Discussion: Designing a course for mountain bike-O

I posted recently about designing trails-only courses- and a mountain bike course is effectively a trails-only course..

but are there any other special considerations when designing a mountain bike course?

Thanks!

Someone has to say the obvious - unlike ISOM, the MTBO map specifications have different trail symbols depending on the quality of the trail surface. That adds one more factor to route choice in addition to distance, climb and number of decision points/turns on different routes.

You should also try to have most courses in the same direction. Or atleast make sure that people aren't facing each other on a narrow track on a hillside. One going up and the other on the way down...

Also, try to do some calculations on the different route choices of a leg. On a tricky singletrack you might be doing 15km/h (10miles/h) and on a dirt road or a nice smooth track you're going three times as fast.

IOF has some maps from the world cup on thier homepage that will give you some ideas of the MTBO specifications and course planning:
http://orienteering.org/mtb-orienteering/maps/