May 14/09 10:39 am - Caledon Navigators' Mountain Bike Orienteering Race

Posted by Editoress on 05/14/09
 

An exciting new event on Sunday, May 31, 2009 at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre

This sport, popular in Europe and Down Under, has finally made its way to Canada!  MTB-O is an awesome mix of mountain biking and navigation.

At the start, each competitor will receive a map showing points in the trail system where flags are located.  All of these points are along trails or in open areas, so if you can read a trail map, you can do MTB-O.  Riders will visit these flags in numerical order, trying to choose the best route to visit them all as quickly as possible.

Novice and Regular courses will be offered.  Intermediate mountain biking skills, including single track, are required for the Regular course.  Basic trail biking and navigation skills are sufficient for the Novice course.  Juniors with appropriate biking experience are welcome.  Electronic timing will be used on the Regular course.  Winners will finish in under an hour.

How does MTB-O work? 

Control flags are placed along trails - at bends, junctions and other obvious features.  It will help if you can tell the difference between a hilly trail (lots of contour lines) vs. a flat trail, but if you can read a trail map, you can do MTB-O.  So.. this is the perfect sport to invite your friends who know how to mountain bike, but are novices with a compass.

The Novice course will suit those with basic mountain biking and navigation skills.

The Regular course will suit intermediate bikers (single track with tree roots, but nothing too crazy) and novice navigators - although people with more navigation skill will be able to move faster

You will need a bike, helmet, compass and whistle.  You will also need to ba able to carry the map, so some kind of map holder, map case on your bars or around your neck)

More about MTB Orienteering go to Canadian Orienteering Federation

For registration and details:  http://caledonnavigators.heysport.com

E-mail contact:  Barb@OrienteeringOntario.ca

Many thanks to our generous sponsors -
Axis Gear, Salomon and Mark Honsberger

Courtesy Orienteering Ontario