On Sept 8 and 9 a band of enthusiastic mountain bike orienteers descended on Clarencetown, in the Hunter Valley, for last two rounds of the NSW MTBO Super Series. The weekend was hosted by Newcastle Orienteering Club and consisted of a Middle Distance event in Uffington State Forest on Saturday and a Long Distance event in Wallaroo State Forest on Sunday morning.
This event was the first time we used the newly purchased SI equipment. Thus behind the scenes there was much discussion of logistics and processes. Unfortunately, teething issues on Saturday meant that splits were lost for publishing and the organisers offer apologies to the competitors for this.
Out in the forests and the riding was good since the areas had dried up considerably over the last month although on Sunday there was still some water on the tracks (which was mapped!) that had to be taken into consideration. Steven Todkill and Hilary Ellis took out the Mens and Womens Course 1 respectively, on both days. David Ellis took out the “Epic Fail” award by injuring himself Saturday morning while surfing and then melting his wheel on the journey up to the events by having his bike too close the exhaust pipe! He did however assist the organisers throughout both events. Well done Dave!
The course setters,Malcolm Roberts and Andrew Power would like to thank all of those members from the Newcastle club who helped make the events a success, in particular Denis Lyons on Saturday and Caroline Taurany on Sunday.