On Sunday at the Mountain Bike Orienteering (MTBO) event at Van Gaalens – presented by Adventure Racing Club – there were well over 50 people out riding. Of these, there were about 15 absolute-complete novices. This is the best turn out at an MTBO for a number of years, which we hope is an encouraging sign for future growth. Unfortunately the date clashed with the Kinetic Adventure sprint; next year there won’t be clashes with adventure racing events, so we hope the numbers pick up.
It was a cooking hot morning out – certainly in the lower to mid-30s.
The terrain in this area is Highveld grassland with some cultivated areas, riverine forests and thick, reed tunnels. Brian Gardner mapped the area (orienteering map standards) at a 1:20,000 scale and this is the first time that this map has been used. Brian created three courses – short, medium and long – building in many route choice options on the long course, which made things interesting.
After the event participants commented on Brian’s excellent map and course planning. The restaurant and bar at the venue were appreciated by the tired bikers.
The Long course (approx 28km) was won by Alex Pope in a time of 1h31. Nicholas Mulder came second (1h35) and Nick Cooper (1:51) in third. Only three women took on the long course. Sarah Pope took the honours in 2h33. These front-runners are all experienced orienteers. A number of long-course participants were disqualified for missing controls or punching the wrong control.
William Cairns won the medium course (approx 18km, 1h25) with a comfortable 13-minute lead over Dale de Klerk (1h38), while Stephanie Hurry won the medium course (1h51) in the women’s category.
Seven-year old Cameron Morrison won the 10km short course in 1h05 – an overall win too!
These events are not possible with assistance from volunteer helpers. Thanks to William Cairns and his family for their help with registration and control collecting; Kevin Reeves for helping with starts; and to Garry Morrison, Cobus and Cindy van Zyl for setting up, controling, control collecting and running the finish. Full results can be downloaded online.
That’s it from MTBO events for this year. Results for this event have been posted on the MTBO page. Keep an eye on this page too for information on events in 2014.