Event Details
Club: | BM MBO |
Event Name: | Winter Wanderland - Event 3 - Rudry near Caerphilly |
Date: | 05/02/17 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 2 hrs |
National League: | - |
League: | Black Mountains MBO (Round 3 of 10) |
Electronic Punch: | No |
Event Report
It was an honour to be able to plan and organise a Winter MBO event in this area just North of Cardiff where I developed a passion for running and mountain biking in my post University years.
Having planned the 4 hour Brechfa event on an A3 last year I thought that by planning an event on an A4, it would be suitable for a 2 hour event. It was only in the week leading up to the race that I realised that it would take 51km of riding including 1300m ascent to clear the course. That was sufficient to fill a 3.5hour event! Oops but hey, it resulted in more route choice.
After a few recces, I discovered that many of the bridleways shown on the 1:25k OS map were incorrectly aligned and/or had become overgrown. To enable a fair and enjoyable event I prepared a map which replaced the inaccurate bridleways and tracks with more accurate detail. And on the night before the event I decided to change some of the control values to enable more route choice; a strategy which proved to be successful.
The terrain was riding well due to the mild winter up until the week leading up to the race. However a few days and nights of rainfall soon changed the moisture susceptible dirt tracks!
39 individuals braved the wet and muddy conditions on a cold day with clear skies. The event had quite a bit of ascent too with the lowest CP at 30m AOD and the highest at 265m AOD. Not only this, but the participants had to climb the same two ridgelines a few times but from different directions!
Congratulations to the overall winner Ifor Powell who scored 266 points who narrowly beat Richard Haynes who scored 262. Michael Holloway finished third overall with a score of 260 points. It was a close results table with only 50 points between 1st and 10th position.
Other results included:
1st female: Clare Dallimore (8th overall & W21 class winner)
2nd female: Nicki Griffin (W50 class winner)
3rd female: Katie Darlington (W21)
Y18 Ieuan Best
M21 Matt Stott
M40 Ifor Powell
M50 Richard Haynes
M60 Nick Dallimore (4th overall)
W60 Caroline Dallimore
M70 John Parfitt
G Lisa and Adam Methven
X50 Gareth and Grace Davies
A big thank you to Dawn for providing a great service with the post event nutrition and refreshments. Dawn got significant support from Caroline Dallimore too which was much appreciated and some lovely cakes from Caroline, Clare and Mark P.
Gary Davies