Link here to Series Points
In an exciting series finale Simon Kennett beat his riding mate John Randal in the race and the series at the Wainui MTB Park today. Liam Drew who also had a series chance was actually 3min ahead, but on points that left him sandwiched between Kennett and Randal. And in an outstanding ride on the tight 13km course Tom Bradshaw, who has been sidelined all year by injury, was 2min quicker again. The series might have been even more interesting with Bradshaw on deck!
Planner Graeme Silcock, who already had the Supervet class sewn up, planned an 8km Course 2 and a 5km Course 3 making the most of the available tracks, and playing off the Hill Road verge against tracks Jungle Jim and Beeline. Then he cleverly defined Course 1 as both of these end-to-end, with riders changing maps partway through.
In the other classes, Jenny Visser and Mike Fee won the Vet classes but Jo Holden and Chris Sherwood had the numbers over the series; Rachel Ockelford posted her fourth straight win in Womens Open; Gabriel Robbins beat Jonathan Barnes in the schoolboys but Jonathan, and sister Hannah, won the juniors over the series.
The MTBO calendar now moves to some longer events including a partly dark MTB rogaine at Rotorua, a local bike-optional rogaine in December, and a new-look Akatarawa Attack on 30 Jan. Brownie events will re-start in the autumn. The Yanks would say "in the fall", but that's just inviting trouble:-))
Results
Course planner . With help on the day from Ian McCabe, Dirk Naish and Michael Wood. Access by kind permission of Hutt City Council, and the support of the Wainuiomata Trail Project. Participants 45.
Only the hard men and women appeared at Belmont Regional Park for round 3 of the MTBO series. The variable winter weather varied against us and produced a cold wet day. It was quite nice down in the Korokoro Valley (especially inside the "woolshed"), but the tracks were fairly slippery and after putting out the controls on the tops planners Ket Bradshaw and Michael Wood shortened the courses.
But as always those who came enjoyed the blast among the bunkers and the occasional spill on the steep slopes coming down from the Old Coach Road. This is a favourite area for track-builders and the multitude of tracks were picked out by a full-page enlargement at 3X scale, which also covered a brownie-type course up and down the valley. Plenty of spare copies:-))
Those who came included Tom Clarkson in his first MTBO since a heart-valve replacement; adventure racer Rachel Ockelford, who rode home for extra training; and orienteer/rogainer Bill Edwards who did the unshortened course on foot, AND THEN ran over Belmont Trig to Takapu Road for some extra distance training!!
Liam Drew won C1 even after a 3min penalty imposed for riding against a one-way arrow; but any one of he, Simon Kennett and John Randal could take the series. Ant Bradshaw could almost do it too since his points today apply to round round which he planned. On C2 Super-Vet Graeme Silcock was 1min ahead of Marco Renalli the top Male Vet; similarly Jenny Visser just beat Jo Holden in Womens Vet; while Rachel Ockelford was the only open woman. Silcock and Ockelford have the series sewn up but the Vet classes are still open with the absent Jim Sutherland having a narrow lead over Chris Sherwood, and Ket Bradshaw a bigger buffer against Holden.
Graeme Silcock is planning the final round of the series at Wainui MTB Park.
Results
Course planner and Michael Wood. With help on the day from Ant Bradshaw and Rob Miller. Access by kind permission of Greater Wellington Regional Council (and especially the cosy woolshed base.) Participants 15.
Makara Peak we neglected for two years but its been four years since we rode in the south block of Waitarere Forest. Its only 4X2km and that includes the village, but its amazing how much distance you can get with a fixed order event. David King had us zig-zagging from east to west as we travelled down to the bottom of the map and back to the base in the domain.
He also did a lot of track clearing to provide a variety of riding conditions from hard gravel to old overgrown forest tracks, and the single track in the macrocarpa windbreak band which runs the length of the forest with periodic links to the beach. One of which is right on the former wreck of the "Hydrabad", currently almost invisible. Background here and pictures here.
John Randal turned the tables on his old mate Simon Kennett in open men, while Rachel Ockelford made it two wins in a row; likewise Graeme Silcock in the super-vets. While experienced foot-orienteers Gillian Ingham and John Robertson won the vets classes, they didn't ride at round 1 and Ket Bradshaw and Jim Sutherland lead those classes. Tim Robertson also combines orienteering and biking experience and led a pleasing boys field, and there was a big crowd of family groups from Manawatu. And good to see a couple of Sinclairs from New Plymouth; they attended a big proportion of Wellington MTBO events in the early days and Jacqui was the first open womens winner in 2000.
Ket Bradshaw is planning the next round of the series in Belmont Regional Park.
Results
Course planner With help on the day from Brenda, Michael Wood, Rachel Ockelford and Liam Drew. Access by kind permission of Matariki/Rayonier Forests, and the Horowhenua District Council for the domain. Participants 45.
We haven't had MTBO at Makara Peak for two years, and then it was such a bad day that only 12 turned up. Meantime work on the park continues, with new tracks appearing as well as maintenance, planting and predator control.
Such is its popularity that many people know it intimately. But Ant Bradshaw saw to that with a bonus system - optional controls which gave you a variable time reduction. It also enabled slower riders and bad weather to vary the actual length ridden. The weather was quite wet though it wasn't as cold as the previous weekend.
Course 1 had 8 controls to get in order, with C2 some of these and C3 fewer again. That was the top row of the card (with some boxes crossed out). Then you could get any of the second row nos 10-18, and on the map the number in brackets was a bonus time subtracted from your riding time. The bonuses varied from 2-20 minutes.
Another innovation was the 20-second start intervals, fastest first based on Karapoti time! Ed Crossling led the way, followed by Simon Kennett and Jonny Waghorn. Crossling was first back too, but with only 12 minutes of bonuses it was not clear whether that was a winning time. A quarter of an hour later Waghorn scored 6min lower. But it took another half an hour to see Kennett. And with 7 out of the 9 controls he had done just enough, winning by 27 seconds!
Course 2 was close as well, Dave Rudge (VM) a minute below Graeme Silcock (SV) with Rachel Ockelford (OW) 2min just behind. Ockelford's gap over the Kate Clark in 2nd was just 33sec. Jo Holden was the fastest VW . Not surprisingly they took fewer bonuses, what pays off for an OM rider is going to be less attractive for those who can't pedal as fast. Course 3 was ridden by two of the intrepid Barnes family, and Marco Renalli ran C2 in a respectable time. There were 25 altogether.
David King is planning the next round of the series on the flatter terrain of Waitarere Forest.
Results
Course planner With help on the day from Tom Bradshaw, Michael Wood, Ket Bradshaw, Rob and Harriet Miller. Access by kind permission of Wellington City Council. Participants 25.