How cool is it to have a checkpoint near my house!
This was the last race in the summer series of the North Yorkshire Mountain Bike Orienteering club (NYMBO) (although I missed all the rest of them). The race was held in Dacre Banks in the Nidderdale valley, which is only a couple of miles from my house, so I rode my bike to the start as a little warm-up. The race map, I was excited to see, covered the area including Brimham Rocks and my own backyard to the south! Due to my accumulated forays on foot and bike into the neighborhood, I knew all of the roads and trails pretty well. I figured this would help me out with my route choices.
It was another absolutely gorgeous weekend in Yorkshire, sunny, calm, and not too cold. (Two in a row, I know that's almost unheard of!?!) It was really muddy from all the recent rains, though, so I rapidly got my feet wet and my bike muddy and stayed that way for the rest of the 4 hour score course. There are plenty of hills leading out of the river vally, and the course designers put controls on what seemed like all of them! I was able to plan a route that seemed like it would avoid at least a few, plus get some high value controls on the edges of the map. (Plus I was able to avoid a really nasty muddy trail near my house).
Time got away from me at the end, and I was a few minutes late into the finish, but I had a really good day out. Guess local knowledge really does help, as I ended up first lady overall, and 13th out of 85 participants.
Results are HERE
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