Our first league event of 2012 will be held at Duncombe Park in Ryedale on Saturday 10th March. Tim Clarke has planned an excellent course and Duncombe Estate have allowed us to use even more of their private tracks this year because it is between the shooting and nesting seasons. This is a 3 hour event but don’t forget that there is a 2 hour league option if you don’t want to ride as far.
Online entries cost £11 but postal, email or on the day entries will cost you £12 – less deductions for BOF membership or your own SI card.
We have only got 20 pre-entries so please enter by March 6th to guarantee a map – then Jens knows how many to print. We will have 20 spare maps but if you decide to send an email after this date or just turn up and enter on the day you run the risk of only having a black and white map. Hope to see you there.

Terrington Moor

Dr Danny Chan and I have taken on the task of planning the second event in this years NYMBO League.  Although we planned the summer event in Hovingham last year, neither of us have planned a “proper” bikeo before – despite having ridden quite a few. It’s interesting for us, as I could be fairly described a “not the quickest rider” and Dr Chan has been described as “navigationally challenged.”

So our aspiration is to plan a good ride for both 2hr and 4hr competitors, and with controls in fairly straightforward places. This means no controls hidden knee deep in brambles; attached to live cows; or needing snorkel gear to find them in water-filled trenches.  I know those last two have never happened but having been to Driffield there’s always a first time. Although this will help riders on the day, it’s mainly to help Danny and I get the controls in the right places the day before.

Dr Chan was otherwise engaged in a secret mission this weekend, but he let me spend the time deciding on the locations of about half the controls. Saturday was marred by a flat tyre and an inept repair, but when the sun was out on Sunday it was a great February day for biking. The view in the photo is of one of the controls not far from the start at Terrington. The other bonus was seeing various deer, rabbits, and due to my frequent breaks, a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

I was quite pleased to get a farmers permission to use a mark track permissive rather than cycle across a field, and I’ve learned that it takes time to check good control locations so the next six weeks will go quickly. I’m hoping for a dry, sunny Easter!

Dave

I always enjoy planning an event on my doorstep, it is amazing what one finds even after living here for so long!
It is also gratifying to see that the riders have enjoyed the challenge, either mine or from the weather. Reading the post ride route choice I can see that some of the bridleways were tough going and that everyone who went south east enjoyed the view along Landmoth – one of my favourite rides.

I apologise for some errors, the position of control 16 is on the north wall of the building, south west of the track junctions. I also understand that I may not have got the phone number on the back of the chevron road sign correct at number 24. HeyHo. The garage door at number 1 used to have 5 windows but has been changed to an up and over with 7. Except it was up when some riders got there so difficult to tell how many there were. Still, as long as you did the navigation I’m not too bothered about the answer!
John D

All of the fliers for the 2012 League events are now posted on the events page. You can also download and print the 2012 Poster for your local bike shop, just click the image .

2012 NYMBO League Poster

It was great to see 45 riders having a go at Andrew Windrum’s second attempt at planning courses in Gilling Woods. Everyone was relieved that he got it right this time so that the winning times reflected the Medium course distances. Congratulations to all of the category winners – particularly Killian Lomas (A course), Graham Fielding (B) and Nathan Parker (C). It was great to see Dave & Sue Relton on the other side of the SI desk and out on their bikes. However, it was disappointing to see a few riders lose their time through mispunching. Unfortunately, in this discipline of MBO, you have to get all of the controls to qualify and there are always extra controls to confuse you in the forest. It was great of Ebor to allow us to use the woods after their important orienteering fixture – but it also meant that there were over 60 extra controls in the forest!!
Thanks to Dennis Hooton for drawing up the courses and having them printed on waterproof paper. Thanks also to the volunteers who helped by collecting in most of the controls. Unfortunately I then locked two of them in the forest when I left so they had an anxious 20 minute wait until I got back and let them out!!
Our MBO Score league starts on March10th with a 3 hour event at Helmsley in Ryedale – and our next MTBO event will be at Pickering Forest on May 12th – in the morning before the Score event.
Final apologies to riders who paid too much online. Please claim your refund for BOF membership or your own SI card at the next event. I have amended the online entry form this evening.
PS I still prefer riding in Score events and from an organisers point of view they are far simpler and safer as you know that everyone will plan a route to match their ability and will take no more than 30 minutes longer than the time limit.

The full results for Gilling can be found here (including full splits for course D)

You can read Steph Fountain’s own race report here

Max & Martin Vesty – Generation Team and 2nd overall
We set off looking to pick up 14 & 7 on the way to Brompton and we immediately ditched the first one (14) having looked at the muddy field. 15 points missed but we felt we’d do better using the time elsewhere later. After 7 we quickly picked up 2 and rode out to 30. We then headed further north to 29, 27 and 28 via 16, to avoid the direct bridleway to 28, which again we felt would be heavy going.

We then picked off 1, 24 and 17 and had decided that the better route for the remaining time would be to go further down the east side riding the short main road and lane to 20. The muddy lane to 18 was the muddiest we had it for the whole ride but then onward to 21 and 26 (the last 30 pointer) gave cracking views over to the Cleveland hills with the wind behind us. The bridge for 25 was just down the hill and at the road junction after 25 we had 9 mins left which ruled out grabbing 10 and 4. From here we headed as direct as we could back to base via 12 and with Max on my wheel it was team Moonglu time trial style back, with just two mins over the 2 hours needed to finish with 353 points.

Edwin Oliver Evans – Youth and First overall
Managed not to muck it up like the previous one. Here is my route for today’s race: 14, 7, 2, 6, 30, 11, 29, 27, 28, 16, 24, 17, 20, 18, 21, 26, 25, 4, 23, 12, 22, 5, finish.

After a wet start everyone managed to stay dry and the snow showers didn’t arrive until after we all got home. Thanks to John Dixon for planning the course, Jens Strain for another excellent map and the Fox and Hounds for a warm welcome when we finished.
Edwyn Oliver-Evans got it right this time to not only beat his Dad but also Andy Conn – which not many people manage. Andy got his usual 400 points with 1 penalty but it wasn’t enough to win overall. Martin & Max Vesty finished second again with a brilliant score of 353 to win the Generation class. Pippa Archer was the first female rider, Ralph & Chris Defty outscored the other mixed teams and I manage to beat the older riders. I enjoyed my ride having decided to head south so that I could ride along the Landmoth ridge with brilliant views on all directions. I then noticed that 4 of the 30 point controls were north of Northallerton so headed up there but only had time to visit 2 of them.
My route was 12 4 23 10 25 26 21 18 20 24 17 13 19 29 11 30 7 and I’ll add the other winning routes when they arrive.
This was the last winter MBO event so the first league event of the year is only 3 weeks away at Duncombe Park near Helmsley in Ryedale. Please enter online if possible and I hope to see you there.
The league posters are online the web page so please download a copy for your local bike shop or biking group.
The results are below so please let me know if there are any mistakes

Bullamoor results

Race report from Martin Vesty

Today’s route was immediately determined by the location of the 30 pointers. We had also decided to avoid as much bridleway as possible with the damp ground likely to be heavy going for young Max’s 13yrs old legs, despite the super light Moonglu Whyte’s C19 we were both riding.

We set off looking to pick up 14 & 7 on the way to Brompton and we immediately ditched the first one (14) having looked at the muddy field. 15 points missed but we felt we’d do better using the time elsewhere later. After 7 we quickly picked up 2 and rode out to 30. We then headed further north to 29, 27 and 28 via 16, to avoid the direct bridleway to 28, which again we felt would be heavy going.

We then picked off 1, 24 and 17 and had decided that the better route for the remaining time would be to go further down the east side riding the short main road and lane to 20. The muddy lane to 18 was the muddiest we had it for the whole ride but then onward to 21 and 26 (the last 30 pointer) gave cracking views over to the Cleveland hills with the wind behind us. The bridge for 25 was just down the hill and at the road junction after 25 we had 9 mins left which ruled out grabbing 10 and 4. From here we headed as direct as we could back to base via 12 and with Max on my wheel it was team Moonglu time trial style back, with just two mins over the 2 hours needed to finish with 353 points.

More top riding from young Max !

Online entries have closed for this weekend with 64 pre-entries for Bullamoor and 34 for Gilling Woods. Jens has printed a few extra maps for both events so send an email to nymboevents@btinternet.com if you want to book one of them. You can take a chance if you wait to enter on Saturday or Sunday but you may only get a photocopy.

Saturday 18th – Fox & Hounds, Bullamoor, Northallerton – 2 hour Score       John Dixon has planned an excellent course in the undulating countryside between Northallerton and the A19. Plenty of minor roads and decent bridleways and a lovely pub at the start and finish

Sunday 19th – Gilling Woods, Easingwold – MTBO (fixed route) event (Gilling MBO Flier)            Andrew Windrum has planned 3 interesting courses which will test your navigation as well as your technical riding. There is also a 60 minute Score event for those riders who would prefer this format. There are only 3 and 1 spare waterproof maps on the A and B course respectively but there will be some extra photocopies for entry on the day. This event is taking place at a major Ebor orienteering event so please follow their signs into the forest and park tidily on the forest road verge. You will probably be over 1km from registration so you are advised to ride there and then be ready to start. Hope to see you at one or both of these events

NYMBO league 2012            

All 9 entry forms are on the BMBO site and online entry is now open.

We’ve received this email which we thought we should share – please take care if you’re using Hamsterley

To:  All Members of Hamsterley Trailblazers

 
Forestry Commission officers have advised us that an extremely serious and dangerous health and safety incident took place last weekend at Hamsterley Forest when a rope was deliberately tied between two trees at cycle wheel height, across one of the Descend Downhill cycle tracks causing a cyclist to crash off his bike.  Fortunately the cyclist was wearing full body armour and was not seriously hurt – but he could have been very seriously injured or even killed by this action.  The police are involved in investigating the matter.  Click here to see the webcam the cyclist was running at the time 
 
I have been asked to block email all members to draw attention to the incident and to ask you to be extremely vigilant in the forest and look out for anything like this or other trail vandalism.  If you do come across incidents of trail sabotage, please do your best to make the trail immediately safe for other users – eg remove any obstacles, rope etc.   Please then report the incident to the police and if possible, see one of the Forest rangers or other Forestry Commission staff, letting them know where it has happened and the time you found it.  If you can take a photograph of the sabotage area before touching it, that would also be very useful.  Please also let me know of any incidents so that as a club we have an idea of what we are facing.
 
Some of you will remember that when we first built the Grove Link trail we experienced a series of serious trail sabotage incidents – at that time we worked with the police and forest staff to catch the person involved (several members camped out overnight and caught the person red-handed.)  I hope we can be as equally successful in catching this person or people.
 
Whilst we are keen to catch the culprit, we are also keen not to scare people from visiting the lovely woodlands, so the Forestry Commission have asked that we consider the impact of wider scaremongering by accident.  Please do consider the message when telling people, the woods are safe, sadly there has been one incident in Hamsterley and we all hope that it is just a one off.
  
Many thanks
Vicky Chilcott
Secretary, Hamsterley Trailblazers