Event Details
Club: | Lakeland Orienteering Club |
Event Name: | Lakeland BikeO Series 5 |
Date: | 29/06/10 |
Format: | Bike O |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 2 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | Lakeland BikeO 2010 (Lanequest) (Round 5 of 6 events, best 4 to count) |
Electronic Punch: | No |
Event Report
Event 5 of the 2010 Lakeland Lanequest series saw yet another glorious evening in sun-drenched Cumbria. The venue for this week’s event was the Derby Arms in Witherslack and yet again there was an excellent turnout of 150 riders.
Event organiser Neil Hazlehurst set an excellent route covering ground in and around Lindale, Cartmel, High Newton, Cartmel Fell and Witherslack. The course was a good deal shorter than the previous week in Fylde, to account for the extra hills which had to be negotiated.
David Heffernan was once again the leading rider in the Men's solo, collecting all 30 controls with 4 minutes to space to score 308. Mike Toyn and David Hollingham also visited all 30 controls, Toyn finishing just inside the two hour time limit for a score of 300 points and Holligham a couple of minutes late for 296.
These three riders all followed similar routes. Heffernan and Hollingham visited 24 - 25 – 23 - 27 -26 -21 – 28 - 30 - 29 - 22 - 18 – 19 - 12 - 8 – 3 - 1 - 5 – 7 – 11- 20 – 15 - 10 - 9 -2 - 4 - 6 - 13 - 14 - 16 - 17. Toyn varied this slightly by taking control 1 after control 2. Please see David Heffernan’s note below with his later thoughts on a better route that everyone missed!
In the Women's solo Anne Plant returned to winning ways scoring 270 points, just ahead of Rachel Toyn (252) and Jenny Stuart (240).
Junior riders Bryony Halcrow and Joseph Oglesby both scored a very fine 250 points in the Junior class. In the very hotly contested Generation Pairs, Steve & Jake Mason scored 260, to lead from Matt & Katie Woods (250) and Tom & Matthew Phillips (240).
The Adult Pairs class saw Andy & Sarah Crozier win again with a fine score of 270 from Mike Brooks & Andy Beck (250) and the super fit veterans Tony & Pauline Richardson (236).
The final event of the series takes place next Tuesday at the traditional venue of Wilf's Café in Staveley. The overall league positions are quite finely balanced in some of the classes. In the Men's solo the competition for the title appears to be between Toyn and Heffernan. Toyn currently holds the upper hand but since he is the organiser of the final event he cannot improve his score. Heffernan would tie Toyn's score with a result of 302 points so it is really in the balance.
Anne Plant has already enough points to claim the Women's Solo title once again but there is a close battle between Rachel Toyn, Mary Ockenden, Jenny Stuart and Lorna Hewitt for the minor places.
In the Junior class Bryony Halcrow's commendable consistency through the series makes her strong favourite going into the final event. The Generation Pairs appears to be between Steve & Jake Mason and Matt & Katie Woods. Finally, in the adult Pairs, Andy & Sarah Crozier have a comfortable lead over Tony & Pauline Richardson.
The final event of the series of six 2010 Lakeland Lanequests, is on Tuesday 6th July with the traditional “Winners Cut The Cake” event from Wilf’s Cafe, Staveley.
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Photo - Multi World Champions start –
At the start of the Lakeland Lanequest event from the Derby Arms, Witherslack – (left) Anne Plant who has been the U.C.I. World Masters Road Race Champion in the years 1998, 99,2001,02,03,07 and 2008 and currently the holder of the World Cup. On the right Charlotte Somers Cocks the 2010 - W50 World Champion won at the recent World Masters MTBO Championships, as well as having been a previous winner of the World Masters Orienteering.
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Note from Neil Hazlehurst event organiser
Some hours after the event David Heffernan emailed me as follows -
“Neil
Argh, I've just realised that we all missed a better route. Instead of 8 3 1 5 7, or as Mike did it 8 3 5 7 and then collect 1 as out-and-back from 2, a much shorter route is 8 5 7 and then later on take 2 1 3 as a long out-and-back.
If you look at it on the map then it feels all wrong but it's shorter and I think, if anything, has less climb (certainly no more).
Could have been worth a couple of minutes if any of us had been sharp enough to have spotted it.
Cheers, David”.
Out of interest when I went round to collect the controls I followed this “better route”, to find that David was right, as it is about 50.2km (31.2 miles) as against the route that I had expected to be the optimum route and that was actually ridden by the riders going to all 30 controls, 52.3 km (32.5 miles).
Photos from the Witherslack event are available to view at - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycle-cumbria/sets/72157624408542230/
Also very special thanks to the excellent team of helpers who made the event possible and coped admirably with the 150 riders that took part – one of the helpers at the start /finish was the 2010 - W50 World Champion won at the recent World Masters MTBO Championships –congratulations Charlie – (Charlotte Somers Cocks W50 World Champion)
See the report on the BMBO web site - http://www.bmbo.org.uk/news/article.php?news_id=46