Thanks to BL member Alan Hartley for this report:
Last weekend saw the MTB orienteering British championship races held in various forests around Ringwood. Similar to major foot orienteering events in Britain, major MTBO events tend to be a cluster of events over the weekend, to encourage you to travel. In this case, there were three races in two days to decide the British Champions in the Sprint, Middle and Long distances. The events were also all counting towards the World Masters Series, so there were some riders from overseas present.
Saturday late morning was the Middle distance, in Hurn Forest. Courses were fast and furious, with very little in the way of climb. There was some route choice but it became clear fairly early that all the paths were riding quickly and generally taking the shortest route was the best.
Saturday late afternoon was the Sprint, in Moors Valley country park. There were a few hills to contend with and also some one way single track paths. Cycling at an average of 3.2m/km on a 1:5000 map, junctions come up very quickly!
Sunday morning was the Long, in Ringwood Forest North. A bit of a contrast to the sprint now onto a 1:15,000 map. There was more in the way of route choice and some bigger hills thrown in.
I managed to come away with some good results. 1st in M50 in both the Middle and the Sprint, and 3rd in the Long. It was a long way to drive, but definitely worth it.
Next September the World Masters Championships are in Scotland. It promises to be a good week of MTBO, it would be good to see a few Borderliners there. https://mtbo2026.org/
Border Liners Orienteering Club 