BOSS EVENT - Bluegum Hills Regional Park - 19 Feb 2012

With the weather finally allowing for some sunshine and the promise of a new area for MTBO, the event was shaping up for a big attendance. With just under 60 entries and a warm day on offer many of the competitors turned up for an early start. Although most of the tracks were reasonably dry there were still several boggy areas and many deep ruts for the competitors to get their teeth into.

A novice map was handed out to several competitors with a suggested route to take around the flatter areas and keep them out of trouble on the steep rutted tracks. This seemed to work well with very positive feedback as, the suggested route allowed them to get the most out of the day with less stress on the route choice.

The main scatter course had most of the bigger score controls in the easier areas and for those that tried to clear the course the big decision was which one pointer will I drop. Malcolm Roberts all but cleared the course, but came in a little late closely followed by Matt Parsons who was also a little late. There were several punctures amongst the top riders which could probably be put down to the fast speeds on some of the downhills. Damien Welbourne had a spider latch onto his arm while flying down one of the hills and in his efforts to dislodge it went over the handlebars. Carolyn Matthews, the Ladies winner, had the same problem when she tried to push a tree out of the road while negotiating a tricky descent.

There is still some fine tuning to undertake on the map and all should be in place for the DuO event in November 2012.
Most of the competitors had a ball as the area encourages some aggressive and fast riding as well heaps of navigation choices. Not all of the area has been mapped and there are plenty of single tracks still to be explored.

It was great to get the support of National Parks and Coal and Allied to allow us to use the area as well as having a parking area and toilet facilities.

Thanks to Andrew and Nicole Haigh, Geoff and Cheryl Todkill and Kerry Bacon for helping behind the scenes, setting up and running things on the day. A big thanks to Tim Hackney, Dennis Lyons and Rudi Lanseidel for heading out in hot and steamy conditions to collect the controls.

Results | RouteGadget

  Greg Bacon - BOSS Organiser