Cropton Forest Event – 20th April

The extensive network of forestry roads and minor byeways will, as ever, provide fast route choices to all parts of the competition area. However, once away from the main roads, paths and tracks will not be so reliable so route choice, even for short legs will be crucial. On the day of my final planning visit in mid-March the area was under 6” snow so no matter how favourable the weather may be in the coming weeks conditions are unlikely to be the same as last year’s event at the start of the season. The choice of control sites has taken this into account.

There has been extensive felling in both forests but this has not affected the state of the forest roads some of which have been even been improved. The emerging Moors to Sea (M2C) cycle route cuts across the area from west to east and this has brought with it improved track surfaces in some places. Other improvements  include re-routing of the bridleway currently through Rock Cottage (SE 754/947) to the north (there are notices at the start & finish),  and  upgrading to bridleway of the track passing the front of Middle Farm (SE 805/920) which now continues down to Newtondale.

I have used the following definitions in the written control descriptions:

1. A road: = any metalled or improved surface navigable by a standard family saloon and includes forestry roads.
2. A track: = a wide (car width) route through forest or farmland, may include rides and bridleways.
3. A path: = narrow, single track route, may include public footpaths
4. / (forward slash): = a junction between two different features
5. The description of the control site will usually give  compass direction in relation to the map feature

Dave Lloyd 14/03/13

It’s one week until the first proper NYMBO event of 2013. Dave Evans has planned an excellent course on the better bridleways and country lanes on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds. You can read about Dave’s planning on the website. Hopefully, despite the wintry conditions in the last week the tracks will be as good as they were at this time last year. Please pre-enter by Wednesday to guarantee a pre-marked map and it will save you £1 if you do it online at BMBO. You can find the event flier here

2013 Leagues: Jens Strain has produced excellent posters for both the NYMBO and NEMBOS 2013 leagues – please print off copies for your local bike shop and your friends/riding groups and encourage them to have a go.
There are no major changes for 2013 but the 2 hour course has been replaced by a Novice option (at half price). BMBO membership is no longer free so please make sure that you rejoin for the year before your first event – it’s only £6 (and there are now discounts from a range of brand sponsors).

New for 2013: We’re going to experiment with publishing the area map (without controls) for each event on the web sites at 8pm on Tuesday before the event. The start and finish will be marked so that you can find the event and hopefully it will be less daunting for newcomers than seeing the map for first time when you register.

Last year we didn’t do quite as well at getting the results published as we would like. So this year, there’s a new results area, that’s a part of our website. This will include the main results table and all the splits in one place. To test it the 2012 event results are all there if you want to have a look. It’s not quite finished yet, so any feedback would be welcome.

The website is also having a spring clean! Based on feedback, the menu is improved, the layout and design has changed and some of the clutter has gone. It also now works properly at www.nymbo.org.uk Please do get in touch if there are any other improvements you would like to see.

Want to help out at an event?: We have a small but enthusiastic band of helpers but if you want to join them (and get a free ride) please let me know. There is always space for a few more – especially control collectors after the event.

Hope to see you at one of the events in 2013!
Steve

Current weather conditions have led us to decide that this Saturday’s event at Beckwithshaw should be postponed a week to Saturday 2nd February. Hopefully the weather will have warmed a few degrees and conditions will be more suitable – hope to see you there!

Tim, Adrian and mates proving that conditions were ok!!!

Can be found here

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

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

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

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