The junior foot-orienteers started it – beating Australia on their own turf. Now NZ’s mountain-bike-orienteers have firmly established themselves as Oz-beaters.
After a narrow victory in the Hunter Valley two years ago, riders from open men and women to 60+ men have retained the Australia / New Zealand MTBO Challenge by 13 classes to 8! The kiwi team won each of the three QB races near Mt Gambier, South Australia – Long, Middle and Sprint; with the latter a triumph of 5-2!
Rob Garden, guru of MTBO in Auckland, assembled 31 riders from both islands to train in Australian terrain and contest the Australian Championships, which doubled as the Challenge. The challenge team of 21 included world top-10 MTBOer Marquita Gelderman, world Adventure Racing Champion Stu Lynch, and a host of age-groupers with talent to burn. New Zealand has previously been very strong in the age groups, particularly in the W40 and 50, and the M40.
With a lot of NZ topography limiting speed and over-emphasising the physical component, MTB-orienteering experience has been built up by frequent trips to Australia’s denser track networks and faster terrain. Kiwis have made regular assaults on the Australian Champs. This year was no different and Rob’s Mob made a 12-day trip starting with a two-day low-key competition at Mosquito Flat (Maryborough, Vic) site of the 2004 World Relay Champs. The map could better be called “Spiderweb Flat”, there were so many tracks!
This was followed by training exercises in the Whipstick Regional Park at Bendigo, and three areas near Ballarat where the team based itself for a week. With the city’s Lake Wendouree bone dry, the kiwis were made very welcome, as the rain started on arrival and would continue on and off for the rest of the trip. The pundits joked that the conditions favoured the kiwis, and indeed dealing with the effects of mud on bikes IS a learned skill! Ballarat had a good cycle-oriented street map and this too was used when it was too wet to ride the trails. Then with a couple of days to go the circus packed itself into two trucks, two minibuses and a car and headed for Mt Gambier, just over the South Australian border.
First up was a sprint event at the small fishing village of Nelson, at the mouth of the Glenelg River. After some sandy tracks through the nearby bush, courses burst into a caravan park – with all open land allowed for riding! And finished through the riverbank reserve through a maze of tracks created by holidaymakers. Class wins (20-30min) in Womens Open, 40 and 50, Mens 40 and 50 had the Australians reeling. The score was 5-2 already!
The long distance race was in a flat Carter Holt Harvey pine forest called Caroline – winning times from 60min to 100 for the open classes. The network consisted of vehicle tracks from limestone-stabilised (firm but slick in the rain), to sandy and pine-needle-covered. Navigation was easy, route choice to minimise soft surfaces was not. An intriguing control was a wooden seat in a remote part of the forest – inhabited by a huge teddy bear! Australia upped its game a bit and narrowed the result to 4-3 by claiming back the Womens Open, but Marquita continued to dominate individually. The writing was on the wall!
Lastly a middle distance (60-40min) at Mount Richmond – some hills to grapple with. And also some real weather – rain and hail made conditions miserable. Australia made a desperate surge to take the M50. New Zealand retaliated by grabbing M60! And the trophy – an embroidered banner – returns to New Zealand!
Marquita Gelderman (Open) and Di Michels (W40) remained unbeaten over the three days. With two of the races counting as World Ranking Events Marquita achieves a ranking of 7th – no easy task with Europeans able to be ranked many times in a season. Other standout performances came from Stu Lynch – on the last day second only to world No.1 Adrian Jackson – who now joins his partner in England, former MTBO rep Fiona McBryde. And Rob Garden – eligible for M60 - who was a minute away from winning the M40 long! Pete Swanson (M40) and Viv Prince (W50) won two of their three races.
The MTBO team is largely self funded – and bike maintenance is like a hole in the ground for money. It appreciated a training grant from NZOF, and riding gear from Tineli Cyclewear. Results are on the Orienteering Australia website under the “Results” (not MTBO) tab.