European MTBO journal – part 1

By Christo Peters - Sat 31 May 2025 8:27pm

MTBO, World Masters Series, Europe, Lithunania

Deb Bain & Sally Dickson are following the World Masters Series of MTBO in Europe from late May to early July, starting with the grandest event in Spain (World Masters Champs), then various regional events in Lithuania (European champs), Sweden (Danish camp), Austria & finally the popular Plzen 5 Days in Czech.

This report includes the first two diametrically opposed events – they could not have been more diverse: Firstly Murcia, SE corner of Spain near the Mediterranean Sea versus the Vilnius “European Green City 2025” in Lithuania near the Baltic Sea. The events themselves, one was the annual World Masters Championship 2025 versus the annual European Championship 2025. The riders: at the first event there were 400+ Masters from around the world with a smaller field of World Ranking elites tagged-on versus 77 Masters mostly from mid-north Europe with 250 European elite team riders including youth and junior joining in. The weather: we found ourselves in balmy hot days riding in high 20’s versus later, rainy cold riding in 8-11°C that feels like 6°C with windchill. Another total contrast was the dry sandy rocky trails with three events completely different terrain, versus later starting all three events on the same terrain in a firm forest littered with loamy tracks with the rain making it slippery on steep sections. Another difference was the mostly good visibility versus tight forest with limited visibility in an intricate track network. Another opposite was finish line buzzing with energy and colour, loads of food available, like delicious servings of sliced sweet oranges and salty nuts, full bike rack, shady seating and camaraderie in abundance watching the results screens and comparing rides, versus an empty arena (we started as the main event finished each day), a smattering of competitors who we were mostly unable to converse with, food van & tents closed, but since it was cold you needed to get into a warm car soon!.

However ALL the rides themselves were super challenging & thoroughly enjoyable, especially when you reconsider days after – once you get over having made stupid mistakes or disappointing times!

MURCIA, SPAIN (16 competitors in W65)
2025 is the first time Spain has hosted the World Masters Championship and they did a remarkably good job. The weather was kind – no rain & not too hot – the people friendly, & the riding truly unique.

The biggest rule variation for us in Spain was the two mapping colours: yellow terrain with pale pink dotty and white with small black dots, both allowed for small sections of open travel.

1. Middle distance 1:5000 “Day of the Lemons” event, an hour from Murcia at Ricote village. Terrain was narrow tracks through an active lemon grove farm, an intricate network of tracks that would probably be deemed too dangerous for NZ due H&S! It featured: dropoffs; broken old clay exposed irrigation pipes; two way traffic on narrow single track; barbed lemon branches to avoid; and not all route choices took you on a forward flow, you were turning with hundreds of competitors out there. It was a bit dodgy.

The navigation seemed hard at the time (but was easy compared to Lithuania later) however it was the track’s surface and other riders that complicated the course. Use of symbols thick solid line versus thin solid line was not always obvious on the ground.

Many were frustrated, some furious, that SI Air was only set for 50cm not the IOF regulation 150cm – this, combined with the congestion at controls, was a major factor with mispunching for a large number of people. We found it surprising to see the level of mispunching for this level of competition.

Final stage through the village of Ricote was fun but a little confusing as the village was still ‘alive’ with people wandering around, cars moving slowly (at least) and you weren’t sure if it was OK to ignore the road signs (such as the one way no entry) as that was the quickest route.

2. Mass Start – middle length 1:7500 “Las Salinas”, meaning the salt flats but half the course was rolling sandy semi-desert hills with rocky sandy scrubby ground. It was a bit like Alexandra, then we popped out into the second stage with a derelict sub-division with some roads intact and a few rocky single tracks. The third stage was more open land riding with the second set of butterfly double loops that threw quite a few riders to mispunch.

For those who don’t how Mass Start works, this was our course:

> You start in your class group eg W65 for us, 10 min interval from previous groups

> Maps handed out vary with 3 versions of control ordering that have 2 sets of 2 butterfly loops. This means you are passing through 2 controls 3 times.

> For us this was all on one map and it was vital to keep track of numbers and not to follow others especially anyone in your grade because with multiple versions of the map, they are all doing the same segments but in a different order!

Again many people blamed the congestion with 50cm SI Air for their mistakes, others blamed the numbers not being clear enough. Our start time was 4pm and it was still hot, approximately at 30°C.

Deb was surprised & delighted to take a win! Sally did a couple of bad nav legs and ended up 6th. The funny story about this one was that we got horribly lost and highly frustrated with Google Maps trying to get to the arena, making it there with only 15 mins to spare. Later Sally discovered she’d left the maps setting on ‘bicycle’, so after doing a city tour in the morning, it was still trying to avoid the motorways, and heading us onto go cross-country backroads!

3. Long event Coto Cuadros 1:15000 Half an hour away from the city. Terrain was a sparse pine forest, lots of gnarly single tracks, rocky creek beds, gravelly roads with very little open travel. And hot! Deb loved the course but mucked up majorly from 2 to 3 that cost her a 2nd place, ending up 5th. For Sally it was too steep & hot but she enjoyed the single tracks for 9th place.

Overall the course was a hit with everyone, with a vibrant finish area that included the caterers serving up paella (a Murcian speciality) in a pan that was about 1.5 metres diameter with five handles for carrying! And it was delicious.

4. Sprint event 1:4000 “Stairways to Heaven” held in the city at the University campus on a hillside. Riding was intense with fast riders to avoid. The mantra “keep right” was most important for us. We found the map less challenging than some school maps we’ve done as the buildings were large and easier to define. Lots of steep stairs but neither of us rode them, however Rachel Drew (Wellington) rode them all and loved it! Deb was happy with her ride as sprint is not usually her best work, coming in 4th. Sally really enjoyed the ride but aging eyesight combined with too much double-checking put her into 7th place.

Another amusing story to finish off the long weekend was the difficulty we had to organise a ‘long Spanish lunch’ for our wee gang of Aussie-Kiwis. We had no idea it was Madre (mothers day) and the custom is to go out en masse. Luckily the event helpers were wonderfully helpful and called over 20 places before finally getting us a table to enjoy a delicious feast.

And finally, a note about the finish of each race – we would download then follow the chute to collect a cup of fresh water and a bunch of sweet sliced orange segments plus a mini cup of salty nut mix – the best ever!

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA (only 5 competitors)

The biggest rule variation for us in Lithuania was that you could ride ANYWHERE (except out of bounds) which is a real game-changer. The maps were just like NZ with a bit less information – no North, no scale measurements, no emergency number – but track accuracy was excellent and must have taken so much work to map such a big area. In hindsight we both underestimated the many route choices and importance of watching contours for optimal travel.

1. Middle event 1:10000 This was 11+km of typical Lithuanian forest trails in an intricate network and 1.5m SI Air range, with a winning time of 1 hour. Lithuania generally appears as flat as the Canterbury Plains but Vilnius city has a deep river valley and plenty of steep ups and downs hidden in the thick forest. It included a few gravel roads and sealed sections and several road crossings with helpers holding back the traffic.

It all sounds easy but needs lots of stops for nav checks. Deb made two costly nav errors but her SI stick failed so she had MP result. Sally lost magnets in a crash and damaged her map board so became very inefficient, then had an SI failure too – overall the worst result ever, yet the riding was great!

2. Sprint 1:5000 New day, new SI sticks! 6km in “Fairytale Park” excellent complex single tracks amongst locals out for Saturday afternoon activities. The locals had the upper hand in 28 minutes, Deb was 4th, Sally 5th.

3.Middle 1:10000. Due to the European team relays (which were exciting to watch on the big TV and the sunshine finally appeared! In the middle distance we covered the same area as day 1, the winning time 55min, 9km. You’d think we’d be getting the hang of the route options but the 1:10,000 map is just that much easier to make mistakes and we both did our share for 4th & 5th – at least no miss-punches!

At the end there was a chance to say thanks to the Masters planner and organisers with a low-key prize giving based on best of three events. Keith Dawson GB was 2nd in M65.

Overall fabulous riding but the competition aspect was a little disappointing, not just our results but also being an add-on to the main event. The city is fascinating so we enjoyed the tourist aspect.

For the European competition, colourful pots of rhododendrons were presented at each race to each grade, then they were held in storage. When we rode through a glade on our afternoon Sprint map the pots were all laid out ready for planting by their winners. What a fabulous idea and a great way to give back to the community for terrorising the locals out enjoying their peaceful forest with MTBO bikers whizzing past!!