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Thought I'd start this since there's just a "Bikes of ..." thread.
Trackleaders link -> http://trackleaders.com/highland21
The start is staggered this year with small groups setting off at short intervals. The fast riders are setting off last. Of those I know about I suspect that fast group will include: Liam Glen; Rich Rothwell; James Hayden & Josh Ibbett.
The weather forecast is OK for the next 36hrs or so but there's a weather system coming in Sunday evening and is currently forecast to sit over the NW highlands on Monday. Guess where the mid-pack riders will be on Monday?
There's a handful of major changes to the route this year.
1. The track on the south side of Loch Lyon is taken rather than that on the northern side.
2. After Ullapool rather than take the Coffin Road over to Dundonnel and then Corrie Hallie to get to Shenevall bothy the route goes towards Corrieshalloch, around Loch a Bhroain and past the foot of the Sgurr Ban slabs.
3. To exit Fisherfield the original route out to Poolewe then the Tollie Path is used rather than the Postman's Path.
Forum bug reply.
And there is a fresh dusting of snow on the mountains this morning.
I wonder how many are properly prepared for the weather and if we'll see a repeat of 2019s early attrition rate?
I was talking to Alex Pilkington (2018's fastest finisher) a month or so after the 2019 edition, he said he was wearing every piece of clothing he had and even at maximum effort he couldn't keep warm so he bailed to a mate's house near Inverness.
Not sure how much rain you've had up there in recent weeks, some of the burns might not take much to flood.
I’d like to give the HT550 a go one day.
just not today…
Not sure how much rain you’ve had up there in recent weeks, s
Could probably shorten that to how much in the last days.....
The answer being too much.
But today at least is pleasent....
👀
They seem to be motoring have they got a tail wind?
The south side of Loch Lyon take it its not as hilly as the north side!
North Easterly here. I can't imagine it's that different at Laggan / Ben Alder.
Due to turn to Westerlies tomorrow with best of the weather in the far North.
Overnight frosts in some places though.
Rich, The weather overlay showed a Northwesterly breeze of maybe 10km/h. Not sure about the south side of Loch Lyon, one or two I know have done it and said it's a bit rougher than the northern side but didn't comment on hillyness. Looks a bit shorter distance wise.
Just compared some times: Phil Clarke is in roughly the same spot as in 2017 when he finished in 4d20hrs but he's on a singlespeed this time. All a bit early to say though, depends how many are pushing to get to the FA Pizza, or more importantly the shop.
It was calm and sunny first thing in Tyndrum, bit of a breeze on top of Buachaille Etive Mor at lunchtime but still a pleasant day to be out and about.
On the replay it looks like James Hayden had a stop on the way down to Culra, wonder if he got bitten by one of the drainage bars?
Yeah, I guess it pays to take them a bit more gingerly on an event of this duration. There's a couple of whoppers too.
FWIW it's currently a lovely evening. The best weather in a few days. I expect most will be cracking on and taking advantage of it.
Front runners certainly didn't hang around in Fort Augustus...
Would love a crack at this but that's easy to say as I sit in the house drinking beer 😉
The staggered start really seems to be working as they - mostly - look nicely spread out.
I think all the fast guys are already through the field.
Good to see Jim Higgins upholding tradition at the pizza shop.
How people can cycle past a pizza place and not stop is a mystery to me 🙂 they even sell beer!!!!
You'd be fine on it Ian, mostly it's like the outer loop of the Cairngorms Loop until you get to Lochinver. Then the fun begins!
Err... Sally's gone south instead of north on the Great Glen Way! Hope she realises soon as she's on a great ride so far.
(edit) ah, she's scratched. That's a shame.
Sally has scratched.
It looks like some folk won't make the pizza place in Fort Augustus before 10!
Hope they stay open a bit later especially for the race.
Grace's write up has been great 👌
Wife says that I can do it next year but refuses to assist in any way as she says the race sounds too crazy.
🤷
Hope they stay open a bit later especially for the race.
Have you ever been there? 😨
Good chance that the lead riders will ride through the night to get as much done before any bad weather hits.
Running the replay, it looks like Liam took a nap near Inchbae Lodge as there's a two hour gap between pings. Josh and Chris passed him then about half an hour later Liam was back riding. They are now either side of Achness Hotel, looked like Josh and Chris stopped there for a bit, maybe breakfast, as the ten mile gap is now only three.
They are certainly shifting, they are only about an hour behind Neil Beltchenko's 2017 pace. Liam actually kipped at the same point Neil did.
Easy going now until Gobernuisgach Lodge, there's a good road up Glen Cassley, a bit of gravel to get to the power station dam then more tarmac to Merkland and then estate track to the lodge.
Five scratches so far, a variety of reasons.
Quick piccie as I was at the FA shop about half an hour ago.
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It's Alan's birthday! 🎂
That's my mate Martin!
Dot watching would be more fun if folk didn't play games with their trackers.....
Dot watching would be more fun if folk didn’t play games with their trackers…..
As someone who hasn’t “dot watched before”, how do they play games?
Dot watching would be more fun if folk didn’t play games with their trackers…..
I don't think they are "playing games", sometimes the trackers just don't connect to send the ping. Josh Ibbett's stopped this morning but he was obviously riding with Chris and with Liam just behind, hardly going into dark mode.
As someone who hasn’t “dot watched before”, how do they play games?
You could choose to switch off your tracker if you didn't want another rider to know where you were. Particularly relevant when thinking about overnight stops.
Indeed all good points but some riders do have a history of having the world's flakiest spot trackers....
Watching Annie Le - looks like she's the leading female? 😊
Sadly looks like Huw Oliver (her partner) has scratched 😔
Looks like a small gap of a mile or so has formed between the leaders Liam and Josh
Looks like a small gap of a mile or so has formed between the leaders Liam and Josh
Due to potential time differences in when each tracker sends a signal you can't really infer anything unless they are more than about ten minutes' riding apart. Josh's tracker pings four minutes before Liam's.
Josh looks to have taken the wrong route at Achmelvich, causing a backtrack. At least he noticed and won't suffer the same fate as Lee Craigie did
Wonder how that happened as it looked like he was riding with Liam up until that point.
Perhaps Liam made Josh take a pull on the front “keep following the road mate” whilst he slipped away down the trail...
You could choose to switch off your tracker if you didn’t want another rider to know where you were. Particularly relevant when thinking about overnight stops.
Ah! Cheers. I assumed they had to keep them on at all times.
Has Josh scratched? I can't see his DOT tracker, it was stationery at about 11 last night.
Liam is up again and flying along. Impressive.
I love my singlespeed Stooge but don't think I'd want to ride it for 550miles straight 😳
No, he's approaching Ullapool. From his history it looks like he bivvied just after Ledmore Junction for about five hours, not surprising since he didn't stop during the first night. Looks like Liam dossed somewhere in Ullapool for about four hours.
Liam's on or around record pace but the way in and out of Fisherfield are different from 2017, no-one's quite sure if it's quicker or slower than that year's route.
From the rain radar it looks like they are just on the edge of a deluge - it reached Ullapool about an hour ago, those between Bealach Horn and Lochinver are currently dry, everyone else will be getting very, very wet. Hope the burns don't get too high.
Good to see Jim Higgins upholding tradition at the pizza shop.
Jim's done some pretty impressive solo rides in the last year, be interesting to see how he goes in this.
Cheers for the update. 👍
It'd be good to get some more info on the people who have scratched. Seems quite sad considering how much training and planning they would have put in, I suppose there is always another year.
Compelling watching!
I notice that Alan has also scratched. Huge achievement to complete the full round. Are there cut-off points/times?
Alan Goldsmith has now scratched too. He'd already missed out a bit of the northern loop. I reckon he realised he was going to miss lunch at the Kylesku Hotel.
No cut-offs. If doing an ITT then you have to compete within 8 days to get an official time.
Crispin Hoult going well on the fat bike - round the top now.
Josh and Andrew in the poolewe hotel I guess for food and perhaps a warm-up/dry out
Liam should make camban for some refuge to get his head down for a few hours id expect.probably about midnight knowing the shove up the hill Unless he chooses the Edinburgh uni but porch in the valley.
Early start , Lateish Breakfast in fort Augustus before a final push/early hours finish I'd expect . The canal will be the other folks best chance at catching him on his ss
Liam is on roughly the same schedule as Neil Beltchenko's time, he was about an hour behind at the Torridon CP. However looking at their times between Inverlael (where the route leaves the main road after Ullapool) and Kinlochewe Neil was 2-3hrs quicker, Liam had half an hour stopped in Poolewe so the new way in and out of Fisherfield is a bit slower. Quite possible that on the same route Liam would now be in front of Neil's time.
From his tracker http://trackleaders.com/highland17i.php?name=Neil_Beltchenko it looks like Neil had an hour or so's power nap at Camban bothy. No-one's meant to be using the bothies this year as they are officially shut.
Further back there's a few looking to make it to Ullapool before the shops shut - it'll be a close run thing for some of them.
I seem to remember Javi (current SS record holder) saying he took 12hrs from FA to the finish. Might depend on the wind in the Great Glen, a headwind would be soul destroying.
It’d be good to get some more info on the people who have scratched
Greg May posts up over on Bearbones the basic reason why they scratched.
Good point re bothys.
Hope it's not pishing down as much as it is here ....
The glen Licht hut has had the open porch covered in since I was last there also. The yha has no covered areas for refuge. Dornie will be the last chance for that till the pill boxes on the hillside between tomich and FA
My mate is doing it, her tracker is on the blink, her brakes are rubbing, belly gurgling and is very wet but seemingly happy to continue after getting dry and some sleep.
The answer to *where will Liam sleep* appears to be ...Tyndrum for the moment.
Looks like a tailwind in the Great Glen according to the Met Office. Presumably that will help the chasers a little more than Liam on the SS, but it's not going to change much.
What an incredible effort, makes me feel even less fit and more fat than ever!
Would love to see Liam's training regime.
First time I have heard of Liam what’s his race history? Incredible performance so far especially on a SS
He won the 2016 edition of the HT550 in 4d2hr48mins - https://highlandtrail550.weebly.com/2016.html
He's done various editions of the BB200, I think he did last year's on a singlespeed in about 15hrs, might have been quicker.
Is he the same Liam Glen who was a jnr/ neo pro road cyclist about 10 years ago ?
Would make sense if he was. The time lines align
Dunno, I think he's from the Bristol area. Whatever - I won't be trying to keep up with him!
Yep, that's him. Think he was elite XC and raced in Belgium for a bit. Also contributed to road.cc I recall.
Almost home. Watching these dots has really given me the bug to do something more adventurous.
I've enjoyed this over the last few days. I've been checking the dots and the satellite images of the rain clouds blowing in from the North Atlantic. Knowing the area a bit, kudos to everyone who has kept on going. Must take some grit.
Blown away by Liam Glen's effort - at the moment he has done 535 miles in under 3 days 10 hours on a rigid single-speed! Thanks Liam, I'm feeling like a proper shandy-drinker.
Oooohhhh....it’s getting close....
Keep hitting refresh
Keep hitting refresh
Tick the box next to "Refresh every 60 seconds". Given that the trackers only update every 5 or 10 minutes depending on the account being used and device settings there's no point in doing anything more. What we don't need is Liam's SPOT to go silent for an hour or so.
Can't see him beating the record now. 31 minutes to do the last 12 miles!! Fair bit of downhill though to the finish. I reckon he will miss out by 20 - 30 minutes
There's quite a bit of uphill as well! Took me an hour from Bridge of Orchy to the finish in 2017.
He needs to finish by 19:17 to beat Neil's time. Not sure you can compare though since the new route through Fisherfield is at least two hours longer. The 2017 route along the Postie's path offers no advantage or disadvantage to single speed but this year's route along from the Tollie Path is just a flat main road best suited to gears. If he'd been on that route he'd have finished by now.
Really enjoyed that win but I'll keep watching till they're all home 🙂
Yep, still following a couple of the riders I know well. Gary Davies is currently in 9th place and going well. However, Iwona is continuing to ride to the end, despite missing out the top loop due to major problems on day 1. Good luck to them both and good luck to everyone still out there ridinng. Hell of an acheivement just being fit enough to even think about starting, let alone riding it.
And well done to Liam. That is one hell of a thing to do with no suspension and no gears.