Mountain bike orienteering – the newest “thinking sport”
BY SHEILA ASCROFT If your mountain bike skills are
pretty good and you want to take it up a notch, just try reading a compass and mapping a route while you ride. If that ignites your adrenalin, then it’s time to try Bike-O. You already may be familiar with
Bike-O (bike orienteering) if you’ve ever seen or tried an adventure race. Bike-O is often one of the rugged race’s components, and now it’s a spin-off, done as a sport on its own. Bike-O (or MTB-O, or MTBO) are
mountain bike orienteering – the latest of the orienteering disciplines to come to Canada, joining its older brethren, traditional orienteering on foot, which is now called Running-O. And yes, there’s Skiing-O and Snow- shoeing-O. Rorry Harding of the Ottawa Orien-
teering Club (OOC) says that, “Bike-O events are very big in Europe, but just catching on here. We had a meet two years ago but it was not well publi- cized and not many came out. We’re hoping Ottawa is now ready for this.”
SO, WHAT IS BIKE-O? “This” is an endurance sport with a
“thinking” component. You need to be good at handling harsh terrain, including steep slopes up and down. But you have to combine the muscle with the mental agility to navigate – by compass and map – along the designated route with a maze of path and track intersections. The goal is to hit all the checkpoints and return to home base the quickest. The challenge comes from inter-
preting the map information and deciding which is the best way to ride from one checkpoint to the next – at
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speed. Unlike traditional orienteer- ing, you stay on the trails – no bush- whacking for environmental reasons. “It is easier to learn than regular
orienteering as it is all on trails, so the map work is simpler,” says Harding, who competed in a Bike-O organized by the Caledon Navigators last year at a cross-country ski area near Caledon, Ont. “You don’t have to be able to rec- ognize subtle contours or try to figure out which hill or swamp you are at.” Bike skills are important – “How im- portant depends on how technical the terrain,” he says. “Our June 13 meet was held at the Kanata Lakes area, which was quite technical.” Usually, the course checkpoints or
“controls” are marked with orange and white flags. They’re on a distinct feature, such as a trail junction, fence corner or hilltop. Competitors carry a control card to be punched at each checkpoint, or the timing may be electronic with your times recorded on a chip carried by the rider. Bike-O courses vary from about six kilometres to more than 30 and, de- pending on the terrain, can be ridden by mountain bikers of any age. Meets often have separate classes by age and gen- der, and there’s a mix of team events. Administered by the International
Orienteering Federation, Bike-O start- ed in the late 1980s at club level in countries where mountain biking was popular. By 1997, many countries had established national championships, and the first Bike-O World Champi- onships were held in Fontainebleau, France in 2002.
BIKE-O IN OTTAWA Harding say Bike-O’s was slow
to start locally because organizers couldn’t afford the insurance to cover
BIKE-O EQUIPMENT Obviously, to start with you need some mountain biking skills. You also have to know how to read a compass and map. Bike-O then asks you to read the map while riding and follow the correct route.
BIKE: Competitors use robust mountain bikes. For safety reasons, the organizer before the start checks the condition of the bike (e.g. brakes).
HELMET: A hard helmet is compulsory.
MAP: The map provided by the organizer can be a special mountain bike map, a ski orienteering map or an amended foot orienteering map.
COMPASS: The compass is attached to the competitor’s arm or to the map holder.
MAP HOLDER: This map case is attached to the bike to make it possible to view the map at high speed without stopping. It will also keep the map in good condition even if it rains or you fall in the mud. You can buy a map holder online from Axis Gear or get one with a rotating plate from
Orienteer.com . Harding suggests using a large binder clip as it works better rather than the elastic straps. He also says to “take a few seconds to refold your map after every control! It is very easy with the simple binder clip.”
DRINK AND FOOD: Need will vary according to course length and personal effort.
events, but this year the Canadian Ori- enteering Federation (COF) is offered insurance at a reasonable rate, and he was planning to use it for a Bike-O and Running-O meet in June. After that,
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