Moray 2023 - MTBO31 July - 2 August
There were three exciting Mountain Bike Orienteering events at the Scottish 6 Days.
Mountain Bike Orienteering events took place on three evenings during the 2023 Scottish 6 Days:
Monday 31 July - Sprint Race, Sanquhar Woods, Forres
Tuesday 1 August - Sprint Race, Quarry Wood, Elgin
Wednesday 2 August - Middle Race, Altyre Estate, Forres
Further details are on the MTBO page of the Scottish 6 Days website.
Keith Dawson reports:
“As part of the excellent Six Days O Festival, a three-evening series of MTBO races was organised. They were coordinated by Bob Cherry of AYROC, who supplied the start and download teams each evening. They were all held on Steve Smirthwaite's great MTBO maps.
The attendance was excellent, with between 65 and 90 MTBO riders each evening. These were based on Forres with an excellent first Sprint at Sanquhar Woods planned by Jane Chisholm of BASOC. Jane used the one way MTB trails cleverly to pose some interesting micro route choice challenges. A dreich evening lowered the numbers slightly but there were many smiles from both experienced and newcomers who relished the challenge. The Men's race was won by Ifor Powell from Wales and the Women's by World Masters Champion Marquita Gelderman from NZ, who beat all but two of the men in a high class field. Winning times were spot on at 25 minutes.
The second Sprint race at Quarry Wood, near Elgin, was planned by Steve Smirthwaite and made good use of the steeper contours and sweet singletrack and downhills there. The races were won on a fine evening by Mark Stodgell and a second win by Marquita. Again the newcomers had a ball and agreed that technically the navigation in MTBO was trickier than they had imagined.
The third and final race was a Middle at Altyre, planned by Bob Cherry, with some riding along and across the Dava Way and finishing in Sanquhar. A tricky end to the course caught a number of riders out and again the winning times were spot on at 55 minutes. Former World Cup Foot O Winner Alistair Landels won the Men’s A race, with Marquita winning again making it a Kiwi double and a triple of wins for Marquita. Richard Oxlade won the B course, closely followed by Martin Dean of FVO.
Great fun was had by all, and the ESOC President won the prize for the biggest grin of the Series on finishing at Quarry Wood!
There will be another chance to try MTBO in Edinburgh on 1 October at Craigmillar. By the end of the year we will have held more than ten MTBO events in Scotland, and more are planned for Spring 2024, with a double-event weekend in early June based in Glasgow.”
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