A new website focusing on uk adventure racing went live over the last few days. Although it is the home of the UK Adventure Racing Championship and National Ranking, which doesn’t effect us here in Northern Ireland as we don’t have any associated races, it is a portal for all things AR in the UK, including all the races, useful links, facts and importantly …. fellow adventure racers.

The aim of the UK Adventure Racing website is to:

• Create a central hub for all things UK adventure racing. A one stop shop where you can review the rankings leader board, read blogs, see what races are coming next and look for team mates.
• Grow UK Adventure Racing, working with adventure racers, clubs, teams and event organisers.
• Allow UK adventure racers to compete against each other at a National level.
• Provide a platform for teams to establish themselves and compete against each other.

Definitely worth a look for any aspiring or ‘seasoned’ adventure racer, whether UK and Ireland based.

Check out UK Adventure Racing here.

You may have heard noises recently about a new initiative to help unite the voice of mountain biking in Northern Ireland. Well, a new Mountain Biking Alliance has been set up to do just that.

The Northern Ireland Mountain Biking Alliance was formed in January 2012 to help provide a strong, cohesive voice for the rapidly growing sport of mountain biking in Northern Ireland, and to share best practice for the development of new trails across the country.

Your support will add to efforts in the planning and delivery of progressive, challenging, world-class mountain biking facilities in Northern Ireland.

Those efforts will involve close liaison with many public sector organisations, including Forest Service, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Local Councils, SportNI and CAAN, as well as a wide range of others in the voluntary and private sectors.

Membership to this group is now open and everyone from bikers, clubs and businesses are all welcome to sign up free of charge. Check out the website at www.mtbni.blogspot.com for more information.

Last Saturday (28th January) was the 2nd round of the CCAR Winter Race Series. The ‘Skirmish on the Bann’ was centred around the University of Ulster at Coleraine and the race area covered the area north between Portstewart and Portrush and out towards Bushmills. There wasn’t much preparation leading up to the event. My sac was quickly sorted out on Friday night and the pedals on the bike changed over to my ‘power grip’. The forecast for the race was dry, but cold. The only change from the last race was I decided to just wear a long sleeve thermal under my Golite wind-top, carry less fluid in my hydration bladder, but use a 750ml bottle on the bike.

The rest of the ‘Mandatory’ kit I had already pre-packed and simply lifted it from the kit box and threw them into my sac. Half an hour to sort everything out – I like races like this.

I was racing again with Richard Numan and there was a wee bit of a panic on Saturday morning when Richard, driving up from Dublin, was running slightly late and didn’t arrive until 9:25am (the race start was for 10am). Panic was over and we both got quickly sorted for the start. Again, before the start of the race, everyone was trying to work out where Des (the planner) was going to send us. The control sheet didn’t really give anything away, but we were told there was a 32km bonus loop for teams who made it back by 3pm.

The race began with a run around the football pitches for one of the team members. When they returned and joined up again with their team mate, both were given a short task to collect a series of numbers from ‘photo clues’ on a A4 sheet. With the correct answer you were then allowed access to your bikes. At this point we still did not have a map of the course. Once on the bikes we have to follow and ‘arrowed’ route around and along some muddy trails that lead out to the back of the university campus. A couple of teams missed one of the turn offs and Richard and I quickly realized we were one of the first 5 teams away.

Once we finally got the map it was quickly down to business. The first section took us towards Portstewart via the back roads and muddy lanes. At TA 3 the first task was a run along the seafront and up past the Dominican College – we had to count the benches along the final stretch. There was a SI box, which marked the turn around point and then it was a simple run back to the bikes.

Arriving at the bikes we were given an A-Z map of the town and had to complete a MTBO task around the streets of Portstewart. The controls could be visited in any order, except and last one which was to mark the exit point back onto the main map. The MTBO was great and quite tricky. The best route choice was not obvious as the streets around the houses mostly ended in cul-de-sacs … We arrived at the final control with Team Bro Where art tho? (Ian and Brian Lockington) and we could see that there was just two teams ahead of us (Team Passing Wind – Billy Reed & Gerry Kingston and Team Dogleap – Peter Cole & Peter Crommie). They were less than a couple of minutes ahead of us.

The next bit of biking was along the coast road into Portrush. The next TA was in the Car Park at the south end of the seafront. Now off the bike we were given another task and more running to do. The task was to follow photo clues of landmarks which lead to each control. Once at the control you should be able to see the next photo clue from where you where standing. I was a very good task and something different to just following the map again.

Back on the bikes and it was a bit of a long ride to B14. There was an obvious route choice, but we decided to follow the road around, rather than go onto the beach. The road option was slightly longer, but the road would have been faster rather trying to ride over sand. The task at B14 was fairly simple with one teammate being blind folded and the other leading him or her around a short taped course, up and down the sand dunes. Quickly we were back on the bikes and following the route back to the University. After 5km we reached B16 and another interesting task – a bit of orienteering around a caravan park using an aerial photograph. Unusual, but great fun.

We were having our own great little battle with Ian and Brian Lockington, which made the racing even more fun. Both teams lost a bit of time at B18 as we weren’t too sure whether to go straight down to the kayaks or up the the start/finish. A quick read at the instruction sheet and we headed up to the transition at the start/finish line.

Now running down to the kayaks, we could see that Passing Wind and Team Dogleap were still not that far ahead of us – even with our slight delay at B18.

The kayak was a simple 2.5km up and back along the River Bann. Richard and I quickly got into a good rhythm and managed to get some clear water between us and Ian and Brian Lockington. Kayaking felt really good and even those I thought it may have been a bit too far for a lot of ‘newbie’ teams, I really enjoyed it.

Back up at the university we were given an orienteering map of the campus grounds and had to complete and 8 control course. It was quite a long course (5km) and with more running, my legs were starting to feel it. Control 6 was at the gym and we had to do a series of five 1 minute circuits before we could continue. During the circuits I managed to stretch out my legs and they felt alot better running around the last two controls to the finish.

Over 4 hours of hard racing and I was glad to reach the end…..bugger ……32km bonus loop!! We made the cut off time and so raced off on the bikes after Ian and Brian Lockington, who had managed to get a 2 minute lead over us from the orienteering loop.

The bonus loop was quite simple, ride out to Bushmills as fast as you can and then back following the same run in as the earlier biking loop.

It was about 12km out along the B17 road to Bushmills. Riding into Bushmills I spied the route back out and made a mental note of it. The control at BL1 was at the Bushmill’s Activity Centre. We had a short task of completing the short permanent orienteering course around the centre’s grounds. Billy and Gerry were still in the grounds when we arrived so again I knew we were only a few minutes behind them.

We managed to get back out onto the bikes before Ian and Brian Lockington and quickly lost sight of them on the road out of Bushmills. The route back was straight forward and it was a matter of keeping a good pace going. Leaving BL5 I noticed my front tyre was slightly soft. Damn, not a puncture with less than 3 km to go. Luckily it was a slow enough puncture that I manged to ride back to the finish with not too much trouble – I didn’t fancy running the last couple of km with a bike on my shoulder.

The finish line was gladly received. That was a tough race. Fast, with great navigation tasks and some good route choices available. Only four teams managed to do the bonus loop, which showed how tough the course was. Richard and I held on to third place by a good 10 minutes, but ended up 15 minutes behind Billy and Gerry, who got second. The two Peters flew around the bonus loop and grab a well deserved 1st place.

Super race, maybe a bit too tough for the majority of teams, but most people I spoke to had really enjoyed it.

For me it was one of the best CCAR races I have raced. It felt like a proper ‘short’ one day adventure race – the only thing that was missing was a mountain in the middle somewhere. It had bits for everyone – whether they were good runners, good navigators, good bikers or good kayakers (though a bit short to make a difference on the paddling leg) …..the trick was to try and be good at everything……or to have the team with strengths in each. This is why I love adventure racing… the variety of activities, the unknown, the team mates and the different locations. It does not have to be 5 days in the wilderness to be a great race …. 5 hours around the north coast is just as fun.

The only negative was the race was too tough for the CCAR series, which I think needs to stay at that level to help introduce the concept of adventure racing to the ‘newbie’ weekend warrior, rather than kill then on the first go. ……… but I totally enjoyed it and had that buzzing feeling at the end of the race that you know you have pushed myself.

I do secretly hope that the odd ‘tough’ race like this one still makes an appearance at the CCAR every now and then.

Well done to everyone involved.

Results

More excellent photos from Richard Wilkinson

A new 24hr adventure race as been announced for the end of March 2012. Taking place in the Wicklow Mountains, with the race HQ at Roundwood, it is being organised by experienced local racers and should be a cracker of a course. Ireland can now boast three 24 hour races within a year; Beast of Ballyhoura, The Raid and now the Shamrock AR.

The race blurb …..

Places are limited to 15 teams. Teams must consist of four people including at least one female. The committee reserve the right to refuse entry to a team if we feel that the team does not have sufficient experience. Please make sure to get your entries in early to avoid disappointment!

The race will include hill running / trekking, mountain biking and kayaking. Navigation is a key part of adventure racing. At least one member of the team must be able to navigate, but it would be better to have two or more navigators on each team. The race will also include other tasks which you will be given on the day.

Each team will be given a list of grid references throughout the race. You must plot these and decide which ones you are going to obtain. It may not be possible even for the strongest teams to obtain them all! The race will be based in Roundwood. Cooking facilities, tea and coffee, showers and floor space will be provided. You can spend as much or as little time at the base as you like.

Most competitors will be out in the hills for long periods of time, often in remote areas and technical terrain. The weather conditions could turn nasty. You will need to know how to look after yourselves in the mountains. A knowledge of the necessary food and fluids required is a must. Teams must be competent of looking after themselves in the hills, particularly at night.

The race will be challenging but fun!!!!

Check out the new website at shamrockar.org and maybe I’ll see you in Wicklow. The race starts  at 12 noon on Sat 31st March.

I was looking forward to this round of the Dromara CC Trailquest Series. Over the last couple of events held in the area, I always felt that I never quite got up to speed and had been unluckily with some of the controls. I certainly felt I had some unfinished business with the ‘Lecale’ area.

The weather on Sunday was certainly encouraging – clear, dry and not much wind. It had been dry leading up to the event, which meant the mud should be ‘manageable’ on the trails.

It was great to see that another big turn out descended on the race HQ at Paddy’s Barn. With over 91 riders making up 45 teams, the roads and trails between Downpatrick, Strangford and Ardglass would be teaming with mountain bikes.

My start time was 11:07am, but I arrived early it make sure I had everything prepared ok. The last time I was on my bike was at the Christmas trailquest and I was still picking off grass and dried mud off the frame ….. at least the chain and gears were cleared and lubed ok. I turned on my Garmin GPS watch, that I use to time my 3.5hr, and noticed I had a low battery. Bugger, it might last the length of the race, but I decided to throw my wrist watch into my sack as a backup.

Once 11:07 arrived, I got the map and my time started. A quick look at the map and I realised there was going to be a lot of riding today. Most of the controls centred around Saul, with a few leading south. The high scoring controls were isolated down at Ardglass, then nothing until you hit the outskirts of Strangford.

I decided to head south first and then work my way up to the controls around Strangford and then pick off the controls north of Saul on the run home.

First I got O1 at the Church. I made the mistake and followed the description before looking closely at the map first. I went to the ‘main’ entrance of the church first instead of stopping at the ‘back’ entrance, as shown on the map. Best to get the mistakes done early .

Next I headed down to V and then back up the grass lane to get A and then back around to get O. Next, I continued north east out of the lane to join the track and quickly picked up AA. W was next, but I rode past it my mistake and had to double back for a 100m. Back on route I got F and at the road I turned right and the next left at the cross roads, heading down towards Ballycruttle. I stopped down the lane to get H and a note said you had to go to the gate at the top of the hill. At the gate there were about a dozen cows crowded around the field entrance and I decided I couldn’t go in to get the control. Afterwards, I didn’t realise the control was the yellow tape on the acutal gate – I was looking for something that said ‘Off Road’ on it. An easy 10 points lost.

Continuing down to Church Ballee, I got AF and then looped round to pick up AE before heading out the road west, across the main B1 road and around to get the 30 pointer at B. Back up to the B1 road and followed it south into Ardglass. The two 50 pointers at K and M were relatively easy and quick to collect. P was next and riding away from it I bumped into the first team I had seen since W.

Next it was back north. It was a good 10km up the A2 to Strangford. Now was the time to simply ‘put your head down and peddle hard’. I passed a few more teams on the way up and realised I was a bit further ahead on the course than they where. Control G required reading the info sign for the answer and then it was straight into Strangford to pick up another easy 10 points behind the ferry terminal at AB, then up onto to top of the town to pick up the trail that lead to Y and I. At this point I had an hour left on the clock. I quickly sped through Castleward to pick up the road at the north side. Following it, I cut back along the shore line to where U was located. …..but I couldn’t see the control marker. Was I at the right end of the track? I quickly rode up to it, but nothing was there. I rode back down again and double checked the tree that I thought the control should have been on. There tucked down right at the bottom was the control. Sneaky!

Back on the road, I cut down and got C. Leaving C, my Garmin’s battery finally packed up at 51km and 2hr 53 minutes. I quickly changed back to wearing my wrist watch and know I had to be back by 2:37pm. Then I continued until I rejoined the main A2 again and then cut down right to get D at the pink gate house. The control at Q2 was a wee bit more tricky to find as it was nicely tucked behind the wall. I wasted too much valuable time looking to the ‘post’ and nearly gave up, until I spotted the top of the post poking up over the wall.

Following the road around, I picked up the lane to get L and E. I missed L as I was looking for slightly bigger burnt object than a chair. Plus I was starting to run out of time and I didn’t have the time to go back the 50 meters or so. Also the middle section of the lane was a thick river of mud!! E was ok to located and finally I was back out on to my last road section. I quickly continued down the road and hit the second left, which lead to my last control at Z. A few minutes later I was back at Paddy’s Barn and the finish. Just a couple of minutes late, but not too bad an effort.

23 controls collected and 480 points scored. If I hadn’t mess up H and L it would have been a huge 500 point score, but not this time. I was 3 minutes late so I knew my score would drop to 477 – still a winning score ….I though???

Once the results came out I missed 1st place by 3 points with a score of 457. What? where did I lose 20 points from. Later it turned out I must have wrote the wrong sequence down while upside down trying to read the control at A underneath the stile.

Oh well, not the perfect run I had hoped for, but it was close

Well done again to Dromara CC for another well organised event and to Paddy’s Barn for some lovey post race sandwiches. I pushed hard to this event and it should have payed off, but I was just unluckily. The main outcome was I enjoyed the race and the challenge and can’t wait for the last round in a couple of weeks time.

 Report/Results

[Direct from TrailBadger]

You might have noticed on Facebook and elsewhere that the Blessingbourne trails are in need of a bit of repair in some places. This is due to the massive demand there has been to use the trails, which is great!

There is a volunteer crew being gathered at the minute, and you know what they say… Many hands make light work! Have a look at the link below, and get involved. What you learn will be useful too.

HURRY, though – the closing date to join the programme is Monday the 9th January.

See the article on the CycleNI website here

The third round of this year’s Dromara CC Winter Trailquest Series was back down at its traditional location around Seaforde. This is the ‘Christmas edition’ and is always a popular round to help burn off those unwanted calories from too many turkey dinners. Last year the event was postponed due to all the ice and heavy snow, but luckily this year the weather was unusually mild. The was a bit of rain in the air at the start of the event, but this quickly disappeared to leave quite a pleasant day……I even remember the sun coming out.

I was nearly in two minds about doing the trailquest. The Castlewellan Cracker was on the same day and I was tempted to run that, however the pull of a 3.5 hour navigation event was just to great and on Tuesday morning I found myself down at Brennan’s Garage signing on for the race.

Again, I was riding solo, which I don’t mind and actually quite enjoy the challenged. Certainly riding solo has its pros and cons compared to riding as a pair, but I think if you are organised, a decent enough rider and a good navigator, then the pros slightly out way the cons.

The area around Seaforde has been used numerous times for the trailquests and ‘many’ control locations used are known by most of the riders who enter the race year in and year out. But as I have said it is not about finding the controls (which can be a bit of an epic battle at some of the events), but choosing the best route between the controls.

On this occasion there was a good spread of controls north and south of the start, which made of any obvious route choice that bit more difficult to work out.

I started just before 11am and looking at the 29 controls on the map I quickly decided to head north and go anti-clockwise around the map. The year before I had headed south first, but today there was enough high pointers in the north of the map to make the ‘time’ gamble. Also I knew I wasn’t going to get all of the controls within the 3.5 hour time level, so I had to be very selective on the controls I could miss.

Starting from Brennan’s Garage I headed for Control AD first. I decided to miss K completely as I though it was a bit ‘isolated’ to be worth the time and the 15 points it offered. From AD I went up to get I, from I I continued along the muddy lane north until I came back out onto the road and then straight up to get T. Control AA and A were straightforward, but I took a slightly longer route into J and then overshoot the telegraph pole. In fact I had made silly little errors for the first couple of controls by simply not concentrating and overshooting the markers.

Leaving Control J I quickly stopped daydreaming and got down to the task in hand.

My next big decision was too leave out Controls G, Q and P. I still planned to get R at the very end if I had time. Controls G and Q were in Eleven Acres and Bohill Woods. They were both ‘dog legs’ along forest trails and controls that could waste a lot of time, if you messed up. I knew if I stuck to the roads and dip in and out to the controls, then I would cover a lot more ground.

So from J it was a 5km ride down and across to S. From there I continued down the road and cut in and up to get AB at the old cottage. Again I turned around and headed back down to the main road I was following until I was able to hop over the wall into Benshill Wood. Here I made my only route choice error. I should have cut into the estate further up the road and rode the dog leg to get Z. It might have meant I had less time to play with towards the end, but I think the 15 points would have been worth it.

After I ran up to get M at the top of the wood, I was quickly back out onto the road and heading to E. Continuing along the lane it was a quick left and then right up to Control D. Following down the lane and it lead directly out onto the A25 road. Here I turned right until I hit control AC at Moneycarragh Bridge. Turning left and it was the 2 km ride towards Dundrum. I headed for the 40 pointer at V first and then back up through Dundrum to the castle. There was a bonus question at the castle and it was easy enough to find. Control X was next and then the quick ride down McMinn’s Land to get C.

At this point I had a good 1.5 hours left, which should be plenty of time to get back.

From Dundrum I was now heading north along the old railway line beside the shore. Control H was ok, but I took the long way round to get N…. there must be a trail I missed that leads directly from the railway path.

Control U was again straight forward, but the control (Y) at the Blackstaff Bridge caused a few issues as I couldn’t find it. The team with me also couldn’t find it and we both agreed that is must have been taken. From the bridge it was back west into Clough and up to Control F at the old motte-and-bailey.

I crossed over the village and headed up the Cumran Land to get Control B. From there I continued north up the lane until I came out at Seaforde. Next it was into the estate to get L and W. Following the map against the trails on the ground had caused me problems in the past, especially coming in from the south. This year I nearly got caught out again until I realized what was causing the problem. The tracks crossed each other via two bridges (or tunnels). Coming in from the north you came in under the bridges and was really straight forward, but coming in from the south (following the map) and you came over the bridges without realizing it and then wondering why there wasn’t any trail junctions. Sussed it now!

Cutting into the estate this year was relatively painless and when I came back out onto the A24 road I still had nearly 15 minutes to go. I quickly decided to head up the road for the 1km to get Control R and then finally I got back to the finish with a minute to spare.

Overall I covered 53km and missed 5 controls out of the 29 on offer. Perhaps Control Z and K may have been possible if I had a smoother run, but I was happy with the route I took.

The weather was a lot kinder this year and luckly I survived without getting any punctures. The map had a good spread of controls and there are many of new control options dotted around to map to keep future competitors guessing.

Well done to Dromara CC for another excellent event and for Brennan’s Garage for the hot soup and rolls at the end. There was over 90 people making up 43 teams which was great to see and hopefully most of them make it to the next Trailquest at Saul on the 15th January.

See you there!

Results/Report

Martin’s Photos

Last Sunday was a cold, clear morning and the forecast for the day was to remain dry…..One thing I learnt finishing the second round of the Dromara CC Winter Trailquest was never truth the forecast!!

We where back at the familar location of the Dromara Village Football Club for the race HQ. However, for the course, that could only mean one thing….hills. Slieve Croob and its surround hills meant you were certain going to clock up the metres in ascent and tired legs were guaranteed at the end of the 3.5 hour time limit. 63 people making up thirty two teams of solo riders, pairs and threes started too arrived at 09:45 am. The first team kicked off at 10:30am and the rest followed at 1 minute intervals. Again, this year all the proceeds from the series are going towards the Northern Ireland Cancer Fund for Children. No sportident was used and it was simple question and answer clues to be written down.

This area of County Down has been used by the Dromara Cycle Club for many years for their trailquests and provides some great off-road trails along the various bridal paths and walking trails. However, it is the tough climbs up Slieve Croob, Legananny, Slievenaboley and Deehommed mountains that most people remember the area for.

Today the map area was to be expected – Dromara Village at the north, Sleive Croob in the middle and the map reaching down to Clonvaraghan Mountain. However, the 18 controls used were mostly located east of the B7 road. The planner stuck with the high ground.

I was riding solo again and started at 10:51am. When I saw on the map that there were only 18 controls, I first thought ‘was completing the course doable?’ There was not much for the route choice. There were a line of 7 controls along the north east section of the map, a cluster of controls around Deehommed & Slievenaboley Mountains on the west and Slieve Croob in the middle. The choice was either clockwise or anti-clockwise. The route between the controls was very straight forward, so the deciding factor was trying to quickly work out if going clockwise or anti-clockwise was quicker. There wasn’t much it in, both way had their pros and cons. However, I decide to head anti-clockwise and head start to the controls around the Deehommed & Slievenaboley Mountains. Hitting the hills with fresh legs was my main reasoning behind my decision.

So I headed south along the B7 road, picking up controls Q, E in the first 1.5km. It was another 5km until I hit the top of the transmitter at Deehommed Mountain to get the fifty pointer at O. I was 30 minutes in and after getting G I continued south to get K and then turned back north to get M. The rain started to lightly fall at this stage and I was beginning to think if carrying by 3 backup marker pens was going to be enough in this wet. Controls B and R were quick to get, but I spent a few minutes scratching my head at N. The question was ‘4 Letter word on sign’, but the sign read ‘footpath’. Now I knew I was in the correct location, but ‘footpath’ was an 8 letter word and even if you split up the word to ‘foot’ and ‘path’…they were both 4 letters. ….strange! I wrote down both ‘foot’ and ‘path’ and cycled on. Over the course there were a few ‘questions’ that didn’t make too much sense.

After the 40 pointer at control I, I had to make my first route choice. At this point I had 1½ hours left. It was a long ride south around the base of Slieve Croob to get to the final 7 controls. The control at the top of Slieve Croob was a 50 pointer, but would take about 20 minutes to get up there…..would that give me time to get the rest of the controls. At this point I hadn’t missed any and I was still planning to try and clear the course.

I decided to hit the top of Slieve Croob and then take the open mountain trail down the north side along the Ulster Way. This would be shorter than headed back south & around and would give me an extra 10-15 minutes to play with.

Reaching the top and the clouds quickly rolled it. Myself and a couple of teams with me where quickly engulfed in strong winds and snow…..it was verging on white out conditions. It was also getting very cold. I decided not to risk going down the open mountain trail in these conditions and headed start back down the access road. Once out of the clouds and wind I started to get some feeling back in my fingers. It was a long enough ride around the south edge of Slieve Croob, but soon I the junction south of Drumkeeragh Forest and another decision to make.

Did I have time to get the two 30 pointers within the forest? Looking at my watch I quickly realised I didn’t have the time, especially trying to look for controls down indistinct trails. I decide to miss them and continued up the road and cut in to get control D, P, J, H along the Bridle Path. Control L was the last control to get and then it was a quick down hill ride back to the finish. I still had 7 minutes to spare.

Overall, it was a testing day with the cold wintery weather toward the end. There were lots of cold hands and feet on return to the football club, but thankfully Dromara CC put on a great spread of food, including tea, coffee and hot soup.

I would have preferred a better spread of controls that would have made route choices that bit more difficult, but maybe the area just did not suit that…..especially with a bloody great hill in the middle of it. Also, a couple of the control circles were way off mark and caused a few more delays trying to confirm that the location was correct. However, it was a great fun day out and that is the key to this series.

In the end I think going clock wise around the course would have been slightly faster, but sure it’s good to gamble.

Thanks as always to Dromara CC to organising the series again and to Derek Hanna and Gary Gray for setting up and running Round 2.

The next round is the Christmas Special on the 27th starting as always at Brennan’s Garage. See you there.

Dromara CC Report and Results

The Northern Ireland Orienteering Association have started to get a bit proactive on the coaching front and have introduced a few events to help people ‘break the ice’ deciding whether to try orienteering and also help them learn the skills required to read and use a map & compass. Allen Bogue is the new Coaching and Talent Development Office and is doing a sterling job trying to push orienteering and coaching development around the three NI orienteering clubs.

To kick it all off NIOA are organising coaching sessions on the same morning as the next four orienteering events. Each session will be held before the races, so you will have an opportunity to practice your new skills during the actual race. The first session starts tomorrow at 10am before the event at Donard Wood, Newcastle. There is a one-off price for the coaching and is only £2 for NIAO members / £3 for non-members. Bargain!

With the recent popular of adventure racing and the CCAR races, these sessions are primarily aimed at adventure racers & runners trying to sharpen up on their navigation. However, it will also suit anyone around orange-ish standard who is looking to move up to light green-ish.

One-off price for the coaching is only £2 for members / £3 for non-members. Bargain!

Also there is an ‘Adventure Pack’ offered at £50. This included 4x coaching sessions, 4x event entry fees and NIAO membership.

Links
NIOA Coaching [facebook page]
NIOA
LVO

Map boards might not sound very exciting, but they are essential kit for navigating whilst on the bike. A new British designed map board called the Mapdec was released a few weeks ago and I was luckily enough to get a hold of one and put it through its paces at last weekends ‘Battle of Antrim’ 5-6hr adventure race.

There is not much to a mapboard – a supporting arm that attaches to the handlebars of the bike and the board itself that sits on top of the base. The important things navigators look for are; how easy the base attaches to the bar– quick release, 2 or 4 screws; does the mapboard rotate and how does the ‘actual’ map stay on the board – plastic cover or bungee cords. Another important point to remember is; will the board start to rattle after a couple of hard rides (sometimes a problem with metal based boards).

Mapdec arrived in a simple, white box with a nice big black & white graphic of the Mapdec on the top. Opening the lid and the pieces of the board with nicely displayed with the instructions clearly printed on the box insert….very simple and very to the point.

The Mapdec come in three pieces – The single strut arm support, the board base-plate and the board itself. Everything was made of hardwearing plastic and only the three screws were metal. The instructions were very easy to follow and it took me less than 3 minutes to put the board together. The Mapdec is able to rotate 360 degrees and is one of the lightest boards available at 200g……looking good so far.

Most boards I have used have a two arm support, i.e. each arm sits either side of the stem. The Mapdec uses a single arm support. The only advantage of having a single arm support is that it takes up less space on the handlebar – great when you have lights etc to attach to the bar. In this case Mapdec uses up only 20mm of space.

Height of the board is also important….too low and it’s harder to focus on any detail and too high and the board simply starts to ‘get in the way’. The Mapdec board sits about 60mm above the bar and seems to be a good average height compare to the various boards have used in the past. The angle of the board is simply adjusted at the time of tightening the support arm to the bar – just move it back and forth to the required angle. It cannot be adjusted mid-ride like some other boards, unless to stop and get your ‘allen key’ out, but then again why would you need to adjust during the race if it is set up at the correct angle in the first place.

The Mapdec supporting arm is not quick-release and has to be attached to the bar with two ‘allen key’ bolts. The arm support only comes in one size so you need to use spacers on the bar to get a tight fit, again depending on the width of your handle bar. In this case, the instructions suggested using old cut-off bits of inner tube. However, I found that on narrow bars it takes 3-4 layers of inner tube before you were able to get a good fit. Not ideal, especially arriving at a race and trying to fit your board onto your bike in the wind and rain…..frustrating is a word that comes to mind and gives quick-release systems an obvious advantage. I found a better solution and used small ‘cut-out’ squares of sticky-back felt pads (used for protect hardfloors from table legs) instead of using inner tubes and it worked well.

Mapdec boards come in two sizes A4 and the smaller A5. I had the A4 board and it attached to the base plate with a simple nut and bolt (just make sure you thighten it properly). There were four bits of felt placed on the four corners of the base place and this help with the friction while rotating the board and also helps dampen any possible rattling between the board and the baseplate. The set up was very simple but looked very effective.

A nice, well thought out feature was the arm support was placed 25mm off centre to the right of the baseplate so when the mapboard is placed on the bike it puts the centre of the map in the centre of your bars. A useful aesthetic (and safe) as it keep you aware of your wheel line when leaning back on descents.

The map itself is attached to the boards via two 4mm bungee loops……a very simple and cost effective solution. Other available mapboards hold the map to the board via a transparent plastic cover, which are locked down by 4-6 press studs.

For MTBO I prefer the transparent plastic cover as the map is securely attached and there is no bungee cords obscuring any details as they run the length of the board at the ends. However, using a large folded map like a 1:50000 OS map and it becomes difficult to fasten the press studs down and you are also at risk of ripping the plastic. This is why for adventure racing I prefer using the bungee cords. I can fit relatively thick maps on the board safely and securely and still be able to quickly remove them if required – even with wet, cold, bloody fingers .

So the important question is ‘how did the Mapdec fair during the race’? Well, simply I didn’t have to worry about it. It was perfect and worked very well. The board was secure on the bars with no movement; it rotated as ‘hoped’ and didn’t become loose; even in the high wind the map (surprising) stayed on the board held by the two bungee cords…..but I must admit that the edges of the map outside of the bungee cords did flap about quite alarmingly at a few points. Last and certainly not least the board did not rattle.

Overall, the Mapdec did its job as designed and did it very well. Maybe two things I would change would be finding a better way to space out the bar so the board is able to get a tight, firm grip and maybe cut a few shallow notches along the top and bottom of the board for the bungee cords to sit in so they cannot be moved about so easily if knocked.

It anyone is looking to get their first mapboard I would highly recommend the Mapdec….its simple, to the point and works. Even someone looking for a replacement or backup board then the Mapdec is certainly worth looking at. The big plus with the Mapdec mapboard is that it is British made, readily available and is at least £20 cheaper than the better known map boards.

…….on benefit of using any mapboard is that they also make surprisingly effective front mud guards.