A birthday ode to not riding at Wingello last weekend
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
A birthday cake is crucial to a birthday party. So is setting the
party date. Way, way back in November 2010, Kate Mortensen, owner of
Pinky her classy Anthem MTBO cycle, one-time NSW MTBO Champion, had set
the party date – March 26, 2011. Two days before the real event – the
big five oh. 50. Fifty. No matter how the number was said or written,
one just can’t make the number go smaller. Maybe downsize the font! No
matter…
That’s Keith Bramma’s age. Me. Born in 1961. The year
Jacques Anquetil won the Tour de France. A whole 20 years before
Specialized introduced the Stumpjumper, the world’s first major
production mountain bike. The first bike I rode was a single speed 26”
Malvern Star. Heavy as lead. I was aged seven. And I was lucky
because I lived on the Moree Plains!
The five oh party. Venue
booked. Sport was still a focus. Barefoot bowls for Bramma’s birthday
bash at the Manly Bowling Club followed by bountiful beverages,
complete with Best and Fairest Awards and a specially made birthday
cake. But the date was March 26!
El Pres, Fearless Mountain
Devils Leader rolled out an email on a dark scary tenth day of December
2010. Storm clouds had been brewing. Maybe there was an eclipse behind
the cloud because it was dark and very ominous. Devastating news
unfolded as I opened El Pres’ email “NSW MTBO events in 2011” at 4.06PM
that day. Six lines in and the news hit me like a steel crankset
whacked between the legs, just on the bottom of the torso. “26/27
March Wingello State Forest“ in all of its bolded 13.5 points font
size.
Slippy, my loving Salsa Dos 29er MTB Orienteering Bike,
somehow felt the energy 10 km away. She wailed! Her rider, now nearly
50 years old, was experiencing tumultuous torture, and she wasn’t sure
why. Her almost 50yo rider was wheeling in frenzy with mixed emotions
as he worked out that he was going have to miss his 50th party to
compete in the Wingello South SS1. What will the party participants
think of that? No birthday boy!
Who is the course setter I
wonder? Hah! Marcel Van Schie, Esteemed MTBO Course Torturer
Extraordinaire! Heh, heh, now I really can upset him. He will have to
set the SS1 course event but he won’t be able to go to the event. After
recently being my best man at my wonderful wedding, how could he not
come to the party if I ask him. Priceless! A friendship totally based
on how much you can really pi** your mate off! True aussie mateship.
Perfect. With warp speed, I told Marcel about the five oh party being
on March 26th with much happy enthusiasm. Whoa, not happy Jan!. Mate,
can’t you reschedule the party. No, why?! Heh, heh. We are even better
mates now. Aussie mateship can be strange at times.
The birthday cake!
 Kate
and the birthday cake maker had found a true theme. The sport of MTB
orienteering would be portrayed. Controls would be included. Notice the
Salsa ensign on the bike. 29 inch wheels too. Cool huh. Why is Keith,
who is now 50 years old, not on his bike, sitting down peacefully with
a wry and satisfied smile. I somehow think the cake maker has Keith
celebrating a Super Series win, reflecting on his perfect navigation
through totally tortuous terrain. All on Slippy, his Salsa Dos 29er!
Keith Bramma
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SS1 & SS2 Event Wrapup
Thursday, 31 March 2011
The first Super Series weekend of the year saw more than 80
riders enjoying the trails of Wingello in surprisingly dry and good conditions
after an ominously wet week in Sydney. On Saturday, Marcel van Schie set some
fantastic, truly middle distance, courses on Wingello South, with an
innovative use of “rides” through the forest. Some were certainly more rideable
than others! They were almost certainly the best route choice on the short, zig
zag legs, but it took a bit of brain rewiring to shove the bike through the
thick grass on the edge of the track and commit to a rough ride or push through
the gap in the forest. And just when you thought it was all done, the last
control required some more thinking and finding, and caught more than a few people
out. Standing around the download were lots of happy faces, not too many muddy
bikes and some brand new converts to MTBO.
Unfortunately, the organiser (not Marcel or I) forgot to
ensure that the key MTBO rules were on display at registration … and so a
number of riders were observed to have either taken their bikes off the mapped
tracks (or “rides”), or left their bikes to run down to that trickily placed
last control.
MTBO Rule reminder #1: riding through forest (marked green or
white) is forbidden, and can lead to us losing access to areas. If it’s not
marked as a track or yellow on the map, just don’t go there.
The Forest Camp provided a great base for those camping
Saturday night, as well as the Mountain Devils AGM, a quiet drink and plenty of
vigorous post mortem discussions. The social scene at the Camp added immensely
to the event atmosphere.
The long distance course on Sunday started with a “scatter”
(free order), and the range of choices of controls visited made the course
setter very happy. Just before the start, some new MTBOers were treated to a
special briefing from a Past President, breezing in unexpectedly in a very
shiny ute – thanks very much to Geoff Charnock for providing this unexpected
service. The first riders to quickly gather the requisite punches were some
Course 5 youngsters, followed by a flying Rob Prentice, who took about 12
minutes to visit 5 controls... A few riders came through the map change proudly
announcing that they’d managed to ride every bit of single track. Not the fastest
approach, but they certainly had the biggest grins. A couple of riders came in
from the “other” direction, having found the fastest route choice home from no.
8.
The line course section also provided some fun single track
options, and some a little more adventurous... Sadly, Course 1 had a late
control change that meant Dave Simpfendorfer’s winning time of 95 minutes was a
bit under the odds. Simon Nott and Rob Prentice also made Course 3 look a bit
underdone … or maybe they should be riding Course 2!
On the whole, there seemed to be lots of very satisfied
riders rolling into Forest Camp, including some with skin off, Hilary Dyer
making it all the way around Course 1 despite a heavy dose of ‘flu, plus the 2
girls arriving right on course closure time and still smiling after 3.5 hours
of “don’t even ask” navigational adventures.
On a more serious side, there were a couple of comments
about “aggro” at controls in the first ‘scatter’ section. It’s pretty unusual
to have to wait at an MTBO control, so if it happens to you, please be patient
and pleasant (as most people were) – remember, there’s no big prizes on the
line here!
Thank you very much to David West for an incredible amount
of work, field checking, editing maps, checking maps, getting maps printed,
processing entries, troubleshooting SI, putting out controls, setting up and
removing start/finishes, dealing with unhappy neighbours, running the AGM,
keeping proceedings from running dry and displaying the kilt. Thank you also to
Michael Roylance for SI programming, as well as Rowan Bouttell and Nick
Dellagiacoma for running SI at the events, as well as the many people who
helped with control collection after each event, those who helped run
registration, and those who helped pack up and transport the equipment.
Mary Fien
Photos taken by Dayle Green -
Click on the photo for a larger version
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BOSS #6 and Series wrap-up
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
BOSS#6
from event planner Shane Jenkins
Having such a small location to set within presented its own challenges and while I did not think I would be able to slow the fast riders down I tried to set a course in which I had hoped to limit the number of bonus points available to less than 15, which I managed, though by only 1 point. Congratulations to Matt Bacon top scoring with a total of 78 (64 possible and 14 bonus points) and many thanks to those who gave me positive feedback, my cryptic course notes aside. Finally thanks to the 53 riders who participated in the event, which at one point was looking like not actually happening.
Also thanks to my many helpers before during and after the event:
Setup: Sam Howe, Andrew Haigh, Mick Kavur, Viola O’Connor
Registration: Viola O’Connor
Start: Sam Howe
Finish: Viola O’Connor, Nicole Haigh, Sam Howe
Control Collectors: Rudi Landsiedel, Dennis Lyons, Malcolm Roberts, Carolyn Matthews, Josh Roberts, Andrew Power, Mike Kavur
RouteGadget
Series wrap-up
from BOSS co-ordinator Andrew Haigh
BOSS 6, the final event of the Mountain Bike Orienteering Summer series, could not have produced a closer finish. Steve Todkill was leading after 5 events by the narrowest of margins. Any of the top three male competitors had a chance of taking out the series.
Damian was first home with an impressive course clearance with time to spare, Steve would have to be at least a minute faster to stay ahead. Next home was Malcolm 4 minutes quicker than Damian, could Malcolm pull off the double after sneaking home to win BOSS 1 last year.
Matt Bacon was next back, his stunning time of 60:41 earned him 14 bonus points and had me back on the calculator to recompute the top three. Finally a sorrowful figure came into sight, it was Steve Todkill pushing his bike home, his pockets bulging with the remains of his drivetrain.
After rechecking the numbers Steve had hung on to top spot by the narrowest of margins, Malcolm was second and Damian third, only a single point separated all three.
(And yes Damian if you had been 4 seconds quicker today you would have won)
The womens competition was also decided at the last event, again any of three could win. Last year's winner, Mary Fien, did not compete so it was left to Newcastle locals Nicole and Carolyn to battle it out. Carolyn needed to win by 1 or 2 points, but returned 4 minutes early and a point behind Nicole. The result was that Nicole won the series by 5 points over Carolyn, with third place going to Alison Curtin.
Series Totals
Overall participation in BOSS 2 was slightly higher than the amazingly popular BOSS 1 last year, with a record 88 at Killingworth.
Thanks to all who made it possible, especially the course setters, all of whom who had not set a BOSS event before, (In several cases it was their first experience of bush setting).
And thanks to everybody who has commented on how much they have enjoyed the series. BOSS 3 is already in the planning stages, currently there will be six events plus a possible warm up event. Hopefully we will have some new maps to ride on. If anybody feels like drawing a map/helping to draw a map then please let me know.
However last year 21 people attended every event, this year this number was down to only 15 of these there are 8 who have attended all 11 events.
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