Whilst at Dalby Forest last weekend, I met one of the Rangers – Matt Fitzgerald. He’s doing a research project as part of a MSc Public Right of Way and Countryside Access. His research needs input from mountain bikers using trails centres and public rights of way, and whilst centres like Dalby give him access to the former, the latter is harder. So if you have a few minutes to complete his survey, he would be very grateful. This is what he said:

If you’re a keen mountain biker, I need your help to learn about your experience and opinions of mountain bike access to the countryside in England and Wales.

• What are your riding preferences?
• Do you want more places to ride your mountain bike?
• What are your experiences of mountain biking at trail centres and on public rights of way?

If you’re passionate about mountain biking and can spare a few minutes to help with my research project please visit:

https://www.survey.leeds.ac.uk/mtbsurvey

It was great to see 110 riders at Terrington on a Bank Holiday Saturday. Dave and Danny had planned an excellent course with plenty of route choice and the bulk of the controls were in the woods along the central ridge. It really is a beautiful area, the tracks were unbelievably dry despite last week’s snowfall and the sun came out for the afternoon. Thanks to Jens for another excellent map, the helpers for making everything run smoothly and the volunteers who collected all the controls while you were on your way home. Terrington village hall made an excellent event centre – although it meant an uphill finish from every direction.

We didn’t have to pay for access this month so we have donated £110 to Yorkshire Air Ambulance to thank them for helping Michael and Nick last month. They are both back home and recovering well after surgery. Hopefully, we will see them at an event before the end of the season – as well as Adrian Baskerville who had a serious bike accident last month.

I enjoyed my ride as always but could only get out for 2½ hours as I needed to download the Start block and get back for the first finishers. I picked a scenic route so rode around Castle Howard then along the wooded ridge north of Terrington before coming back past Wiganthorpe so was very relieved to find the final track across the field was easy to ride.

Congratulations to the category winners especially Andy Conn for clearing all 30 controls in just over 4 hours; John Dixon winning M60 with his best ride for a long time and 4^th overall; Martin & Max Vesty continuing their winter form and winning the Generation class and 5^th overall; John Galway winning M50 at his first event in over 2 years – welcome back; Steph Fountain & Richard Schumaker beating all of the other mixed teams.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of problems. A number of riders couldn’t find the start of a bridleway from the B1257 and unwisely decided to climb over a nearby locked gate. Obviously, this is unacceptable and naturally annoyed the farmer who I spoke to later to apologise on your behalf. Bridleway gates are rarely locked and, if one is, you would be told about it as you were told about an electric fence across a bridleway on another part of the course. The same farmer was spraying a field when he saw a rider using the old railway line which is a marked as a footpath (and overmarked as out of bounds). I don’t think this was a lost rider but someone trying to cheat which is why we issue bike numbers. Unfortunately, the farmer couldn’t see his/her number but if he had he/she would have been disqualified. I also saw 2 riders open a gate in front of me despite a bright yellow 6x2ft sign marked private with a bridlegate 5m to the right. Fortunately, I was able to stop them before they reached the farmyard but, please remember that we have no right to use a track just because it’s there. Please stay on the bridleways or stay away. Our reputation as mountain bikers is not enhanced by this type of behaviour and makes permission to use private tracks unlikely in future.

Finally, but far less importantly, I am sorry for the wait at registration for riders who had paid and pre-entered. We are still coming to terms with coping without Dave & Sue. There will be an extra desk next month for paid pre-entries who have their own SI dibbers!!

I hope some/most of you will make the trip up to Blanchland for the first NEMBOS event of the season next Saturday (14^th April). It’s a brilliant area and Martin Edwards has again got permission to ride many private estate tracks – including another couple that we couldn’t use last year. There are also a few controls inSlaleyForest for the orienteers amongst you so hope to see you there.

It’s busy next month with 4 events in a week!!

Saturday 12^th May Keldy Cabins, Pickering Forest

Andrew Windrum has planned a Medium MBO event in the morning as part of the BMBO National League using Dave Evans’ controls for the NYMBO 3 hour Score event in the afternoon. You can ride in both but if you ride in the morning you have to enter non-competitively in the afternoon.

Wednesday 16^th May George & Dragon, Hudswell, Richmond

2 hour NYMBO Summer evening Score event around Swaledale

Saturday 19^th May Grassholme Reservoir, Teesdale

4 hour NEMBOS league event – same area as last year but all new control sites and even more private estate tracks to ride

Hope to see you at one or all of them.

Steve Willis

PS Our apartment in Samoens is still available for a few weeks in the summer and the chairlifts are open to mountain bikes in July and August!!

Terrington Village Hall - Finish

It was great for Danny and I to see so many riders returning utterly exhausted but having enjoyed a great ride. Over the past few weeks we  have been enjoyed planning the event in great weather for the time of year, and despite the onset of snow earlier this week, most of the tracks remained firm. We worked hard to plan our event so it was stretching for the best riders and enjoyable for all. It was great to see Andy Conn get round every control (something that I know Dan could do in a day, but I couldn’t), but also from the comments we had that everyone managed a good ride. Everyone seemed to find all the controls without incident (although I know one or two were a bit high up!). Perhaps, with hindsight we could have shifted the 30 pointer at control 27 to somewhere better but that was about the only change we think would have been needed.

Thanks to Steve for his guidance, Jens for a great map, the riders who helped with the controls, and everyone who came for making the whole event a success – I’m going to examine the splits with interest later to see where everyone went!

Danny & Dave man the finish line

Here’s the link there full results & splits.What a fantastic day with unbelievable tracks considering the fact that these hills were covered in snow on Wednesday. Danny Chan and Dave Robertson had planned a great course which took us through all the best parts of this beautiful area and congratulations to Andy Conn who managed to visit all 30 controls

Spreadsheet also here Howardian Hills

After weeks of planning in great weather and on bone dry tracks, this week’s weather is just a little strange, but we’re all set for a great event on Saturday.

Over the past few weeks we’ve cycled all the bridleways on the map, planned more controls than we needed and hopefully planned a good course that riders on either the 2 or 4 hours will enjoy. We’ve made some changes where we either a) got it wrong b) found the bridleway didn’t exist or c) just thought it would make it easier for everyone. Jens has made an excellent map, and the little tweaks should help everyone.

This picture is Dan at one of the controls, but it’s not giving anything away as we’ve used quite a few fingerposts as control points.

Our remaining task before the event is to make sure that we get all 30 controls in the right place.

See you on Saturday

Dave and Danny