2019 Black Mountains MBO Season recommenced on Sunday with the first of our Small Area Format (SAF) events of the winter in the North of the Forest of Dean. It was a fantastic turnout with most riders opting for the 3-hour, we did have a few newbies try the simpler 2-hour Score which we hope you enjoyed. Last year the course was cleared so I was determined to stop this happening again, the best way to achieve this was to avoid an obvious change over point and make sure the Blue & Red CPs were well mixed.

The conditions took a turn for the worse on Friday night when we had a heavy covering of wet snow, this quickly thawed and turned the surface of even the harder tracks a bit gloopy. The weather on the day did however behave and the temperatures weren’t too bad for the time of year.

There were some very good scores posted on the day with plenty of route variation, very well done to John Parfitt who won the 2hr Score Event. The top 3 in the SAF Event were Ifor Powell (M50) 486 pts, 3min 8 sec late, followed by Mark Rowley (M50) 486 pts 3mins 49secs late, Iwona Szmyd (W40) was 3rd & the first female on 483 pts. Interestingly both Ifor & Mark opted for Blue CPs first on identical routes, Iwona chose Red CPs and all three only dropped one 10 pt CP.

The other 3 hr SAF class winners were, Dave Tipper (EBIKE), Lisa & Adam Methen (G), Mark Ponsford (M21), Gary Davies (M40), Nick Dallimore (M60), Mike Wimpenny (M70), Nicky Griffin (W50), Val Ravenhill (W60), Ro Cole & Khem Sattaur (Mix), & Huw Higgins-Worrall (Y18).

The Black Mountains League has also been updated using the new Average 5 pro-rata calculation and after 2 Events the standings can be found via the Club Website Link on the BM MBO Tab.

Thank you very much for all the kind donations collected on the day, £70 went to the WI for making the cakes (The Soup was paid for out of the entry fee) and £140 went to Severn Area Rescue Association, in the hope that we never need them!!

My appreciation to Jason Bennett, Ian Kennett, Doug Wilson, James Brown, Gill Stott & Ifor Powell who stayed behind help tidy up & collect the CPs. Ruardean Hall Sports Club and the WI are also have our gratitude for hosting a feeding us, we’ll be back.

Next Event - The Narth (SAF) on Sunday 17 February, see you there and by special request more hills will be available.

Siôn and the Black Mountains Planning Team