MTB Oh!

What?

2010 WOA MTB Orienteering Series, event 1, Makara Peak

NZ MTBO Stuff : Results

WTF?

As a self-confessed weather geek I pride myself in the ability to look out a window and detect if the sun is shining. When applying the standard tests this morning the rain was so gnar that I couldn't even see the neighbours house, certainly not across the harbour as far as usual to Petone. I decided to commit and donned my spiffy new BLR top, bottom and gimp cap. As my first ever mtb orienteering event I struggled to take in the race briefing, study the map, and sand-bag at the same time. We had to ride a fixed-order course clipping compulsory controls*, but with options to ride extra distance to get other controls that gave time bonuses. The rain continued.

* A 'control' is orienteering geek-tech for a bright orange and white thing with a bus conductors clipper attached. Waterproof.

Through some perverse seeding involving Karapoti PBs and an impromptu and vicious sand-bag-off I was entered in the open category starting at 20 second gaps behind Fastest Man then the wily Simon K. Immediately behind me was Sifter, a season campaigner and experienced map-whore. The early start gave me less time to study the map so at kick off I only had the first 3 controls sorted and figured I'd make the rest up on the bike. The rain continued.

Like me, FM is also an orienteering novice and his plan was to ride really fast around the mandatory controls staying out there for the shortest possible time. I didn't see him at all during the race. After some fluffing around getting to the first control I was caught by Sifter. I clipped my ticket and put the hammer down easily dropping him - actually he went a different way on a much more clever route. At the second and third controls I bumped into Simon. Then we split as I made my oh-so-cunning next wrong decision. My mighty single speed powered through the rain and muck across Missing Link and down the very slippery and super fun Nikau Valley track. This was my only real deviation to get an extra time bonus of 20 minutes. That extra loop took me only 18 minutes so I was chuffed. The rain continued.

Back at the summit I had a bit of trouble finding control 4. It was cunningly placed "nearly" as marked on the map, this caught out a few punters (and Sifters). From here my cunning plan was to get home quickly and get out of the rain. So I blasted down from the summit to the top of Vertigo then back up Zacs collecting a simple 7 minute time bonus for a 20 second deviation. Back over the top and down to the eastern corner of the park to get the last two compulsory controls my rear brake pads had completely gone, no worries nearly home. The rain continued.

When I arrived at the finish I had ridden for about 1.5 hours and with time bonuses I had a 6 minute lead over the next person, FM. He had ridden right past the 7 minute bonus on Zacs... Only Simon was still out there so I got warm and dry and returned to see him arrive about half an hour after me but with a bunch more time bonuses. On count back he had pipped me by just 30 seconds. Crap. The rain continued.

A fun day out doing skids in the puddles. Driving home the rain stopped, grrr.