Course Controller Andy Clayton from Hanmer Springs has completed his inspection of the courses for the NZ MTBO Champs at the end of the month.
The role of the controller of a large event is to ensure the fairness of the competition by checking the map particularly the way that alternative route choices are shown. Just before the event he will check that all the maps are correctly printed and the controls are in the correct position, and during the event he is responsible for safety. All jobs that can be compromised if done by the planner as is usual for smaller events; we have been fortunate that few errors have crept through so far!
Course planner Michael Wood also test-rode course 2 at the weekend to check the estimates of course length. He reports having a ball, in spite of some track clearing work still to be done. The forest is drying out well after the wet couple of months, and this is particularly important for riding speeds on the middle category of tracks - the ones shown with the long dashed lines.
As a result, preliminary course lengths have been tuned slightly, with Course 1 likely to be 27-28km. Course 2 will be a bit over 20km, and course 3 about 14. The climb will be about 2.5% of the distance except for course 3 which is less. And Michael and Andy are sure that they have enough controls for the score event so that no-one will be able to get them all within the 90-minute time allowed!
Ordinary entries for the event close on Monday 10 Sep; late entries are possible subject to map supplies.
This page was written by
Michael Wood,
and was installed on 9 Sep 01.
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