Our popular feature from last year is back! You can now check out the area map for Sutton Bank this weekend, without controls of course!
Fingers crossed for a good weather forecast and great riding conditions – there’s still time to enter if you haven’t yet!
With the NYMBO Winter Series finishing yesterday, we can now turn our attention to the weekend of events on 15th and 16th March that kick of the the 2014 league . Andy Parsons has been planning MBO at White Horse & Wass, and has sent in this update:
There is a new bike shop at the visitor centre run by Pace Cycles in partnership with the National Park centre. The Sutton Bank bike shop will be open all day and they have bikes available for hire if you need one – contact details and further info is on their (developing) website: www.suttonbankbikes.co.uk . The cycle shop also has bike wash facilities.
The Café and toilets at the visitor centre will also be open all day. The visitor centre has a “Lime and Ice” exhibition that you or accompanying non-cyclists can look around. There are also way-marked walks and excellent views off the escarpment.
The National Park is in the process of developing several new bike routes. These include some new bike specific trail building to link up existing bridleways and forest tracks. There will eventually be Red, Blue and Green routes. The Green (family) Cliff Trail route is already in place and the Blue will be opening in the Spring. We are including part of the new Cliff Trail route on the map as it gives a new route back to the centre from the Cleveland Way bridleway along the escarpment edge to the north. Please only cycle along the cycle routes in the signed direction.
The event map uses selected bridleways, forest tracks and minor roads to both north and south of the main A170 Thirsk to Helmsley road. This is a busy road with fast traffic so please be especially careful to look out for vehicles when crossing or using the road and I suggest that you wear some high-viz cycling gear. Some sections of the road will be marked as out of bounds for the event in order to keep cyclists to the more minor roads and tracks. Please look out for and do not use out of bounds sections of road, track and forest areas as we will deduct penalties from or disqualify riders doing so. Footpaths are always out of bounds to cycling. We are still in the process of finalising control locations and there may be some permissive tracks that are usable only on the day so please do not pre-ride any areas that are not formal bridleways or public highway.
The event map will use overprinted 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey mapping printed on A3 at 1:30,000 scale. The map will cover a slightly larger area than the map used for 2011 event when we started from Yorkshire Gliding Club just above the White Horse – this allows us to include a few more linking minor roads and bridleways.
If the weather stays as it is, many of the more minor tracks/paths shown on the map in the forest areas (shown as a dotted line) are likely to be very muddy and best avoided. The same applies to the bridleways between Old Byland, Scawton and Rievaulx. I have taken this into account when deciding control position to try to keep people off the worst tracks. There will be plenty of controls on minor roads for riders not liking the mud.
On Sunday March 16th, Andrew Windrum has planned the MTBO events at Bishops Wood and Wheldrake to the southeast of York. These are part of the BMBO Sprint Championships.
Both areas are well known for foot O and Bishopwood has previously been used once for MBO. There’s trails, singletrack, woodland, bit of grassland, some bracken, odd muddy bit, route choice, spectators, sponsor marquees and an international field of athletes. Entry for this event is here
It’s a week until the first winter event at the Dales Bike Centre at Fremington, and also the BMBO AGM. So, this seems like a good time to close the poll on the favourite league event of 2013.
The winner, but only just, is Dalby Forest in September – could that have edged it because of the great weather and the high scores I wonder?
Thanks to everyone who voted.
The dates for the three winter MBO events are now confirmed as:
The exact locations (i.e. the pubs) will be confirmed shortly. The draft details with entry information can be found here; you can enter for the November event now and you’ll be able to enter for the January & February events on the BMBO site soon.
If you want to import the winter event dates into your own calendar, you can use this ical link:
If you’re on our mailing list then you should have received an email on Friday summarising the 2013 league and various other news updates. You can read the email here and, if you’re not on the mailing list, you can sign-up with your email address here.
Don’t forget to vote in the favourite event poll:
And can be found here.
Report to follow tomorrow, results here:
http://nymbo.mountainbikeorienteering.org.uk/2013/9-Masham/
Just 5 days to go until the final NYMBO League event of 2013. Online entry closes on Wednesday and can be done here. Entry on the day is also available, but it would help if you email Steve so we print enough maps.
Don’t forget that this event starts earlier than usual between 10.00 and 11.00am
There is no slip road to Masham from the upgraded A1(M) so please leave the A1 at Leeming Bar from the north or the A61 from the south.
Please park in the square which is 400m south of the A6108 Ripon to Leyburn road and pay 50p in the honesty box for parking in the square.
Registration is in the Methodist Chapel on nearby Park Street where refreshments will be on sale before and after your ride.
This is the last event in the National (BMBO) and Regional (NYMBO) leagues so please stay for the prizegiving at 3.30 to congratulate the category winners.
Will all 2012 BMBO champions please make sure that their trophies are returned at or before the event?
Planner’s Comments
Masham Moors is a varied area – there are some farm lanes and minor roads, some exposed moorland bridleways – make sure that you come equipped for North Yorkshire weather in October. Expect a few hills in the south and west side of the map.
The A6108 passes through the area, control location does not encourage competitors to make much use of it but be aware that it is the busiest road on the map. It is however wide and has mainly good visibility.
The bridleway to the west of Slipstone Crags in Colsterdale has been deeply eroded by motorcycles and water, be prepared to walk if using the worst section – marked on the map with black lines across the bridleway; there is a route choice which avoids this damaged section. Also in Colsterdale there is a ford at Gollinglith Foot – if river levels are high, a footbridge to the south would be a safe crossing point.
Here’s the map without controls for you to look at – click on the map to get the full image.
There’s just one event to go of the NYMBO League for 2013 (at Masham on October 19th), and you can see all the current league positions here, you can also see the positions of the likely finalists here – as usual some classes are already determined, but the final event could make a difference for some people. Hope to see you there!
nymbo : north yorkshire mountain bike orienteers 