Vic MTBO

2020 Victorian Mountain Bike Orienteering report

WORDS & PHOTOS PETER CUSWORTH

Not much to report on this year as all events were cancelled or postponed due to COVID19, except for four summer BikeO-75 events.

We started off with the BK event at Lysterfield on February 8th with an excellent 80 competitors taking part. Most of the MTB tracks in the park are now one direction, so making it more of a challenge for course setting and competitors alike.

Next up was the Eltham Lower Park event organised by Nillumbik. This was a newly combined map and included parts of Eltham Lower, Candlebark and Tikalara Parks all linked by the Yarra Main trail. Another great evening event and map organised by Rob Edmonds.

The You Yangs event organised by Eureka was next on 14 March. A not so good weather forecast plus the increasing shadow of the coming pandemic kept numbers down to 52, but the event went well all the same.

The final event in the series, and what turned out to be the final event for the year, was held at Silvan in the Dandenongs on Sunday morning 22 March with 41 attending. Later that day Victoria's first COVID19 lockdown was announced.

No other events were held in Victoria apart from some Albury Wodonga club events that weren't subject to the same harsh restrictions that Melbourne endured. An Albury Wodonga DuO event held in November was the only other event held after restrictions were eased late in the year and several eventstarved competitors from Melbourne and other regions attended.

The planned events for the 2020 Victorian Championships were postponed until 2021. Let's hope for more to report on next year!