Mountain bike orienteering
Mountain bike orienteering , MBO, MTBO or Bike-O for short, is a combination of mountain biking (bike control) and orienteering ( orienteering ) in unfamiliar terrain.
history
The roots of this relatively little-known sport go back to the 1950s and lie in cycling and cycling touring all-round competition (combination of cycling with a compass, map and additional tasks (tree identification, first aid, bicycle repair)). International competitions can already be proven in the early years. Over the years, the character of this sport, which is still today, emerged and the tasks of the cycling touristic all-around competition decreased. Also due to the Iron Curtain, there were different developments in the two blocks. This changed with the beginning of the 1990s. Favored by the advent of mountain bikes, but also by the need of the athletes from orienteering skiing for competitions even in the summer months, there was a great upswing in this sport. Though not yet olympic, represents the MTBO an emerging sport with very high performance character due to the double burden. With the help of a map must be the athlete with his bike as soon as possible entered in the map item approach. Each participant can freely choose his route between the points. The competitions are mostly held in a forest area. In addition to physical condition, a high level of concentration and good orientation skills are required.
procedure
One minute before the start, the participant receives a special orientation map so that they can familiarize themselves with the area. The maps are mostly available on a scale of 1: 15,000.
There are different MTBO variants:
- Free choice of positions: The competitor can choose the order of the positions to be approached.
- Predefined control order: The control must be approached in a certain order (as noted on the card).
- Score: Drive to as many posts as possible in a given time. The points have a certain value. As a rule, items that are far from the start or finish have a higher value. The one who has collected the most points in the given time is the winner.
- Relay: After the Le Mans start, the first of 3 drivers searches all of his posts and switches to the next with a handshake. This receives a new card and drives his lap, including the third one at the end.
Competitions
After a few international competitions had already taken place in the previous years (mainly in France), there was the European Cup in the MTBO in 1998. The first run for this took place on August 8, 1998 in Jelenec (near Nitra / Neutra, Slovakia), organized by Ján Ďurín. From 1999 to 2003 there was the so-called World Cup in the MTBO, which replaced the European Cup. The very first World Cup run was held on October 12, 1999 on the Mieminger Plateau in Tyrol (Austria) by the three MTBO pioneers Bernhard Brüstle, Martin Fürnkranz and Dr. Hermann Knoflach organized. World championships have also been held since 2002 (see also Mountain Bike Orienteering World Championships ) . World Championships have been held every year since 2004, and the World Cup was replaced by World Ranking Events (WRE) in 2004. In 2010 the World Cup was reintroduced, but WREs still exist. Annual European championships took place from 2006 to 2009 and have been held every two years since then. Annual Junior World Championships have been held since 2008, and since 2010 seniors over 40 years of age ("Masters") have their own annual World Championships.
In Germany there are several federal rankings and a championship every year. These competitions are carried out according to MTBO variants 1 and 2 (see above). In Austria there is the Austria Cup, which usually consists of 6 to 8 runs.
Successful MTBO athletes
The Austrian military athlete Michaela Gigon is five times world champion in mountain bike orienteering (status after the 2010 World Cup). The Australian Adrian Jackson has won four gold medals in individual disciplines so far and the Swiss Christine Schaffner has won four long distance wins.