Event Details
Club: | Lakeland Orienteering Club |
Event Name: | Lakeland Bike O 12 Series 3 |
Date: | 26/06/12 |
Format: | Bike O |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 2 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | Lakeland Bike O 2012 (Round 3 of ) |
Electronic Punch: | No |
Event Report
Adventure racer Tom Gibbs ousted the established Lanequest cycle orienteering stars for the second week. //
//Dave & Zoe Cowgill’s course around Greystoke, attracted 104 competitors, and used some straight fast lanes, that had riders on the big chainring more than usual in these events. Competitors covered more miles, but had less climbing to do. //
//For the second week running, only Gibbs visited all 30 controls in under 2 hours, scoring 308. Bryan Singleton (298) second, and Mike Toyn (294) third, were just outside 2 hours.//
//The women’s solo competition was, again, very keenly fought, with Jo Cleary (255) recording her first win, over up-and-coming youngster Bryony Halcrow (250) and the experienced Anne Plant (248).//
//Jo’s daughter, Hannah Cleary-Hughes, partnered by Chris Stevens (240). kept it in the family, with their first win in generation pairs. Parris Huitson and Stuart Walker (210) were second and Mike and Bill Berners-Lee (186) third.//
//Carrie Beadle scored 210 as solo junior.//
//Helen Jackson & Paul Vousden (270) won adult pairs, with Mike Brooks & Andy Beck (264) second and Jenny Stuart & Rachel Toyn equal third with Jeffrey Ford & Justin Sheils on 240.//
//Most riders opted to head north from Greystoke, taking an anti-clockwise route, collecting the more distant controls first, leaving themselves more options in the last half hour as they collected the more closely spaced controls to the south.//
//Winner Tom Gibbs described his ride://
//“I did 12-13-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-10-8-9-11-14-19-20-27-28-29-30-26-21-22-17-23-24-25-16-15-18//
//Did it this way round to leave more options at the end. Was debating doing 8 and 9 before 3, but thought it was slightly shorter to do then after 10, plus left decision to the end. Did 20 before 27 despite riding past it as I was doing over 25mph and didn't want to lose time braking! From 25 I headed northeast and picked up the B road to 16 rather than doubling back, not sure if this was the best route, but the B road was pretty quick. All in all I had a good ride, felt better than last week. I think the route was longer, but definitely flatter.//
//Nice atmosphere at the finish in the café. I'll have to go back at some point!”//
//Fourth placed David Heffernan provided a detailed analysis://
//“My route for 29 was as follows:12-13-7-6-4-3-2-1-8-9-11-14-19-27-28-29-30 -26-21-22-17-23-24-16-15-18-20//
////
//The basic approach was pretty much obvious. I'd pretty much decided to drop 25 before I started. For 29 controls you can drop either 20 or 25, it makes little difference. I decided on the ride at control 27 to leave 20 right to the very end. I know that made it a bit longer and added climb, but I wanted the option right at the very end. And it turned out I had enough time to get 20 so that was fine.//
////
//Tom got the route from 25 to 16 a little bit wrong I think. It's 300m longer his way so I guess he could have had another bonus!! If I had done 25, I would have made the same mistake though! Dave Hollingham got it right (as usual).//
////
//The other area with a little choice was how to get 8 and 9. My choice was to pick them up in a loop between 10 and 11. I toyed with doing them as two in/outs from the east. I rejected that because I thought it was around 1km longer than the loop. Dave H came up with something that I had not considered: 8 as in/out from east and 9 as in/out from west. That's a little shorter than both in/outs from the east (2 miles vs 2.2 miles) but has more climb (280ft vs 170ft). My calculations suggest that Dave's route is 1.5 minutes longer than the 2 in/outs from the west.//
////
//Looking at my actual route for 8 and 9, the loop, it's a little tricky to compare with the in/outs. The complication is that you need to remove the stretch of road north of the T junction west of 9 that is omitted on the loop, but included on the two in/out variants. When you do this the distance comes down to 1.6 miles. The climb (again removing that from the omitted stretch of road is 211 ft). My calcs have this as 30s faster than the 2 in/outs from the east. All very tight but amazingly, for once, I think I actually worked this out correctly before the start. The lessons Dave H taught us last year are perhaps paying off (or I was just lucky in my analysis!) No matter, as is often the case with decisions like this, all of the options are pretty much equal to each other.//
////
//Another area where I know people varied, was the route between 30 and 25. I took the west route but I know that Dave H and others went east. The distances are in fact identical and it turns out that east has more climb. I chose west because the road looked faster (fewer wiggles). Another 50/50 choice I suspect.//
//All in all it was a good night and I was pleased to get my decision making right for once after a bad week last time out. I really enjoyed riding for 2 hours on roads I had never been on before. Excellent views over to Saddleback. That road past Eycott Hill from the north was demoralising though!”//
//Women’s winner, Jo Cleary took a similar anti-clockwise route to other successful riders, and gambled on getting control 18 near the finish, when short on time. This tipped Jo to 6 minutes late and 15 penalties, but with 27 controls visited, Jo was just clear of Bryony Halcrow with 250 points and Anne Plant on 248. If Jo and Bryony can maintain this form for the rest of the series, they will present a real challenge to Anne for the honour of cutting the cake.//
//Hannah Cleary-Hughes and Chris Stevens were pleased to win generation pairs for the first time after 3 years of competing://
//“Hannah planned a route for 26 controls, going anti-clockwise, leaving out 1 and 10 (narrow lanes, might be overgrown and slow), also 20 and 27 (extra miles). This left us options to leave out 24 and 25, near the end, which we did, and go for 18, if there was time, which there was – just. We might have been better going for 1 and 10, missing the climb for 8 and 9, leaving us fresher for the drag uphill into the wind for 14 and 19, by Eycott Hill. Riding as a pair is about playing to your combined strengths. Hannah is a good, fit, orienteer. Her strengths for lanequest are good planning and navigation, she’s also fit enough to ride uphill well and keep going for 2 hours. Chris is not so fit, but as an old roadman can still move a bike fairly briskly on the flat, and judge the right pace to get us home just in time”. //
//Finally, like many, Mike Toyn commented on what an enjoyable area it was to ride in, and the hospitality of the Greystoke Cycle Cafe://
//“What a great area to ride in! The roads were superb – nice and fast without too many steep climbs and more importantly, virtually no cars. Well organized as ever and checkpoints well spread over the map. I seem to have developed a knack for picking routes that are longer than they need to be and so ended up riding 36 miles to get all checkpoints. The highlight of the night was the slab of tiffin at the end whilst the low point of the event was turning down to get 25 at the end of the event and seeing the sign say ‘Hoghouse Hill’ and realizing that there was going to a climb involved to test tired legs”//
////
//