Northern Ireland MTB Orienteering Championships '09 – Paul’s Report

The Craigavon City Park was the venue for this year’s NI MTBO Championships. The event was originally arrange to take place at Castlewellan Forest back in August, but problems agreeing access with the Forestry Service meant it had to be postponed until now and at a new location. The City Park is based at Craigavon Lakes and contains an excellent network of paths and tracks as well as a 10km MTB singletrack which darts in and out if the wooden sections situation around the lakes.  The Belfast/Dublin railway line cuts right through the middle of the park and with only two crossing points at either end, guaranteed some interesting route choice decisions.  

After leaving the clear, sunny (but very cold) skies over Belfast I headed down the M1 towards Craigavon.  Once past Lisburn the mist quickly engulfed the landscape and as I arrived at the Watersport Centre the visibility was probably down to 100m.  This was going to make an interest race!

It was still very cold and I was forced to put on full leg cover and to wear my gloves (which I hate wearing when using a map board). Due to the Glens of Antrim AR race taking place at the same time, numbers were down (as expected). About 17 riders turned up for the 3 courses and 11 took on the Long Course. Even with the small numbers there was still some stiff competition. Phil O’Neill, who recently beat me at the Woodburn event was there. Phil’s nav was a weakness, but he was a faster rider than me and if he got his navigation right today, he was then in a very good chance to beat me again.  Another rider to be weary of was Tim Holmes. Tim (also a MTBer) had competed is a few of these events in the past so knew what he was doing…….with Tim and Phil in the starting line up and knew I had to work for the win.

It was a staggered start and I let Tim and Phil go first and gave myself a good 10 minute cushion before I would go. At the start everyone was given a minute to have a quick look and the map and fix it to your mapboard (if you had one). Because of the length of the Long Course the map was printed on both sides. Controls 1 to 10 on the A side and then the remaining 11 to 19 on the other side.  I cleared and checked the sportident dibber and hit the start. The first bunch of controls were located in the south east corner of the map. Riding to CP1 I was slow deciding if I had reached the correct entrance to the singletrack. It took me a few seconds to adjust to the scale of the map and once I was sure I was correct I raced on. The first 3 controls were located along the narrow singletracks that criss-crossed through the wooden areas. From CP3 to CP4 it was a long leg to the north side of the Park. I decided to go anti-clock wise around the upper lake. It was straight through the tunnel walkway under the railway line and along the tarmac path for 90% of the way. Counting the path bends it was easy to locate the single track entrance and the control, which was about 20m down the track. A quick 360 turn and I was back on the main path cutting north onto the next singletrack section to pick up CP5. Back on the path from CP5 and I over shot the point where I was to cut off onto the grass track which followed the south edge of the lake.  This was a silly mistake, but it was mainly down to not being able to see the lakes within the mist.  Another silly mistake getting CP7 lost me another few seconds and from that point I decided to just keep the nav simple and not look for ‘unnecessary’ shortcuts. CP8 and CP9 were straightforward enough. Next was a long leg to CP10 and while racing only the paths I passed Tim  and then Phil, both coming from the other direction. Arriving at CP10, I had to turn over the map on the mapboard to view the remaining 8 controls. I lost a bit of concentration leaving CP10 and took a longer way round the water centre to the correct path leading back out east. After the bridge I turned left down the ‘wrong’ path, but quickly realized my mistake and crossed back over the grass onto the right track. Now it was really time to concentrate and not make any more stupid errors. CP12 and CP13 passed without any problems and for the long leg to CP14 I following the north shore of the lower lake (on the south side of the railway line). I managed to ride down the steps, dib CP14 and then ride back up the slope without wasting any time. CP15 and CP16 were again straightforward and next it was another long leg back over to the south end of the map to CP17. CP18 was a bit tricky to get to as there was a tree fallen across one of the trails access points. I managed to lift my bike over it ok and continued quickly to CP18 without any further problems. Following the trail back out onto the main path I took the path north and then left along the lake shore to the finish. Going the other way was a more direct route to the finish and I think my error was simply down to ‘finish fever’ and just go for it with your blinkers on. ……but I made it to the finish without losing any real advantage….so it was a lesson learnt.

With the race over it was a matter of downloading my time and seeing where I came. I already knew I broke the 60 minute barrier, but did I do enough…..I was pleasantly surprised that I won the event by a good 4 minutes. Tim Holmes came 2nd only 42 seconds over the hour mark and Wilson McAlister took third place a further 2 minutes down.  It wasn’t the perfect ride for me, because looking at the WinSplits there were four legs that I lost too much time. But the second part (Cp10 to Finish) of the ride was better that the first, which is always an encouraging sign. Overall it was another excellent event and a great course. The mist added to the atmosphere and probably contributed to a few extra errors by most people. Hopefully we can get back into the forests for future events, but wherever it is located next year I will be there to defend the title again.

Big thanks to Ivan and ‘Trailblazers’ for all the events they organised during 2009 and no doubt there will be more navigation adventures organised for 2010.

Results (WinSplits)
Ivan’s Report
Paul’s MotionBased Route

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