Rob Garden put me on to this great blog for MTBO. Emily Benham is one of the top exponents of this discipline in the world.
There are some good opportunities coming up in NZ MTBO. Firstly, Nationals in Nelson in November, on the steep Codgers Mountain Bike Park, then an attractive carnival in the Upper North Island in the New Year, and then (hold your breath) the Australian Championships in Alice Springs in June. Finally a decent excuse to go and see some red rocks and big skies.
I must confess a love/hate relationship with MTBO. Orienteering Grinch Greg Flynn is sometimes right with his "worst of both worlds" assessment, but given the right terrain it can be a great sport. There have been some great MTBO races in NZ. Wanaka, Rotorua, Riverhead and Hamner spring to mind... but often we struggle for the right terrain.
Looking at Emily Benham's blog perhaps sprint MTBO, might be the answer, are there killer MTBO areas out there we are over looking because we have the wrong mindset? (like we missed such great foot orienteering challenges before the evolution of sprint distance?). How could they be used for events?
There are some good opportunities coming up in NZ MTBO. Firstly, Nationals in Nelson in November, on the steep Codgers Mountain Bike Park, then an attractive carnival in the Upper North Island in the New Year, and then (hold your breath) the Australian Championships in Alice Springs in June. Finally a decent excuse to go and see some red rocks and big skies.
I must confess a love/hate relationship with MTBO. Orienteering Grinch Greg Flynn is sometimes right with his "worst of both worlds" assessment, but given the right terrain it can be a great sport. There have been some great MTBO races in NZ. Wanaka, Rotorua, Riverhead and Hamner spring to mind... but often we struggle for the right terrain.
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| The sort of terrain we lack in NZ |
Looking at Emily Benham's blog perhaps sprint MTBO, might be the answer, are there killer MTBO areas out there we are over looking because we have the wrong mindset? (like we missed such great foot orienteering challenges before the evolution of sprint distance?). How could they be used for events?
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| Is Sprint MTBO a goer in NZ? |
1 comment:
You're right that sprint MTBO is great - for me anyway. But I think the focus of MTBO should be to attract bikers to mapsport not to convert foot-orienteers. This market wants a good long ride preferably with technical riding. I would love to be proved wrong though.
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