We’d really appreciate any constructive feedback on the Carnival – what you liked, think we could have done better etc. Be great if you could comment on this post.
Also don’t forget to load up your routes on Route Gadget so you can compare you route choices!
MTBO Carnival News 
Great! Many thanks to all concerned for organising, especially RG and MG for their hospitality (and tyre repair service, towing the camper and economical camp ground). ‘Instant’ results and same day splits a nice innovation. Excellent terrain and courses.
Nigel Davies
Three things that went well…
1. Logistics – all races had a consistent look and feel from rego thru to results, giving an impression to participants of a well organised and co-ordinated team. There was consistent information display, procedures and facilities that helped gives riders a homogeneous experience at the changing locations.
2. Pre-event information was effectively displayed and communicated via web and e-bulletins.
3. Socialising opportunities were maximised via the Welcome BBQ and final dinner, adding to the carnival feel.
Three things that need improvement…
1. Controlling – more rigor around the checking of maps, courses and general preparations to ensure the quality and technical standards of events.
2. Risk Management – ensure risk management plans are prepared and account for adverse weather conditions and their affect on event areas with regard to participant safety and the ability of emergency services to retrieve patients.
2. Complaints and Protests – review complaint handling procedure with regard to the role of the organiser and the correct steps for forming a protest jury.
+1 from me.
All the events ran like clockwork with plenty of info for us foreigners. I thought that some of the tracks in Maramarua event would have been sketchy/dangerous in the dry and were made worse by the weather. I also agree with the protest handling comment as it did not seem to be particularly formalised with decisions being made quickly rather than allowing time for alternate points of view to be put forward.
I only differ on the maps point as I found them to be fine, it was my map reading skills that were the problem!
Hamish
Thanks folks. Can’t do route gadget until I get home at the end of the week. Kathy Liley. W60
Kathy Liley 042 9802 583
Hi Craig,
I like your positive comments, but I reckon the maps were superb, and courses were all excellent.
As far as Maramarua, who would have dreamt that 4 or 5 mls of rain could be so damaging to the tracks, and no prior events there we didn’t have any history.
Cheers
Rob Garden
This was my first NZ MTBO experience, and I have to say it was a very positive one. I liked the pace of the events, the varied locations and how the presentations afterwards were always well attended. Mostly great courses with many route choices.
Excellent event followup with results, splits and routes up promptly, and an email to let us know.
Have to admit most of my mistakes were entirely self-inflicted, or just bad luck (mechanicals), but I will make the following comments on some of the events:
1) Track junctions. Sometimes the dashed line gap between segments lined up with the intersection, so it often took some careful reading and guesswork that the track actually joined. This is a small quibble, and it didn’t really usually leave the junction in doubt, but just took a little longer to read than it might.
2) On Riverhead suspect some of the tracks north of 134 should have been more dotted, in order to make a more sane route choice. I took the right hand track, and it took forever.
3) On Maramarua I’m thinking a few of the tracks would have been un-rideable for most riders in the dry (eg. approaches to 133). I tried to follow both the specific event rules about track directions and no bitumen roads, so it was somewhat perplexing that these rules turned out to be optional afterall. This was a pretty frustrating day.
4) On Whaka MTBO park there were insufficient directional arrows on some of the shorter segments to make route choices. This advantages those with intimate local knowledge of the park. One particular “Exit only” sign I hadn’t expected to find on a ‘link’ track cost me nearly 10 minutes to go around. In discussions afterwards some from NZ said I should have ignored the exit sign as the arrows weren’t on the map, but the reason that rule was in place was safety, and that was abundantly made clear beforehand. Again a vague feeling that the rules were rubbery, or a bit open to local interpretation.
Cheers Bruce
PS: Thanks again Rob for the bike loan for 3 days.
PPS: Emirates appear to have bashed my bike bag with a huge amount of force, breaking the front axle pin and forcing the forks together !
Hi Bruce – thanks for the feedback. Regards your last point re the directional arrows on short link tracks at Whaka, I’d be interested in the specifics. I am guessing you are talking about a no entry sign between controls 15-16 on course 3? This affected a 20 metre section of track, which as you say is a linking track onto a track called Boulderdash. Unfortunately this is a new sign, which along with the bypass that went around the technical part of boulderdash, only went in a week or two before the event (I wasn’t even aware of it until someone told me after). If this was the area you had issues in, the issue should not have cost 10 mins, as there were several route options open – it would amount to a 1-2 min issue at most. We put a huge amount of time into updating and correcting the Whaka map in the months leading up to the event, however the reality is these are constantly evolving trails, and there are simply too many of them to ride every one within a couple of weeks of the event itself. The rules around riding the tracks the correct way were not at all “rubbery” and I was crystal clear that doing this is against the rules. Only one person came up to us afterwards and admitted they had accidentally rode the wrong way on a track, however I did get reports in during and after the event of a number of riders doing this – I am guessing much of this was accidental, and if it wasn’t then this would be definitely seen as cheating and would result in disqualification. Unfortunately policing this is problematic and without getting evidence and specifics not something we can do much about. It is a challenge for places such as Rotorua where many of the tracks are directional, to ensure people follow the directional rules. I would emphasise once again that these are not optional, and definitely not favouring towards local riders – anyone breaking these whether local or not local would get the same treatment. As the setter for this event I put a lot of thought into looking at ways of ensuring people rode the tracks the correct way, whilst also giving people route choice. Overall I am really pleased with the outcome – look on route gadget at both course 1 and 2 riders and you will see a huge variety of options taken. Whilst Whaka has challenges in terms of how the directional tracks are used, it offers incredible riding and navigational challenges, and as such is a worthwhile venue for an MTBO – certainly the feedback I got after the event was incredibly positive, so hopefully this was a very positive and enjoyable way for most people to finish the carnival.
Hi Pete,
No, it was actually control 13 on C3. Had no issues with 15. This will be by memory only, as my map board, and Whaka map, are still at large. I *stupidly* followed some riders NW out of 12 instead of using my preferred route choice. This landed me on the road segment a junction further west than I thought, but I still turned left. That put me at the road junction SW of 13 instead of almost due east of 13 (the obvious way in). Once I figured out where I was, I thought, ok, not too much damage, I’ll head up the right hand N track to 13. Saw an exit sign on the road (but no arrows), Damn !. Oh well, I can head up the left hand N track (with N arrows) and turn right at the link segment (no arrows). Got to the “link” and found out it was an exit also (arrghh), so had to continue north, and ride all the way around to the original EW track I should have taken had I known where I was on the way from 12. Hope that makes sense !
So, I can totally understand how one might consider that arrows weren’t required as no-one sane would attempt to go to 13 the way I did, but sometimes insane things happen.
Incidentally, going into control 5 (I think) I came up the green dots. As I attempted to turn in the short link to get to the NS track and turn left, I was harranged and abused by a local MTBer who yelled that I couldn’t go in that way. I lost confidence and wandered up and down the road a bit till I convinced myself I was right and I could in fact go in there afterall. Nothing you could do about that at all, but this does prompt another idea:
How about specifically marking the dual-way tracks with a special symbol (eg a diamond that is two arrows back-to-back) ? Perhaps overall that could allow faster map reading with less confusion than trying to trace back the arrows. That way any seeming unmarked tracks are always uni-directional, and you have to figure out the direction if there aren’t many nearby arrows.
Similarly, I came into control 12 from the south as, despite staring at the map for a while, I still wasn’t 100% sure the NE approach was bi-directional. Turns out it was. If It’d had a diamond on it I’d have come in that way.
Hi Bruce – this is a reply to your comment below – for some reason I cant reply directly to your comment, so will add to my last one instead. Anyway, thanks again for the feedback, and clarification. I definitely should have had an arrow on the exit of the trail you mentioned going into 13, so my mistake and apologies for that. However the option you took to go up the LH track (which would have been about as quick as your original intended route) was a good one, and I am sorry to hear you came up against another sign at the top of that. I am going to check this out tomorrow, but when I last rode that section about a month and a half ago, there was no sign there. Recently the local MTB club have been replacing signs all over Whaka, and in fact all the old signs went up for sale on trademe (NZ version of Ebay). What we hadn’t anticipated or been told about was that they would be putting up not just new signs, but new signs in places they hadn’t done before. We scoped this as best as we could before the event, and in fact we temporarily covered two signs on the day and thought we had it covered, but there were a small number such as you described and the one I mentioned in my previous comment that caught us out. Once again we are sorry for this, and I think it was just unfortunate timing that all this happened when it did and without us being told about it. The second issue you mentioned was actually at one of the signs we temporarily covered – it was for the short 30 metre section of track going into control 5, and in fact we put an alternative no entry sign at the next junction in on that to prevent people going down the track to the South (called Lion). The no entry sign is intended to stop people descending that main track, rather than using the link per se, so we did not expect any issues with this. I was pretty disappointed to hear about the issue with the other MTBer, and can definitely understand the impact on you and hesitation this caused. Anyway, thanks again for the feedback, and we are sorry for some of these issues which unfortunately was the result of a bit of a perfect storm in terms of recent changes to signage that we had little knowledge about until very late. I like your ideas on ways of marking directional tracks, and we are taking a lot of learning out of the carnival that will hopefully help refine some of these types of things. All the best, Pete Swanson
Saturday’s race at Whakarewarewa was my first ‘proper’ MTB Orienteering event, and I was fairly nervous about the rules and differences with social/beginner adventure racing and rogaining. I really appreciated having everything explained to me and being buddied up with Anne to show me how those scarey start boxes worked. Thanks heaps Anne! I thoroughly enjoyed the course, which took in a great variety of the Redwoods tracks. Big thanks also to Grant, who took the time to go over the map and my route choices with me afterwards. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to choose to go down a road when there’s a lovely DH single track available though……….. 😉
Very professionally run and my kids enjoyed the fun course their Dad took them around (although they were disappointed not to get a certificate, as the screen said they had ‘won!’ A very professionally run event!
Love the sox, great idea to add some fun to the competition. Great event North Island. Next time I’ll ride!
Rob
I think in terms of course setting mentioned above, the only two ‘complaints’ I had were on Maramurua where the route choices seemed a bit limited (even more so in the mud where I took the shortest route in many cases when I figured mud would feature) – tops of hills seemed to feature highly for control placement – and Whaka had courses going through the ‘kids loop’, which could have been dangerous.
The mapping of tracks also seemed inconsistent at Mara but maybe it would have been different in the dry. Also fences weren’t mapped. Others have mentioned Riverhead but it didn’t affect me, except taking the dumb route choice on the difficult track through the middle of the supposed ‘rough open’ in the middle of the map (which turned out to be shoulder high spiky plants). I didn’t run into ‘one way’ issues at Whaka and just went by what the map said but I can see how others might have done the right thing if there were signs directing them otherwise.
I thought the rest of the carnival was great – organisation, pre-event info, results, dinners, map quality – nice waterproof paper – all well done and I’ll come back any time you want to put on another carnival. Just make sure I win a spot prize next time 🙂
Ricky
Hi Ricky – just in response to the kids loop comment, the whole area around the Waipa entrance through to the bottom of dipper (about 1km in on main track) was potentially dangerous with other riders and traffic. The kids loop was probably the least concerning part of that area as doesn’t attract the traffic of the other tracks. Worth pointing out that the vast majority of kids take the Tahi trail just North of the kids loop, and in fact the kids loop is just an extension of that. So from a risk point of view, the kids loop was actually low on our priority areas of concern.
Cheers
Pete Swanson
PS – I should add that this is why I added in a large number of controls towards the finish to slow people up in this area, which seemed to work and no reports of collisions or near misses. Cheers Pete
Firstly many thanks to everyone involved for putting on a great series of events. It takes a lot of commitment and hard work and is certainly truly appreciated by the competitors, particularly those of us who are often involved in event organisation
Really Good Stuff
There were many aspects of the carnival that were absolutely first class and should be repeated and built on for future events. The key ones included:
• Like every MTBO event I have been to it was extremely friendly
• Excellent riding areas for events; 1, 3, 5 and 6
• Generally very good and accurate maps – see some commentary on direction arrows below
• Courses that used the chosen areas well and truly tested the competitors
• Good and timely pre-event information
• Flawless, so far as I could see, starting processes
• Excellent real time results display that was also available via WiFi at the event site – Fantastic on the cold, wet day at event 2, I could sit in the car and follow the results
• Rapid posting of results and splits on the website after most events
• Very good choice of music – I still have Dire Straits rattling around my head
• Brilliant Sprint area, map and courses. As good as I have been to
• Great concept for the overall Carnival point score. Easy to understand and rewarding of consistency and persistence
• Great selection of spot prizes – Would have been better if I’d gotten one!
• Good to have daily awards as well as overall Carnival ones
Opportunities for Development
As is inevitable there were also a number of aspects that could, in my opinion, but improved upon in future such events. These include:
• Start times – The start times were such that the event effectively filled the day. I did enjoy the regular sleep-ins but if the starts had been 90 or 120 minutes earlier:
o People would have had opportunity for other activities after the event
o Had it been hot, which of course it never was, we would have avoided the hottest part of the day
o Purely by chance on Day 2 we would have avoided the gross unfairness that occurred by some competitors having dry tracks and some very slippery wet ones
• Points Score Update – It was very disappointing that the overall carnival point score was not available daily. I do not understand why that was as I assume it was an automatic calculation. The opportunity for banter, particularly at the Friday night dinner, would have been greatly enhanced by having these data
• The Maramarua area was, in my view, not suitable for this event. This was further exacerbated by the weather on the day. I think I am moderately capable but even had all the tracks been bitumen sealed I could not have ridden many of them. I doubt that many people would have enjoyed their day there, particularly the less physically able. The pleasure of MTBO is the combination of; riding, navigating and being in the bush and as soon as you remove one or more of these elements the pleasure quickly evaporates. The sticky mud just added to the frustration rather than be the primary cause of it
• The directional arrows seemed both insufficiently frequent and hard to see. In addition they were different on the two maps in the Carnival that used them which were both also different to the NZ MTBO mapping convention legend which we were directed to at http://www.mapsport.co.nz/mtbo/nzmtbolegendv4.pdf. I, and many others, did not see the ones on the Maramarua map at all. On the Whakarewarewa map I found at least one place (track running south from 135) where there was a sign on the track saying one-way but no corresponding arrow on the map. I think it may be worth trialing using a different colour (purple or magenta) for all one-way tracks in addition to the arrows. That should make the map easier to interpret
• Having the Whakarewarewa open to the public during the event caused me some concern and certainly I nearly got tangled with small children doing unpredictable things a number of times. I doubt there is a solution but it was a concern
• Never came to grips with the NZ “ride through the white” and “you can follow the green dots through the forbidden areas” but that is probably my issue. I had similar issues in Hungary in 2012 where the conventions are different again! An agreed mapping standard for MTBO really is needed
Right on Richard, we’ve been urging the IOF MTBO Commission to do something about the off-track conventions for some years, without success.