Training week

We completed a week of training on various maps making our way up from the Australian State of Victoria through ACT to NSW.

From Daylesford we did a local map then headed to Canberra where we stayed a night and rode a couple of maps including Stromlo Forest Park. We stayed the next night in Gosford, north of Sydney before doing another map on our way further north to our accommodation near Hallidays Point.

This photo was taken during Thursday's training ride. The air force had jets doing multiple fly-bys right over the top of us. This photo was my attempt at trying to nab a shot of the jet plane! Ha! See it? -not! But I did get a good video. It was super loud. It was awesome. It'd be great to fly one of those.

Cyclic navigator rogaine

One of the controls was at a 'ruin' and this wee cottage was nearby and obviously the unruined version of the ruin!

Preparing for Australian MTBO Champs

I am in Victoria, Australia with a team of 15 other New Zealanders preparing for the Australian Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships being held this weekend in NSW.

We arrived on Friday in Melbourne and stopped for a forest training ride on our way by car to Daylesford. We reassembled our bikes after the plane flight at the forest. We had four nights at Tasma House in Daylesford.

Saturday we participated in a 75min rogaine event. It took us from Jubilee Lake and depending on choice, through eucalypt forest and off-road urban areas, to find as many controls as possible in 75min.

On Sunday we rode in the Cyclic Navigator event. It was a 4hr or 6hr rogaine in pairs or solo. I did the 4 hour solo. With 35min to spare I was enticed by the nearby 100 pointer and ended up miscalculating the time to ride from there to the finish and had some points deducted finishing late! Still I manage first solo woman and I think 7th overall.
http://www.eurekaorienteers.asn.au/?p=7602

Great terrain and location. Would have been good to have done it as a pair with husband, Phil.

Preparing for the Australian Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships

World Champs wrap up

The 2012 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships were held in August near Vesprém in Hungary.   A week of training around Budapest and two days of local competition were part of the preparation for the week of World Champs competition. First up was the long distance qualification in which I needed to get a top 30 placing in my heat of the two heats to qualify for the final.  I qualified with 27th for the final the following Saturday. My placings in the individual elite grade finals were 39^th in the sprint distance (31.52 min.), 52^nd in the long distance (110.49 min.) and 58^th in the middle distance (66.50 min.). I was able to claim the fastest split time from the last control to the finish line in several of those races!  I couldn't win overall but I could win something! :)

In the age group relay, two teammates and I brought New Zealand home a silver medal.  This was despite my bike suffering a puncture early in my 3^rd leg of the event after riding over some of the thorny ground that was prevalent on the courses, and ultimately running the bike from the last two controls to the finish line.  

It was a great event that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I was honoured to be able to compete for New Zealand. 

Goodbye Hungary

The last photo in Hungary before dismantling my bike for transport home.

2nd map of the long distance race.

Map 2 took us through the Veszprem city streets to the finish in the square.