I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of my rides checking all of the bridleways and controls this summer but the weather and track conditions at the weekend couldn’t have been any better. The bridleways across Levisham Moor and Glaisdale Moor are 2 of my favourites in England. I hoped that I had made the optimum route long enough so that no riders would be able to clear up on either day. Mark McPhilips tried his hardest and only left out one control on Saturday but he left a few more out there on Sunday. I placed all of the controls on routes that could be reached by bike but hopefully gave the runners plenty of opportunities to use public footpaths as short cuts. Thanks to Karen & Richard Clark for checking out many of these. The favourable comments from many Bike & Lite competitors suggest that I succeeded.
Thanks to North Yorkshire Moors National Park, Forestry Commission and the Countryside Landowners Association who were happy for the event to go ahead. We will be making donations to them and the Scarborough & Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team who would have been there if we had needed them. Thanks also to the gamekeepers who were happy for us to use many of the private tracks across their grouse moors.
It was great to see 130 riders competing at the same time and using the same controls as 170 runners as well as no litter or open gates when we collected them in. It’s a pity that only 8 riders made it to the Wild Camp so we will need to consider whether to continue with this course next year or open it up to runners!!
Thanks to Jens Strain and Harveys for 2 excellent maps. I’m sorry that there were 3 corrections but we only got permission to use the permissive bridleway through RAF Fylingdales, the track though Low Staindale and the track near Lastingham after the map had gone to the printers. Thanks also to John Rawden, Ray Morriss, Dave Lloyd, John Dixon, Michael Brough, Zoe Cowgill, Steve Kendall, Sheila Pearce and Lynn Lloyd for helping me put out and collect in the controls, the OMM team for their hard work organising the excellent event HQ and Phil Lee and his staff at the New Inn.
Sion James is planning the Spring event so I won’t get my monthly rides around the Derbyshire Dales this winter but I will look forward to competing in the Brecon Beacons. However, I will be planning the September event in Wensleydale so I can check out the bridleways closer to home this summer.
Hope to see you again next year or at a NYMBO event soon
Steve Willis
Course Planner
nymbo : north yorkshire mountain bike orienteers 
It would be a shame to loose the wild camp. We all had a good discussion about it round our camp fire, as bikepacking is so popular these days and the gravel races are control lead events we must surely be able to attract some of these guys. It was a great atmosphere at camp as we stood drinking alcohol (cider, beer,wine and whiskey were spotted) and chatting into the night.
I’m looking forward to next year already!
I totally agree Rik and OMM don’t want to lose the wild camp either. It will probably be on offer again next year but they will need a minimum number to make it viable. If it didn’t happen you would be transferred onto the long course. Also they are considering offering it to the runners. Fingers crossed
Another superb weekend – lots of happy competitors Many thanks to all involved.
Excellent trails, awesome views, remote areas and most importantly: controls sensibly placed with a spot on map, all added up to a Fantastic weekend. A big thankyou to you Steve and to all who made the event possible … they just get better and better… looking forward to the Dales next year.. Please send a big thankyou to the OMM crowd for me especially to Emma & Stuart, there was a great atmosphere about the whole weekend and the Bike/run format seems to work really well…
Glad you enjoyed the event and thanks for saying so. I’m not even going to try to argue with any of that. Just hope we can create as good an event next year