Does anyone have any idea how one would go about representing the US in the MTB-O world champs in Finland? As far as I have been able to determine, without trying very hard I must admit, there has never been an American participant. Is there a designated authority of some kind or (hypothetically speaking) could I just go and claim to be the US team? My qualifications don't go much beyond I am an American and I am interested. I have written to some officials listed on the US Team site but not much came of it.
since there isn't a US team organization for MTB-O, you'd probably have to talk to the USOF competition VP, Clare Durand. you can find her contact info on the usof page:
http://www.us.orienteering.org/WhoWe.html
Ah, mtn bike O - 20 years too late, the legs are gone.. and the balance , too. Hope there are some younger riders who will give it a try. Good luck. Eric Buckley is fit, but does he hammer on the trails?
Actually, Steve Gregg (address at the same page) is currently in charge of USOF's MTB-O program, such as it is, and it would probably be worth contacting him as well. I can't speak for the USOF officials, but assuming you have a mountain bike and know how to ride it, and further assuming that you know how to read a map, I would think that there should be no obstacle to letting you participate if you are willing to pay your own way. I expect that you will need some kind of authorization from USOF, but considering the caliber of some of the competitors who we have sent to the World Ski-O Champs at times, I would think that there's a precedent in place that should make it pretty simple.
I did write to Clare Durand and, now that I recheck the email I got from her some time ago, she was generally positive and added briefly that some kind of approval is probably necessary. Perhaps I just need to follow that email up--pester a little.
If someone out there is feeling intrepid, MTB-O is less technically demanding than usual MTB XC races (at least in Finland, the only place I have tried it) and the orienteering not terribly difficult. So if you have some experience of each, as many adventure racers do, you might want to participate in a WC. I am sure there are many better candidates out there than me.
PS. Yes, I will pay for myself. I don't live far from where the races will be held.
Anybody know if any Canadians have ever participated?
No Canadians have participated either. Given Canada's strength and depth in MTB and AR, Canada could do quite well in MTB-O. Olles Mapping made a MTB-O map for GHO last autumn but no event is planned.
Thanks for the vote of support, Gene. It is intriguing, though I don't think a trip abroad this year is in the cards.
How are MTB-O maps different from normal O-maps?
The main addition is more degrees of trail quality. The main subtraction is small detail in the forest (particularly in countries where off-trail on MTBs is not allowed).
We have had (at least) one US participant in the MTB-O world championships. In 2001 or thereabouts. I don't even remember the guy's name, but I think he was a rider on some US domestic pro team who wanted to try MTB-O just for kicks. I remember seeing his name in the bottom half of the results list afterwards.
Eric Bone was the competition VP at the time and took care of the paperwork. He will perhaps chime in here on what was involved in signing up.
And in response to Boris' question, on an official MTB-O map, each trail is rated in terms of both width and rideability. The thickness of the trail indicates the width, and the amount of dashing indicates the rideability. See
http://lazarus.elte.hu/mc/isom/mbo/mbo-man-made.ht...
A
section of the GHO Horseshoe Valley MTB-O Map.
John Frey was his name. I have this from an e-mail exchange back then. I was trying to get some of my clubmates who own a bike shop to go, but they didn't - the airfares were awfully expensive. It was 2002, and it was the first ever MTB-O World Champs, held in Fontainbleau park near Paris. I believe it took place during the TDF, so that was an added draw for going, but a likely reason for the high airfares.
From johndfrey at attbi dt com Tue Jan 3 15:31:05 2006
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 13:51:48 -0400
From: John Frey
To: bergeron at stsci dt edu
Cc: SteveGregg at aol dt com, eric.bone at attbi dt com
Subject: Re: MTB-O world champs team
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Hi Eddie,
Excellent news, thanks for getting everyone psyched to do this trip. Looks like we'll have a team after-all. I couldn't tell from your email if you are in as well, yea or nay?
So, I think the best housing/meal plan is to simply go with the host plan offered by the organizing committee. My connection is running a cycling trip that week and would have cost more anyhow. I'm sure if we have any difficulties though he'll bail us out. So the host plan is only 45 euro per day for hotel & three meals; hard to beat that deal. The total cost will be 460 euro plus airfare (150 for entry, 270 for 6 days hotel/meals, and 40 for airport transport). Do you all plan to just do this?
The entry with payment is due on May 15th. It looks like we can email the entry info and wire the payment. How about we do a final decision day of May 1st? This will give us enough time to make the payment. I'm can collect the entries, email and wire the money if everyone would prefer. Eric, is this all right with you or do you need to officially do it?
Also, we can have up to 6 team leaders. They can do the same meal and housing deal. I suppose this could pertain to significant others who want to come along. Do anyone of your prospective participants have anyone else coming along?
Let me know what you all want to do.
Thanks,
John
----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Cc: ;
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 2:36 PM
Subject: MTB-O world champs team
> Hi John,
>
> I have what looks like 3 SVO members who are definately
> interested in competing in France, and two more who are
> "maybe's" until late April (one guy is competing to represent
> the US at some sort of military games including orienteering,
> and if he makes that team that competition will conflict with
> the MTB-O, but if not he would like to go to MTB-O champs. The
> other maybe is his wife, who would like to go on the women's
> side). These guys are ready to start making some plans and I
> was wondering if you have anything in mind yet or if any other
> volunteers came forward? You mentioned something about a
> contact near the race site with a possibility of lodging? In
> any case, should I point these guys towards you so you can
> start firming up details? They want to start looking at
> flights and such. I'm sure there are other details, like
> finalizing the registration, paying the entry fees or getting
> USOF to cover it, and maybe think about some training. Once we
> get firm commitments from these guys in my club I'm going to
> start setting some training courses for them here in our area.
>
> Let me know,
>
> Eddie
Robin Shanonhouse was also involved in the setup I think. It would be really great to get NA on the MTB-O map. There are plenty of good riders here of course. Only a handful of events stateside each year though.
Cool. Seems very much like a summer version of Ski-O.
I floated the idea past Kate and was rather surprised that it didn't get shot down right away. If we could get together enough folks to enter a relay, I might be interested.
It will again be during the Tour de France this year.
My own guess is that an experienced orienteer who can ride a bike will do much better than an expert biker with no orienteering experience. So if it was Ikonen vs. Kabush (North American MTB pro), each in his first MTB-O race. I would put all my money on Ikonen. Even if the controls are not hard to find, it still doesn't pay to ride faster than you can read a map and recall your route. I happen to be more in the biker category and have experienced this frustration!
I must admit that Ski-O, although similar to MTB-O, seems much more respected of the two here in Finland. One reason I think (and I have been told by orienteers) is that Ski-O courses here demand a unique mix of skills. You must be light and nimble on skis in a way that even many fast ski racers are not. I do a bit of XC ski racing here in Finland but I steer clear of Ski-O because I just don't feel comfortable screaming down narrow trails dodging trees while reading a map (and I am too embarrassed to take my skis off!). I wonder if the Ski-O courses are technically easier in North America?...maybe I should try it there on one of my visits home. Anyways MTB-O here, not a traditional Scandinavian sport of course, seems to put less of a premium on bike skills. But maybe that is not a bad thing since you don't need an expensive full-suspension bike and you don't need the skills of Kabush. I should say I have been told that the courses in Central Europe are much more technically demanding since there are real mountains.
Geoff Kabush has such kewl sideburns, he'd more than make up the difference on Ikonen.
I believe that historically the COF has cut off anychance of a club doing a MTB-O because of insurance reasons. However, I think things have changed enough recently that it wouldn't be a non-starter now.
From my understanding the COF insurance does not include MTB so if a race were to be held it would have to go through another organizations insurance policy. For example, an O club could partner with race organizers like Chico, WOW, etc here in southern Ontario. What isn't clear is if the map made by the orienteering clubs would cause a problem in their insurance policy (yes, unfortunately Canada is becoming more and more like the US on these issues).
In Southern Ontario most of the areas used for the Ontario Cup MTB races ALSO already have existing orienteering maps. Places like Mansfield, Durham Forest, Ganaraska, Horseshoe Valley, Albion Hills are World Class MTB-O areas. It would be great to see a few of these races popping up in southern Ontario (perhaps 2 or 3 normal MTB-O and 1 longer team event). It would create an even stronger link with AR - perhaps partnering with an AR company is the way to go????
It looks like Canada may have passed us on the insurance issues front. My understanding of the USOF policy is that the carrier didn't have enough data to do a risk analysis for just orienteering, so they lumped us in with a variety of outdoor sports. While that probably resulted in higher premiums, it also lets us run MTBO, Canoe-O, and even full-fledged adventure races under the policy.
For those of you not interested in competing in the MTB-O, the Fin5 will be held at the same time. I think the terrain is going to be very nice.
This discussion thread is closed.