Events • Alpine Bikes

Alpine Bikes is proud to sponsor Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering.

So what's it all about? Mountain bike orienteering is for all ages and abilities where YOU choose the course. It is an off-road event normally lasting three hours were you navigate around the countryside visiting as many checkpoints as possible.

Follow the link find out more about Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering.

Race Report Yarrow Valley - 3rd July 2011

The Yarrowford SMBO event was our first ever attempt at organising an event, but being keen MBOers and with some amazing riding on our doorstep it seemed like a good idea when we volunteered on a post event high last year. It came as quite a surprise when our event was selected as part of a national league too – the pressure was on!

We spent the months before the event checking out the few tracks and trails we had never ridden, contacting landowners, learning how to use the Sport Ident software and the intricacies of making a map suitable for an MBO event. Andy McLennan, organiser of the first 3 SMBO events, gave us invaluable advice to keep us on the right track – thanks Andy!

The final few days found us out riding the trails we love putting out control points. It took two of us 8 hours, 65km and nearly 2000m of climbing each to lay the course so come the day of the event we were both quite happy to be staying behind at the event centre while every one else set out to explore our wonderful hills.

The day of the event dawned clear and warm, very warm as the day drew on. Our event centre was the Yarrowford village hall which is a fabulous Scandinavian bright red colour (the closest they could get to rust colour apparently!) and is set in a quiet deep valley surrounded by high rolling hills which contain challenging climbs and descents that have you grinning for hours after you finish your ride. In glorious sunshine we set up ready for all the competitors to arrive. After a busy morning everything quietened down as by 11am all the competitors had set out onto the course and we were able to draw breath and sit out and enjoy the sunshine while preparing for everyone’s return.

All too soon exhausted but smiling competitors began to race through the finish. The general consensus was that it was a challenging course not made any easier by the relentless sun but the amazing views and awesome descents made up for it. Several people had to resort to dusting off their compass in order to navigate out of Bowhill Forest (aka The Rabbit Warren), one competitor had to resort to using his teeth to bite out a piece of inner tube to repair a ripped tyre wall and another limped back having patched himself up after “the crash of his life”. Fortunately our enthusiastic first aider was on hand to help clean him up. A quote that stood out was “Why wouldn’t anyone enjoy this, it’s a guided tour of some of the best riding in the country!” Congratulations to Keith and Lynne Brydon who won the mixed pairs with 308 points, James Daplyn and Paul Ryan who won the male pairs with 289 points, Jonathan Ellis who won the male solo’s with 357 points, Rosemary Byde who won the female solo’s with 305 points and finally Jack and Nicholas Williamson who won the generation team with 190 points.

Thank you to Andy for all his advice and support and to all the landowners for allowing us to use their land as well as the village hall committee who provided much needed bacon butties and yummy cake. Also a big thank you to our sponsors Alpine Bikes and High5 nutrition for providing great prizes and freebies and finally to all those who collected in control points – my legs are very grateful!

Race Report Innerleithen - 5th June 2011

Last weekend I found myself blearily getting out of bed for yet another early start and the 3rd event in the Scottish MBO score series. This one was based at Traquair village hall near Innerleithen. I was treating it as a good training race for the upcoming Polaris Challenge and an opportunity to race with ‘new partner’ of the year number 2.

Despite taking the scenic route to the event centre we arrived in plenty of time to study the map and compare notes for strategy. Luckily we were largely in agreement, so the only disputes before the start were over who was going to carry the shared kit. I did detect a hint of a suggestion that I was being over-meticulous with the number of plans for different race scenarios, but decided this was ridiculous and just ignored it!

We shot off at high speed for the first checkpoint. It really was high speed, so I was lucky that the second checkpoint we were aiming for was up a hill. A chance to catch up and give Dan a lecture on the benefits of letting me draft on the road sections! Half an hour in to a 3 hour race and my legs were getting that same feeling as they have on a 10 mile time trial.

Me: “Um, this is somewhat quicker than I’d normally go ...”

Dan: “Yeah, me too, but it’s only 3 hours so it’s supposed to be like that”

Me: (doubtfully) “I suppose ....”

The race went pretty well, notable moments being:

- A scramble up a rather steep embankment to get to a fort we’d approached from the wrong side

- The internal battle I had with myself to stop wasting time and just trust Dan’s navigation when I was confused

- Me trying to keep up on the downhills and a switch in my brain going ‘fun’ / ‘scary’ / ‘fun’ / ‘scary’

- Dan’s pinch puncture – just after the comment “this downhill’s going to be full-on!”

- Following a line only to find myself heading straight for overhanging tree branches - twice

Turns out Dan was right about the speed – I didn’t fade, yet finished the race with very little left and that wibbly-wobbly worked-hard sensation – just as it should be. Not sure if Dan agreed with himself though, since he had a sudden drop-off-a-cliff-like decline about 40 minutes from the end (his excuse reasoning was a recent cold taking its toll). I tried everything to keep us going fast, including goading (‘don’t let a girl beat you’), encouragement (‘let’s go! last push!’), fear (‘we’re going to be LATE!’) and eventually physical pushing (sorry Dan – but it happened!)

Great race, great result as we won the mixed pairs and were 3rd placed overall. Jon, who I raced with in Wales last month, was 1st, just 24 points ahead of us . Other club members competing included Rachel Henderson and Jayden, in what must be almost his last appearance before jetting back to a life in sunnier climes.

I learnt I can go faster in shorter races, that I can ride down hills faster and not die, and that Dan wasn’t so bad as a race partner. Even if he did try and swindle me out of my share of the prizes at the end .

Results: http://www.smbo.org.uk/innerleithen/

Race Report Peebles - 1st May 2011 by Antonia Jupp

Sunshine attracts mountain bikers to Peebles

Fantastic warm sunny weather on Sunday the 1st of May brought 75 competitors from all over the country to Peebles for the second round of the Alpine Bikes Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering Summer series. The Gytes Leisure Centre acted as the event centre for a superb course designed by Rosemary Byde. Check points were scattered over a 90km2 area which included the Meldon hills, Cademuir and Glentress Forest. Each competitor was given an electronic “dibber” and a map then, starting in their own time, had 3 hours to pick a route around as many of the 30 checkpoints as they could without gaining penalty points by arriving back late. Katie and Robin Munro won the generation class with 275 points, Outi Kamarainen and Richard Scarborough won the mixed teams with 315 points, Alison Gillies was the top female rider with 305 points and Andrew Windrum was the top male rider with a great result of 406 points. Full results are available at www.smbo.org.uk. The next round of the series is being held in Innerleithen on the 5th of June, more details are available on the SMBO website.

Thanks to all those who made it such a superb event!

Antonia Jupp

Pentlands Race Report - 14th April by Andrew McLennan

The Pentlands was the first event in the Alpine Bikes Scottish Mountain Bike Orienteering (SMBO for short!!) summer league.

A fabulous sunny day greeted over 80 competitors at the Currie Rugby Club. This was a complete opposite to last year’s event where the heavens opened and it rained for the whole day.

There was a huge range of people who entered the event from novice bikers on old rigid Argos bikes to hardcore XC racers who couldn’t read maps to a family with their son on a tag along bike. Luckily the descents were not too steep! One chap noticed the event during his Sunday run and came back an hour later with his son and entered. Needless to say their local knowledge paid off they came first in the generation class.

The course planner, Rosemary Byde, did a superb job of mixing single track, roads, paths, streets and even the water of Leith into the course. It was a challenging one for all ages and abilities no natural route obvious.

Checkpoint 22 had been nicked which threw some of the novice competitors but the experience ones were at hand to stop them searching and inform them back at race HQ.

Easter eggs welcomed the competitors back at download. A grand spread had been laid out including hot soup, sandwiches and more banana’s than a monkey could eat!

The bar has now been set for the rest of the events!

Thanks to all who helped with the event setup, checkpoint collection and planning.

Next event is Peebles on 1st May at Gytes Leisure centre.