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Woodhill to Whaka MTBO Carnival, 4-11 January 2014

Erin Posted: 21 October 2013, 1:44 PM   Entries for the WtoW MTBO Carnival are now open at www.mtbocarnival.com. 6 quality events starting on private forest tracks in Auckland, heading south to Maramarua, and ending up in the MTBing mecca of Rotorua. New or re-mapped areas. Check out the website to enter and for more information. Also "Like" the Facebook page MTBO Carnival by 30 November to be in to win a free meal ticket to the closing Event Dinner and Prizegiving.   rob.g Posted: 21 October 2013, 1:54 PM   3 of the events on new areas will comprise the Australia/NZ Challenge which is held every couple of years, and with a big contingent coming from Australia, and some key people tied up with organising we may have a tough time winning again. The team will be selected after the NZ MTBO Champs in Nelson on the 2nd of November   Michael Posted: 24 October 2013, 11:01 AM   Just back from mapping at Maramarua for the long challenge. Huge scope here in a forest that is normally tied up with rallying and motorbikes, the bikers have created a MASSIVE trail network. A great choice Rob.   Rog Posted: 11 November 2013, 5:44 AM   7 November 2013 Selection Notice Mountain Bike Orienteering - Australia/New Zealand Challenge Auckland/Rotorua January 7, 9 and 10 2014 All riders wishing to be considered for selection to the New Zealand Team to compete against Australia in the up-coming ANZ MTBO Challenge should notify the MTBO High Performance Coordinator, Rob Garden, by 17 November 2013. Notification should be by email to rgmg@xtra.co.nz or to 45 Slater Road, RD 1, Helensville 0874. Please include your club, date of birth and preferred age class where you are eligible for more than one class (remembering that your 2014 age class is determined by your age at 31/12/2014). Classes to be contested in the Challenge are M-20, M/W21 Open, M/W40, M/W50, M/W60 and M/W70. Teams of 3 will be selected for each class. There will be no specific trial event. Selection will be based on all known recent form with emphasis on the recent NZ MTBO Champs and performance in the 2013 Australian MTBO Champs. The ANZ Challenge races are included in the Woodhill to Whaka MTBO Carnival to be held from January 4 to 11 2104. Peter Watson NZOF Convenor of Selectors   rob.g Posted: 13 November 2013, 5:28 AM   We are especially looking for junior men, as last time we did not contest this grade. We have 2 applications but I'd love to see more. Tim maybe? Also in M 70, W60 and W70 we are short of numbers. Don't be afraid to apply if you didn't make the Aus or NZ mtbo champs   rob.g Posted: 15 November 2013, 7:32 AM   The entry page is filling fast with 30 Australians, 1 Brit and 2 Danes, along with plenty of kiwis, including the Otago MTBO Carnival star in Chris Forne. Not like Chris to enter anything early, so he must be excited!!! like the rest of us. There will be plenty of tricky navigation to really suit those with an orienteering background, and a big variety of track type, but some of the best riding in NZ   Michael Posted: 29 November 2013, 4:11 AM   A strong NZ team has been selected, see it on the NZOF website. Or the MTBO website which also links to the Aussie team. www.mapsport.co.nz/mtbo/mtbo.html. We were worried that some significant stand-downs (for planning duties) would weaken us, but there are some excellent names.   rob.g Posted: 5 December 2013, 12:47 PM   100 entrants already and rising fast. This carnival is going to be brilliant, and I'm really pleased to see many non regular mtbo people entering, as well as heaps from Aussie and Europe   rob.g Posted: 15 December 2013, 7:34 AM   Nearly 150 entrants now with 18 juniors so far, which is a record for mtbo in NZ. A reminder that entry fees rise tonight, with a day's grace maybe, but we need to start printing maps. Any questions please ask   rob.g Posted: 30 December 2013, 12:15 PM   Over 180 registered riders now, with a super impressive 42 page bulletin released today. If you want to enter, email the organisers, as a there are some spare maps.   Ad Posted: 5 January 2014, 11:58 PM   Back at work :-( after taking part in the first 2 events. As a first time MTBOer I had an awesome time and really enjoyed the events, just wish I was a bit more bike fit... A big thanks to the organisers and I am sure the rest of the events will be just as good.   Michael Posted: 6 January 2014, 1:14 AM   Day 1 was at "Marquita's Garden" with a dense network of purpose-made tracks in lumpy sand-dune terrain, which saw navigation triumph over speed. Day 2 at Riverhead on bigger country was the other way round (although there's still a dense network of tracks near the HQ). Rain about the middle of the day made things difficult for the late starters. Ordinary results, Winsplits, Split Analyser and RouteGadget are available. RG of course shows the maps and courses. www.mtbocarnival.com   Michael Posted: 7 January 2014, 10:37 AM   Day 3 on "Jessie's Garden" was very like Day 1 but the first of three Aust-NZ Challenge events - middle distance. NZL won 9 of the classes to AUS 1.5, the half being a special arrangement for the 1-person W70 classes. The other class Australia won was W Open where NZ was handicapped by a DNS due to sickness and a mispunch. OTOH Australia was unlucky to miss out on M60 by 3 seconds.   Michael Posted: 9 January 2014, 3:10 PM   Day 4 at Maramarua was a disappointment. Heavy showers turned the clay tracks to mush and there were lots of DNFs. And many people didn't see a series of one-way arrows on the map, leading to them avoiding a particularly muddy stretch. While some amazing times were put up and a jury decided the result would stand for the 6-day competition, the two team managers decided to substitute Saturday's race in the challenge.   Michael Posted: 11 January 2014, 8:56 AM   By contrast Day 5 at Rotorua was great. A MTBO version of the Redwoods/Scion research area was newly mapped showing ridable and unridable areas, and riders had heaps more route choice freedom (and navigational challenge). Australia won M50, M60 and M70, and W40, making the challenge score NZ 15.5, Australia 5.5. It would take a Jimmy Spittle for Australia to win from there, but of course we know that is quite possible!   Michael Posted: 11 January 2014, 9:07 AM   And in the last event of the challenge, in the famous Whaka Forest in superb riding conditions today, NZ claimed the challenge for the fifth successive time. Australia won M and W70, and Womens Open. A number of team members and others missed the final control near the map edge, which many had folded under on their A3 maps. The final tally was NZ 3.5 classes to 8.