47 Entries Results |Routegadget
(A new all time BOSS record female attendance of 16)
Location: The assembly area is at Kevin Evans Oval, Appletree Road, Holmesville (where we normally start mountain bike events, at the soccer oval).
Map: The Barnsley 1:10000 map, with a little bit of Fairley Dams map tacked on to the NW corner.
Course setter: Peter Newton (first time setting an MTBO event, so some offers to collect a few controls would be greatly appreciated).
Start time: 8am - 9am
Event type: 75 min total time, with a 5.5 km Line course immediately followed by a Score course.
Setters Notes:
The Line course aims to relive some sections of the intricate tracks used so well for NSW MTBO Champs in March this year. The Line course is bounded by the gravel Killingworth Road to the west. So if you find yourself going to cross the road you are going the wrong way!
It is a small map so the Score course includes an optional part of the Fairley Dams map, so you will need to cross the gravel road to get to that. The crossing is at the double bend in the road, so the cars will be going slower but visibility is limited, so carefully look both ways. Slowly riding across the road actually provides less exposure time than trying to push your bike across.
On the section of Score course most people will ride, control values reflect the difficulty getting to the control, so expect a bit higher standard of navigational requirement and some slower paths to get to the 3 pointers. To make the paths 1 way would lower the route choice options, so be wary of riders approaching on a narrow path and SLOW DOWN rather than expecting everyone else to get out of your way as you hoon around the course.
Compass: it is suggested competitors tape a compass to their map board for this event. If the sky goes overcast, then without reference to the morning sun it can be difficult to orient the map North. There are sections of the map that can become just a maze of tracks if you can't find North. Hence valuable time can be wasted trying to figure out where the heck you are.
Ancillary tracks: some of the paths used for previous events are getting overgrown. Some wood cutting activity has flattened the grass to look like a 'track', plus new paths are being raked through the bush. For this event paths and tracks are those which have a bare earth component, so you can clearly see the dirt. When selecting control sites, the setter followed the paths that were inherently most likely to be ridden because they 'looked right'. If a path was difficult to see/find at control site taping pace, then competitors were not expected to be able to find it at race pace. So if you find yourself wanting to venture down some 'parting of the leaves' then chances are you won't find a control flag along the way. I was going to say 'goat track' but such a track would nicely fit the definition of what you need to ride along :-)
Note: to minimise potential interference from the multitude of trail bike riders that inhabit the area, all controls are out of sight on smaller paths just off major tracks. So once you dip, either U turn or ride on, no going cross country to the major track nearby!