Nidderdale MBO Organiser’s Comments
Thanks to Neil Reed for an excellent course in this lovely, tough but rarely visited part of the Yorkshire Dales. At least it was dry for most of the day but most of the tracks were very wet which should have taught us to avoid the soft ones.
I thoroughly enjoyed my ride as usual once I'd reached the road at #47 after crossing the moor from Skell Gill. I decided to ride the bridleway along the east side on Gouthwaite Reservoir as I thought it followed the old railway line (which it did but 20 yards to one side)!! However, the route choice improved once I got onto Fountains Earth Moor with the wind at my back. Thanks to Jens Strain for his final, but as always, excellent map, Geoff Moorhouse for his help on the day and especially the control collectors, Graham, Ray, Andrew & Paul who went back out in the worst of the weather.
Unfortunately, some riders used an out of bounds track near #57 as Neil explains below but thanks to Mark Rowley for letting me know at download that he had used it.
Congratulations to Graham Tibbott for another excellent score of 480; Sue Booth outscoring the other ladies with 340 points and the Brand-Barkers winning the mixed again with 295 points. You can follow all of their routes using the splits file and course map on the NYMBO site.
It was brilliant that so many riders in the hall stayed to see the leading riders receive their tee shirts as well as their beer and engraved glasses. Thanks to Rob & Anne Wiltshire of Yorkshire Dales Brewery for sponsoring our events. Then Conrad stood up to speak and I realised why you were all there. Thanks for all of your kind comments and very generous gifts as well as your support over the last 20 years. It has been a pleasure but it's time to step down and let someone else take over. Fortunately, I have had 10 offers from riders to plan and organise events next year, Helen Pollard of Stage1Cycles has offered to sponsor the league and act as secretary. Neil Reed will look after the equipment and Tim Evans will draw the maps, I'll still plan one event every year and hopefully be riding at many others but only if it fits in between holidays and time with our family.
The next NYMBO event is at the Grapes at Slingsby on Saturday 11th November which was originally planned by Brendon Smurthwaite in February. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to a snowy forecast but hopefully the weather will be kinder next month and we can enjoy riding around the Howardian Hills
I'll be there, hope you will be.
Steve

Planner's Comments
Thanks to everyone that turned up for the final NYMBO event of the year. I had enjoyed the planning and recce rides for which I generally had much better conditions than those on Saturday !
I considered the course to be reasonably "tough" and to an extent had in mind those riders that cover a lot more distance than I do when positioning some of the controls in the more far flung corners. I considered the main challenge would be how much time you could spend in Nidderdale before needing to head back.
That said the main intention was to provide something that everyone would enjoy and judging from the positive comments I received this appear to be the case, even for those arriving somewhat late !
Given the soft ground conditions and blustery weather on the day I was pleased and surprised to see plenty of scores in the 400's.
On a slightly less positive note a few riders mentioned that they had seen some riders using the farmers private track leading directly to the road from CP57 which was clearly indicated as out of bounds on the map. Without labouring the point this gives an unfair advantage to those that used this as a shortcut but also potentially undermines future cooperation from the land owners. In this case I had spoken to the farmer and his son on two occasions to explain about the event and to request permission to place a control on his gate whilst emphasising that his track would be clearly marked as out of bounds and that riders would not be permitted to use it. My concern is that in future it would be understandable if they chose to be less cooperative.
Thanks to all those who helped out on the day.
Hope you all had a safe journey home.
Regards
Neil Reed