Cropton Forest Organiser’s Comments

Dave Lloyd planned an excellent course with plenty of route choice avoiding the worst of the muddy single tracks. I imagine that most riders will have gone further than they normally do in a 3 hour forest event. It was forecast to be windy but it was nice and sheltered in the forest.
Thanks as ever to Jens for another excellent map; Dave Lloyd for putting out all of the controls; Geoff Moorhouse, Karen Blackburn, Frank & Sandra Appleton for their help on the day; then Dave Lloyd, Ray Morriss, Andrew Windrum, Tim Evans, Dave Evans, Adrian & Luke Parker for collecting them in so that we could leave by 6.00.

It was great to see nearly 70 riders for the first event of the season including quite a few newcomers. Congratulations to Andy Conn (M50) for winning overall and nearly clearing up with 513 points; Andrew Windrum M40-480; Adrian & Luke Parker Gen-392; Dennis Jaques M60-385; Sheila Pearce W40-381; Ray Morris M70-375; James Martin M21-365; Karen Blackburn W70-270; Ben Houlihan M18-250  You can follow all of their routes using the splits file and course map on the NYMBO site.

I enjoyed my ride as I was able to miss out the low value controls and  the Hartoft valley so that I got back in time to download the first finishers.
Unfortunately, 2 controls (47 & 57) were put out in each other’s location and #49 had been incorrectly programmed as #31. I have hopefully adjusted all of your scores but please let me know if yours is still incorrect.

Thanks also to the staff at Keldy Cabins for accommodating us. The cafe made an excellent event centre and I managed to avoid seeing the rugby scores before I got home.

Please note that the Gilling MTBO event planned for May 6th has been cancelled so you can now save your energy for the Howardian Hills event in the afternoon.

Don’t forget that I will be retiring at the end of the season after 20 years so the Nidderdale event will be my last. I would like to hear from someone who is interested in taking on the coordinators’s role or a few people who would like to manage the events between them. I will still plan an event every year and ride whenever we’re not on holiday, seeing the family or playing golf!!

The next event will be a 4 hour Score event on the Yorkshire Wolds based at Bishop Wilton village hall. Karen & Richard Clark have planned an excellent course so I hope to see you there.
Steve

Planner’s comments

After my first planning visit in January, slithering and sliding about on some of the smaller tracks, I decided to put all controls on or near to a road or track which would be reliable whatever the weather. So, to make it competitive for the elite riders, I stretched the area almost to the limit. I didn’t really expect anyone to score over 500 but as ever Andy Conn proved me wrong.

Quite a crowd built up eager to be off as soon as possible after 12:00. I couldn’t decide if they were keen to get back in time for the England /Ireland match or wanted to give themselves a chance of picking up a spot prize. As it happens not one of the 15 people who visited #37 claimed that particular token.

My thanks go to Keldy Cabins who made us most welcome at an excellent venue and as ever to the collectors; Dave, Andy, Tim, Adrian, Luke and Ray.
Dave Lloyd. Course planner

Results from today’s superb event at Cropton Forest are here (updated Sunday 19th March 20:33)

Let me know if any problems, report to follow later.

Control map below

56 riders have entered for our first event tomorrow, and there will be 24 maps available for anyone who wants to enter on the day – the weather forecast is overcast (and a lot better than much of the rest of the country) and the Cropton course looks great.

The blank map and entry details are here, if you want to reserve an EOD maps drop me an email nymboevents@btinternet.com today!

Look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!

It’s the first 2017 NYMBO league event at Cropton Forest on Saturday 18th March – blank map now available below.

Key details:

• Event centre at KELDY CABINS YO18 8HW (GR 777 925); 5 miles north of the A170 at Pickering
• 3 hour event – REGISTER 11.30 – 12.45 STARTS 12.00 – 13.00
• SENIORS £13.00 JUNIORS/STUDENTS/NOVICES £6.00
• ONLINE ENTRY  – enter by Wednesday  – save £1.00
• Flier here

Don’t forget to renew your BMBO membership and if you had entered for the cancelled Slingsby event in February please email me.

Dave Lloyd’s Planner’s update:

• All controls are situated on or close to a minor road or a forest road which should provide fast, but not necessarily the shortest routes in in any conditions except snow.
• Anything off the main tracks at this time of year will be slow or very slow and some of the steep sections very technical.
• With the event centre based at the Keldy cafe, there will be the luxury of hot drinks snacks and light meals before and afterwards.
• All paths and tracks around the site are out of bounds except for the forest roads going north and west and the service road from the south.
• Helpers should follow the signs to and park outside of reception.
• The main parking will be on the High Muffles forest road north of the cafe.
• This will also be one of the two route choices from the start and back to the finish so please take care whilst changing and when finishing.