Race Reports

Dark and White NIGHT Trailquest- Carsington water

Dec 16, 2011

Riders
Pete Crawforth

These Night rider 2 hour trailquests have proved to be a great addition to the Dark and White calendar. I love them!
This even was a cold ride, when I set off there was a the threat of snow which is always encouraging when you begin and its already night. I also knew that not far behind me was Pat Higgins who set off a couple of minutes after me. I started out with the aim of attempting to stay just ahead, however just after getting the first check point Pat flew past in the opposite way after deciding to stick to the road for the first section, by the time got to the second Pat had caught me up, we decided to choose different ways to get to the third point. This time my route was slightly faster getting there a second early. Whilst riding to the forth point I was sat right on his wheel but felt that it was going to be a bit ridiculous following him the whole way, so I turned off and missed a point out. 30 minutes later Pat who was storming along caught me up and quickly passed me leaving me in the dark, there was no way I was going to be able to catch him up.

Over all though it was one of my best finishes, obviously doing these events at night helps my performance. Pat  won it with a convincing lead, a very strong ride.

cheers again to Dark and White for organising a cracking race.

results can be found here

overall results

results and splits

Carsington Water nr Ashbourne

Dark and White Trailquest- Matlock

Dec 16, 2011

Riders
Andy Douglas

3 hour trailquest

Round 3/6

Near Matlock

Gisburn Forest Long MTBO

Nov 19, 2011

Hully Gully

Event organised by Alan Hartley of Pendle Forest Orienteers

A furious 90 minutes of technical, hilly orienteering in the November sunshine

On Saturday it was the final round of the 2011 MTBO National league series. The weather was again near perfect with hardly a cloud in the sky. About 70 riders were racing in the Forestry Commission owned Gisburn forest in Lancashire. The forest has a fun trial center red/black loop, which the event made good use of.

The course was a tale of two halves, with the 1st containing the majority of the technical orienteering and technical bike handling skills; while the 2nd half was easier on the mind, but tougher on the legs with long fire-road climbs and fewer difficult route choices.

Andy had a good run with only a couple of small mistakes to take the win on the day. After the event the prize-giving was held for the National Series winners- please see BMBO in the next few days for confirmation.

Results, Report, and Splits

 

Dark and White Trailquest- Grindleford

Nov 06, 2011

Dark and White Trailquests
Start in Grindleford
Riders
Pete Crawforth
Andy Douglas

What a great day to find yourself riding a bike!
Glorious weather hit Grindleford for the second round of the Dark and White winter trailquests.
Andy put in another consistent result finishing 3rd overall with 289 points, well done to him!
My route choice I think may have been a little ambitious considering my skills with a map. Silly mistakes and my GPS deciding to depart from my bike cost me bags of time. Many thanks to the rider who spotted my garmin and gave it back to me, that made my day! I’ve also learned a valuable lesson about finishing on time. There is a 10 minute buffer but anything over that and the penalities start racking up! so my 18minutes quickly tunred into minus 80 points! 🙁 ah well at least it was sunny!

Results, splits, route breakdown (java required) and Dark and Whites own race report can be found following the links.

Many Thanks to Dark and White for setting up another great day of racing!

BMBO sheffield

Nov 05, 2011

Andy was able to show his improved  short course BMBO skills in todays race and finished seconds off the first place finisher. Everybody who took part in today’s race found the race particularly challenging, with technical route choices having to be made in the wet conditions. Andy was pleased with his performance on the day and the finishing result which could have been easily improved on with a few minor changes to his route choice.

This was Pete’s first taster of a BMBO style race and unsurprisingly found it very tough. Being familiar with the particular style of map allows for a better route to be chosen. The nature of the short course races are also very different, since they require a larger amount of concentration between check points with more desisions needing to be made.

After spending 18 minutes to find an allusive check point and loosing a further 10 minutes retracing his steps trying to find his GPS which had fallen off Pete called it a day missing out the last two check points. Room for improvement