Event Details
Club: | Manx Timing Solutions |
Event Name: | Manx 2017 MBO Score Series - Round 1 |
Date: | 21/01/17 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 3 or 5 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | - |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
Manx MBO Event Report - January 21st 2017
After a 4-year break, last Saturday saw a return of the popular "Trailquest" events to the Island.
For the uninitiated, Trailquest is very different to a conventional race: A number of checkpoints are positioned on rights of way and around the plantations. Each is sited at a particular feature(e.g. "gate", "Tin shack") etc. But the real skill lies in interpreting the map and navigating precisely to the correct location. As we all know the trails so well on the Island, very few of us regularly navigate with a map - so it's a real challenge for some!
For the event HQ, we used a new venue at St Mark's Village Hall. This offered a really cosy setting, with wooden floor, toasty heating and a really well equipped kitchen area. Sue prepared Tea, Coffee & Cakes for everyone on their return on what turned out to be a fine, sunny, but cold January day. The hall was lovely & warm by the time riders started trickling in from the dual 3 and 5 hour courses.
The event map covered the undulating hills in the South of the Island. This area offers an ideal terrain for a winter event, with a high density of trails and plantations, but avoiding the high-level moorland that dominates the Northern half of the Island. The same map was used for both the 3 and 5 hour events. With the easier ground naturally closer to the event centre, this gave a variety of choices to the 3-hour riders, whilst offering a serious challenge to the 5-hour epic contenders.
Mark "Jasper" Corkill was first back from the 3-hour event, having suffered bottom bracket failure and a few missed checkpoints. We hope that Mark will be back next time for another go. It is worth mentioning that there are quite a few articles on technique on the BMBO website! Well worth reading.
These events attract a diverse entry and it was good to see some familiar faces that we don't normally see at the regular MTB races. The beauty of these events is that they offer a more extended ride that combines various skills rather than the heads-down style of a conventional race. Many opt to ride as a team, which makes it naturally a more social ride and some of our pairs opted to ride together, making it even more of a fun day out! Add free Tea & Cake into the equation - what's not to like!
Although Trailquest is most definitely not just about winning, there were some very impressive performances in both the 3 and 5 hour events.
Taken as a whole, there were a total of 555 points available across all the checkpoints. This on a course that took me some 11 hours to put out - entirely on my Fat Bike plus a very heavy rucksack!
In the 5-hour event, the strong pairing of Darran Leadley & Lee Tyrer notched up a whopping total of 555 points, with 12 minutes to spare. Solo rider and 24-hour specialist Stephen Kelly scored 524 points, just ahead of David Gooberman and Andrew Dunn, who tied on 519 points with David just taking it on time. Lee Clayton and Dominic Williams took second place in the 5-hour pairs on 318. It is early in the season to tackle a 5-hour event, so congratulations to David Filson (420), Steven Winn (420) and Michael Craine/Jon Jurczynski (260) who also took on the extended challenge.
In the 3-Hour event, Peter & Bob Clague were the leading pair on 260 points, just ahead of Russell Collister & Paul Cubbon on 250. Newcomer Chris Gledhill also scored 250 and was the leading solo.
It is a rare thing to get a tie in this event, but 3rd place overall was shared by the mixed team of Ben & Helen Dunlop and John Barker - both on 245 points and an identical time! It was good to see Steve Partington pairing with son Finn (240) plus many others who don't do the regular MTB races. Gary & Simon Cooper also took time out from LDLR preparations to enjoy some winter sunshine!
Paul Kneen and Tom Cringle teamed up to form a power-team and, at one point, had scored an impressive 335 points. However, their enthusiasm outstripped the time limits and they arrived back 31 minutes late - their impressive tally being wiped out by time penalties - Nil-points!
We had provisionally hoped to run a mini-series of 3 events, but have now decided to drop the February event (just not enough time to prepare properly) and, instead, to focus on the March event. This will move forward one week from the advertised date to Sunday 12th March, to avoid any conflict with other MTB events. So, please put this date in your diaries - online entry will open as soon as we have fixed the event area. Again, we are somewhat constrained in choice of venue as it is a tad early in the year to be organising a 5-hour event on the Northern Hills. The South of the Island offers a more varied event area, so we may opt to use a similar area, but with a different HQ - and varying the course as much as possible. Details to follow shortly!
Results: Position, Name, [Points],Time;
= 5-Hour Trailquest =
1, Darran Leadley Lee Tyrer [555] 4hr 59min 58sec; 2, Stephen Kelly [524] 5:00.10; 3, David Gooberman [519] 5:00.40; 4, Andrew Dunn [519] 5:00.41; 5, David Filson [420] 4:53.50; 6, Steven Winn [420] 4:54.04; 7, Lee Clayton Dominic Williams [318] 5:01.40; 8, Michael Craine Jon Jurczynski [260] 4:44.46.
= 3-Hour Trailquest =
1, Peter Clague Bob Clague [260] 3hr 23min 24sec; 2, Russell Collister Paul Cubbon [250] 2:56.52; 3, Chris Gledhill [250] 2:58.16; 3, Ben Dunlop Helen Dunlop [245] 2:58.16; 5, John Barker [245] 3:04.36; 6, Steve Partington Finn Partington [240] 2:57.57; 7, Craig Hindle [230] 2:57.14; 8, Keith Skillicorn [230] 3:12.49; 9, Ian Strodder [225] 3:04.01; 10, Patrick Kelly [225] 3:04.35; 11, Brendan Fargher Diane Motley [220] 2:55.32; 12, Cameron Crabtree [220] 2:58.30; 13, Seamus Shea [220] 2:58.57; 14, Simon Cooper [220] 2:59.53; 15, Gary Cooper [191] 3:06.22; 16, Catreena Quirk [191] 3:06.23; 17, Aidan Mallinson [190] 2:44.39; 18, Dave Newsham [187] 3:08.19; 19, Andy Bostock [165] 2:54.18; 20, Gillian Crebbin Sophie Killey [135] 2:55.40; 21, Colette Corlett Wayne Milne [135] 2:56.37; 22, William Cooil John Nippress [135] 3:17.45; 23, Jan Catchpole June Collister [110] 2:40.10; 24, Peter Gage Tanya Sanderson [40] 2:27.32; 25, Mark Corkill [35] 1:58.45; 26, Claire Cavanagh [0] 3:26.12; 27, Tom Cringle Paul Kneen [0] 3:30.48
Results by: www.manxtimingsolutions.com.