Stuart Lynch won the middle distance NZ MTBO Championship on Saturday ahead of Phil Wood, but today in the long distance the order was reversed, Wood retaining the trophy he won in 2002. Craig Starnes was third both days.
However the standout rider of the weekend was Dianne Michels, who beat all other women in both events. Plus - Michels is elegible to ride in the veterans class! Runners-up (make that riders-up) were Debbie Chambers and Christina Renhart. The title-holder from 2002 Kelly Fogden punched a wrong control on Saturday, and although her route took her past the correct control she had to be disqualified. The 20-year-old student was sixth in today's race.
The championship, NZ's fourth, took place in Waiuku Forest on the north side of the Waikato rivermouth. Recent rain made the forest roads soft and sluggish to ride on, but the moisture improved the sandy tracks, and almost all of network was ridable - a sharp contrast to the Wellington Champs a fortnight ago.
Route choice is a vital element of the bicycle map-sport and Saturday's course had competitors feeling a little unchallenged. But this was the lull before the storm, with most classes today given a huge leg from one side of the map to the other. A sand-mine feeding the Glenbrook Steel Mill blocked any direct route, and the options boiled down to a zig-zag route near the coast on the soft gravel roads, or a route through farmland that was largely tarsealed but much longer. Both options were chosen and riders were prepared to defend their decisions afterwards; but data from the electronic timing system showed that the coastal route was faster, perhaps aided by a strong wind off the sea which helped with the main hill-climb. Michels and Starnes took this route, while both Wood and Lynch found the wind against them when they tackled the climb on the tarseal route.
The events were trials for a New Zealand team to contest the World MTB-orienteering championship in October in Victoria. A team of up to six men and six women is to be chosen, a major advance on the lone man who rode in the last championship in France.
Results have been loaded. Split times are available from Winsplits Online for Saturday and Sunday