software we use to prepare the maps; so mapper Michael can compete without knowledge of the course. Control collection by Graeme Silcock. Access by kind permission Greater Wellington (the majority), Dave Gratton. Participants 30.
It was snowing when course planners Jo Holden and Chris Sherwood were putting out the MTBO controls this morning on Belmont Regional Park. They deleted three including Belmont Trig, and riders tackled tracks between Stratton St and Kilmister Track in bitter but improving conditions.
Simon Kennett scored 370 out of a possible 480. There were some good scores just behind: Andrew Bott visiting from Hawkes Bay 310 on his first MTBO; Graeme Silcock 300 in the Vets; and Bill Edwards an unofficial runner who equalled Simon's score albeit with a couple of minutes' lateness. Bill is an outstanding foot-orienteer and rogainer, but the soft condition of the tracks favoured feet over wheels.
Behind them the scores were very much more spread than usual. Some of that was due to lateness, with some big penalties. Controller Jo initially applied the rogaine rule "30min and you're out", but the points keeper begs to differ. There's no general 30min rule in MTBO and we've never advertised one for this series - so I've put those riders back in. Mind you Tom ends up with just 10 points, and Gavin with zero so perhaps it's academic:-)) Likewise Steve M gets some points but no doubt it will be one of the events he drops:-))
Full marks to everyone who braved the conditions and thanks to Greater Wellington for the cosy base.
Results
Max score 480, lateness penalty 5pts/min
Graeme Silcock's Route (possibly more relevant for mere mortals than Simon's winning one!) 5, 9, walk up to Old Coach Road, 17, 27,in and out to 11, 13, 20, 24, 19, 18, 12 (the green line was designed as a DOWNHILL Graeme...), 1, started heading for 2 but bypassed it due to lack of time, 15, 3 and home. In theory a crossover isn't a good idea since you're covering ground without profit, but the last part of a score event has the extra challenge of getting home with time to spare but not TOO much.
Course planner and Chris Sherwood. Help on the day from Derek ??, control collection by Greg Thurlow and Bill Brierley Access by kind permission Greater Wellington (the majority), Andrew Fisher, Belmont Pony Club. Participants 22.
Graeme Silcock planned a great event on St Pats when Red Kiwis had access difficulties to their forest. He has added many new tracks to a map that was a bit constrained before. Even though they aren't all ridable (at least not in the wet!) they join previously no-exit 4WD tracks, and they have put a new complexion onto the map.
The weather changed the complexion too, someone must have told huey that the MTBOers were in need of mudpack treatment! So there was a low turnout, though conditions were quite warm. Magnus Bengtsson rode outstandingly for the highest score of the day, considering he hasn't MTBO'd there before - while others may have been up to half a dozen times! Second-placed John Randal hasn't competed there before either.
Results
Max score 540, lateness penalty 5pts/min
Course planner Help on the day from Graeme Campbell and Dirk Naish. Access by kind permission of St Pats College (the major part), Upper Hutt City, Greater Wellington. Participants 25.
Magnus Bengtsson and Simon Kennett broke new ground with their courses today, to squeeze 18km out of the long, thin Mt Victoria/Mt Albert area. Starting south of Constable St to avoid one against-the-clock crossing of the busy thoroughfare, they put some excellent route choices in front of riders between the Zoo and Mt Albert. The course looped back to a control at a pedestrian crossing on Constable St, which was otherwise declared out of bounds. Then a northern loop criss-crossed the spine of Mt Vic like the legs of a jack-in-the-box.
But wait, there's more. Course 1 riders picked up a fresh map near the finish, and copied some more controls for a second, different northern loop. The whole thing was done with only 23 controls. The other difference they made was to declare "off-track" allowable, to cope with the large number of informal tracks which pepper the slopes. They could never be satisfactorily mapped, and there's no good reason for preventing their use, so if you felt like an unmapped route you could use it.
The one unfortunate aspect of the day boiled down to ball-point pens. Circles joined and numbered with red ball-point were quite hard to read (even at a standstill) and a number of riders went to the wrong control at some stage. Some realised and went back to pick up the correct order, and others (to their credit) admitted an out-of-order ride. There are highlighters in the kit, but with the start over the road they didn't get taken to where they were needed.
For the record, if you stuff up the order, you should go back to the first unvisited control and resume the course from there. An out-of-order ride cannot be considered official in a fixed-order event. If you've put punches in the wrong box on the card, use the last few boxes (sometimes labelled "R" for reserve) to punch in so you can get back to punching in the right box. Explain to the people at the end.
John Randal and Lara Shepherd made the most of the tricky courses and fine weather to win the open classes. Matt Farrar rode nearly 20min faster than any other vet man, Dave King being the best of the rest. And Tom Bradshaw had some junior competition for a change, but still rode outstandingly for 3rd fastest time on C2. The younger and older women seem to have deserted us.
Peter Snell and his wife put in a surprise visit at pack-up time. But although they are both orienteers they weren't looking for a ride. Peter is here for a month doing some research in his field of fitness and health at Massey University.
Results
Course planners and Simon Kennett. Help on the day from Lisa Walker and Michael Wood. Control collection by Graeme Silcock. Access by kind permission of Wellington City Council. Participants 44.
The courses all started with a sortie over the hill and back through the tunnel, one-way as usual. Early plans to use the privately-owned logged area were abandoned (along with a number of inner tubes after the track checkers returned home:-)) However there's still some nice riding through there, and a wide track with a narrow "mouth" was missed by a few.
Then north along Station Drive, with a diversion into the slopes above the lower picnic area for C1 only. C1 and C2 had the same loop over SH2 - or should I say under - but this was controversial. SH2 was marked out of bounds in the map legend by a red filling but not the usual purple crosses, and attention wasn't drawn to this anywhere else. This created a shortcut onto the start of the incline walk, and the planner taking advice from a couple of wise heads imposed a 10min penalty rather than disqualify. This would have been about twice the time saving.
C1 and C2 both had a similar route choice next, climbing from the incline to the high-level forest road. Straight was steep and especially for C2 difficult to ride; and there was a right and left-hand choice on good roads. Down the "Goat Track" - still great fun in spite of closing in vegetation - through the lower picnic area on a green line and home.
Andrew McLellan (who won the last event here) won C1 again after Craig Starnes copped a 10min penalty, with four others also under the expected two hours. Marco Renalli was 7min clear of Dave King on C2 in spite of losing the green line in the climb from the incline. Jo Holden posted her best result so far to win the womens category by a quarter of an hour from Lara Shepherd. The usual shortage of juniors - but Tom Bradshaw showed true grit by running course 3 with his arm in a sling - he has damaged some shoulder ligaments in a fall from his bike.
There were some technical changes to the map: click here if you are interested. Feedback from experienced riders is sought.
Results
Course planner Track checking by Jenny Visser, Jenny Cossey, Mike Fee, Martin Gribble, and Jim Sutherland. Help on the day from Nic Gorman, Hannah Betts and Thea Betts. Track clearing and control collection by Graeme Silcock. Access by kind permission of Greater Wellington, Gliding Hutt Valley, Mary Shepherd and John Gabites. Participants 46.
Brilliant weather in other parts of Wellington today was replaced by mist on the top of Makara Peak, and a bit of a breeze buffeted riders on exposed tracks such as Ridgeline. However it was great in the bush and afterwards on the grass as the scores were totted up. Stephen Betts judged things nicely with slightly too many controls for MP Supporters president John Randal to visit - he scored 470 out of a possible 540.
Simon Kennett was only 10 points behind, with two top vets deciding to contest the open class 20 points further back - Craig Starnes and Ant Bradshaw. The top vet Matt Farrar posted the next top score of 430, ahead of a big field even by usual vet standards. Lara Shepherd was the top woman (360) and after a great X-C season no-one will be surprised to see Tom Bradshaw lead the juniors with 350.
After the good spell of dry weather the tracks were in great condition. And the newly-constructed Possum Bait and Lazy Fern were ridden wwith appreciation. T3 hasn't been put on the map yet but by all accounts it is for experts only. And those with sharp eyes may have noticed some discrepancies in Karori Park - the map has been updated from the plans, and reality hasn't caught up yet.
John Randal's route: Karori Park 1 10 19 Zac's and Varley's Track to peak 20 12 2 13 23 Ridgeline back out onto 4WD 3 22 7 wish now had done low-down ones 6 14 4 5 26 back to Missing Link time now 1hr 24 25 Leaping Lizard 17 27 18 road back to carpark time now 90min 9 8 6 again (worried about Steve's verbal one-way rules) 16 home. So only missing ones 15 Lazy Fern and 11 21 on the D/H tracks.
Mapper's comment: verbal one-way rules are confusing - and there should have been purple arrows on Trickle Falls and Vertigo. Only then is it clear which PARTS of the tracks are actually one-way, ie was it OK to go in/out to 11 from below? The intended interpretation of "one-way" is the part adjacent to the arrow.
Results (no checking yet)
Course planner With help on the day from Hannah Betts and Michael Wood. Control pickup by Ant and Tom Bradshaw, Craig Starnes, and maybe some I've forgotten. Access by kind permission of Wellington City Council, tracks and plantings by kind construction of Makara Peak Supporters. Participants 46.