[Closed] Strathpuffer 16

Training?

Whats thatthen?

The extent of my training has been to ponder what bike to bring. My big comfy but not efficient 150mm full sus that will roll over everything when tired, my SS (was which was lead contender till I dug it out of the shed for the first time in years and found it harder work than I remembered when I took it for a test run) or my Cx bike which has a dynamo hub for no lighting issues...

Never really decided so just ate more cake instead.

I went out on a recent club ride, and it was fine - nice gentle pace, social chat blah blah

Turned up to the midweek mtb ride and it was a different focus, guys hammering up the hills, less chat, higher pace etc.

Glad I'm not doing the puffer, the guys are practicing...

Been doing a good few miles recently. My lad is hoping to improve on this years 61st place in the solos.

This will be my first year in quite few that I've not done it. Bike choice I'd say SS is the way forward for not dicking around maintaining bikes when you don't want to.

Two singlespeeds for me.

Building a dynami front wheel counts as training yeah?

Training has been a bit of a non event, only miles I've been doing really is the 8.5 miles flat commute. Went out on a local loop today and really felt it on the climbs due to the lack of hills recently.

I think the puffer is gonna be a bit of a slog, I'd probably be better off taking a few beers and heckling!.

Richpips, hope minipips has a great ride. Last year was awesome

Thanks downhilldave.

So are we all raring to go?

Forecast is looking like maybe this maybe that. 😉

I'm going with no training and hoping it's as much fun as last year 😀

Hope it's snowy for ya Gav 🙂

Me too!

I'll take anything but gale force winds

Weather is looking very cold but very nice. Hopefully it will arrive in time to freeze all the mud!

Good luck to everyone doing it. 🙂

Mixed pairs again this time for me. Have been training despite manflu and work distractions and it's gone ok. Racking up PRs on my local routes but I'm feeling I haven't done enough really long rides. i.e none. Will bash out a 100km ride this weekend as last real ride before the race. swavis you in? Having done a recce ride last week with *don't know her nickname on here* I suspect I know who will be lifting the female solo trophy 🙂

Doing the puffer for the first time. Doing the pairs and cant wait to start the 500 miles trip up there:-)

Not this year. Probably a good thing as after getting frostnip in my toes last year they're now not too great at tolerating the cold.

[quote=devs ]*don't know her nickname on here*littlegirlbunny

Nope- need at least a year gap to regain the funds spent on the bike parts last year's edition broke. 150mm full sus worked fine for me (what were we swavis, 11th male pair?)- I'd not want a singlespeed. You're there to race, you can't go as fast as you possibly can on a singlespeed.

I hope it's a nasty icy rainy bastard of a year so swavis can see what I meant when I said last year was a nice year 😉

Last year was a nice year. I reckon this will be grim.

Solo again, just doing it for (type 2) fun, and haven't trained anywhere near enough. Oh well...

I've managed a bit more training but nowhere near as much as I'd hoped for. Going to be a loooong night.

I'd ss it again, its probably a psychological choice more than a scientific one.

Hang on...how many times has it been won on as?

I hope it's a nasty icy rainy bastard of a year so swavis can see what I meant when I said last year was a nice year

I believed you, I thought it was ace last year, certainly a lot kinder than some of the years I've been spectating/taking photies.

devs - Will bash out a 100km ride this weekend as last real ride before the race. swavis you in?

I doubt it, it's too late for me anyway. I'll be there for teh smiles not the miles 😉

That showed last year when you couldn't beat devs laps from 2013 😉

Hang on...how many times has it been won on as?

inaugural one was certainly won on SS (the bitterly cold one where everyone's mech cables froze...)

I'm in the Fatty owls quad. Carb loading is going great.

Of all the events on the MTB calendar, this is the one that I can never see myself doing. I think you're all significantly tougher than I!!

That showed last year when you couldn't beat devs laps from 2013

Don't wind him up, he'll just bully me next time we're out. 🙂

I'll be ss-ing my way round for a bit solo. Non existent training is going to lead to a lot of pain. Should be fun. First solo 24 for me

rood - Member
I'll be ss-ing my way round for a bit solo. Non existent training is going to lead to a lot of pain. Should be fun. First solo 24 for me

Snap.

PrinceJohn; that's what I always said! And then I did it and it's awesome and one of my favourite events! A much better idea than it sounds on paper 😀

cynic-al - Member
...Hang on...how many times has it been won on as?

About half of them.

This is going to be my last year on a SS. I always said when I got old and frail I'd fit gears - I think I've hit that target in life. 🙁

It'll be a proper mudfest this year if the weather is as warm as forecast (currently cold and crisp).

I'm preparing for mud, mud, and more mud.

Training? Isn't that just a cunning way to get non injected EPO type results?

The amateur gentleman rider relies on his natural ability... (That's my excuse anyway).

Looking like it will be mild and a bit windy.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/forecast/gfhz89vzt#?fcTime=1453507200

Looks like only thawing out on Friday though, so likely muddy / wet underfoot.

I was kinda hoping for a freezing 'Puffer this year. Last weekends ride in the Pentlands was ace in the light snow and ice. Oh well.

A bit like 2011 that sounds. Which was a real bike destroyer of a year.

2014 was pretty warm too, I think I wore shorts for the whole 24h. Thinking much the same for this year, although looking at the mudfest envisaged I think I'll take pretty much all the cycling clothes I own

I'd not want a singlespeed. You're there to race, you can't go as fast as you possibly can on a singlespeed.

beg to differ.

I'm in the pairs and haven't done nearly enough training as usual. I'm really looking forward to it though, it's always a great weekend. Bike choice for me is a 140mm 29er, comfy and fast enough for me. Good luck terrahawk.

terrahawk - Member
"I'd not want a singlespeed. You're there to race, you can't go as fast as you possibly can on a singlespeed."
beg to differ.

Terrahawk is too modest to say how many times he has won it on a singlespeed. 🙂

BTW solo place (not mine) going begging - see separate post.

I'd not want a singlespeed. You're there to race, you can't go as fast as you possibly can on a singlespeed.
beg to differ.

[img] /revision/latest?cb=20080310214948[/img]

I would be willing to bet £10 that if terrahawk did it on a bike with gears he would still win, and win better than he would have on a singlespeed.

munrobiker - Member
I would be willing to bet £10 that if terrahawk did it on a bike with gears he would still win, and win better than he would have on a singlespeed.

You're forgetting the time lost to rebuilding the drivetrain mid race... 🙂

How's it going? any pics?

Live Results:

http://lappedenduro2.sportident.co.uk/home/event.html?eventid=6f4be20a-6d58-4551-bed8-6bda2f37759e

4hrs in, Guy Martin in 14th.

win better

Worth noting that I'm not there and Guy's doing ok considering he spent the last 3 days riding to the race from Lincolnshire.

Guy's doing ok considering he spent the last 3 days riding to the race from Lincolnshire.

Looks like the rain that's passing over most of us this evening will miss them doing the race.

http://www.raintoday.co.uk/

4hrs in, Guy Martin in 14th.

Up to 9th now.
Minipips is in 67th - not bad going considering he's 10!

Although I'll admit I'm also impressed by Guy Martin riding up to the race - must be the best part of 500 miles! Is he riding home again?

I don't think he's riding home, he's at work on Monday.

he's at work on Monday

See, I think that'd be harder than riding there first 🙂

Looks like there some cracking racing going on...

Just looking at the fastest laps scoreboard, seems that Dingwall Academy (team of 10) have a ringer in their team - look at that first lap, it's 3.5 minutes quicker than anybody else!

I can confirm he is a Dingwall academy pupil, 2nd year Youth xc rider, yes he is quick!

Having both ends explode on me whilst asleep on wednesday i had to cancel my entry. Gutted.

looks like Guy's struggling or he's had a technical as lap 14 took him 4hrs and 48 mins. It's 4am and he's back down to 23rd. Maybe he just went for a snooze!

Well that was muddy!!!!

Brilliant fun though! We were parked right at the top of the fireroad climb and tried to give out as much encouragement as possible, as well as the odd tea cake and bits of flapjack. Looked like most were having a good time 😀

Hope the rider that fell off the bridge into the river last night was ok? Had someone helping and an ambulance on the way when I checked. Was it minipips that managed 14 laps? Chappeau!
Managed 21 myself and kicking myself for not going out for the lady one. Would have been worth 2 spots but not sure I had anything left to give

Guy's doing ok considering he spent the last 3 days riding to the race from Lincolnshire.

Good lad!

chapeu frood, 21 laps is amazing!

Have to say I didn't really enjoy it much myself. Adding to lack of fitness and training and carrying extra weight, the course was harder than 2014. The change to all the final route dropping back to the start means what was a great fun blast home is now a horrible bogfest. The top is like a boggy rocky 4x track, it has some charms but the clag takes the shine off for sure. The final bit was a f---ing disaster though, that track was in no way fit for purpose.

Also saw that person lying under the bridge in a silver blanket, already three riders in attendance so just checked with nearest marshals that help was on the way. Hear it was a female rider and she had broken her leg 🙁

Have to say the bridge is also not fit for purpose as well, 99% of the time people ride or walk over it ok, but it is really badly designed, too narrow plus the 'rails' on either side rising up like that mean it is easy to catch a pedal on them, and I presume get bucked off the bike. Penalty for failure is a 10 foot drop onto a river bed. Heard my next door neighbor say they had gone over there as well, but no damage.

Highlight for me was vomiting into the undergrowth at about 11:30pm just after the wooden teepee, then going for a wee lie down in it, much to the amusement of passing riders 🙂 After that I got back and curled up into my tent for a lovely 8 hours+ 🙂 Got up and did 1 more lap in the morning, TBH I was feeling far too fresh and rested, shoulda got up earlier, but I CBA with all that mud.

No adventure show this year?

Dunno if I'd do it again unless I heard they had spent a bunch on the course, think I could do a similar ride closer to home and not take the whole weekend +1 day of work out for it!

Well done NiKK was funny seeing a body in the teepee glad you recovered .

7 of us managed to bag 3 rd prize in the teams of 10 .
pretty grueling down that last bit well done to every one was a great atmosphere

[quote=nikk ]No adventure show this year?Seems fair. There's a lot of events on these days and I'm not sure what "angle" they could add to freshen up coverage of the Puffer.

Aye, they need to come away from doing the same events every year, and show how much more events there are on people's doorsteps.

It was Clag-opalypse!

Only once before in my life have I had to push my bike downhill, and that was in Harris into a wind that was lifting me off the ground. I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one pushing - I was beginning to think I'm getting too old for Grade Z fun.

My race was somewhat compromised by my daughter having a first lap wipeout on the rock slab. She's ok now, but was looking really dodgy. She went home for a while and came back full of good intentions of continuing, so I volunteered to nip up to the top marshal's post to retrieve her bike.

So if you saw an old bloke jogging up the course wearing a helmet without a bike around dusk, that was me. The killer was the marshals had kindly returned the bike to base just before I started.

I returned only to find that my daughter had gone into shock so we took her home again, and that was the end of my race. Still, it was a nice 9km perambulation...

It was going to be my last, but now there's unfinished business, so I'll be back for next year. But this time with gears, I'm definitely old and frail now. 🙂

I agree with the comments about the bridge.

I reckon the bridge is ok as part of an XC course, but not for a course where there's brain dead 24 hour soloists at stupid o'clock. The potential consequences could be disastrous, and there's crashes there every year.

It was disappointing to see riders straight lining some of the corners to avoid the mud.

Fair enough up to a point, ie safety, but using it to overtake other riders is cheating in my opinion. If you're going to do that the decent thing to do is wait for the rider you were following and who is using the course to go past so you don't gain any unfair positional advantage. I saw 2 male riders pass a young woman this way, and thought it poor form. Or less politely, don't cheat.

Took the camera round a late lap...
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Great pics mate, that first one sums up the puffer.

Just didn't enjoy that at all. The end was brutal killed my bike, then did for the ss I borrowed.

Not helped by the climb being crowded with loads of folk (I remember when this were all fields).

Awesome pics Kbrembo! I stopped just into the 1st tech section after the fireroad at one point in the night and looked round and saw all the lights and wished I had a camera and a tripod! Glad someone did 🙂

epicyclo - I had a quick chat with you when you were running up the fireroad climb. Sorry your daughter came a cropper, hope she is better today.

Partner went down with lurgy on Fri, woke up like death on Sat. We were DNS. Spent the day walking the course and scrounging beer on the way round. Spent the night with a carry out and a teaspoon in my kettle and rattled it at every rider until I ran out of steam at about 3.30am. Can't say I was upset to miss out this year. It looked hateful at the end. It was going to be my last puffer, but I too now have unfinished business.

Minipips won youngest solo rider trophy, riding 13 laps and finishing in 58th place.

Then we drove 8 hours home.

Currently drinking whisky (me not him).

Congrats to Minipips, that is a solid ride. Good to see you Rich, even if it was briefly and 100m from the finish!

got to camp next to troutie/chris and some other lovely lads from yorskshire and reekietoon.
the aftersmell of troutie's beer in my mug when i had my sunday am coffee was lovely.
great guy and (this was agreed on by our quad) probably the finest home brew we've had.
nice work, man!
FATTY OWLS FTW!!!!

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It was going to be my last puffer

Ahahahahahaha!

I've had 3 last puffers.

Any idea what happened to Jo Page (littlegirlbunny)? Only rode 9 hours but got more laps than many solos who did the full 24.

Minipips won youngest solo rider trophy, riding 13 laps and finishing in 58th place.

I reckon he's probably got that trophy sewn up for the next 5 years at least!
Top work Minipips! 🙂

Any news on what happened to Mr Martin?

Any idea what happened to Jo Page (littlegirlbunny)? Only rode 9 hours but got more laps than many solos who did the full 24.

she said on FB that she had an epiphany and decided to quit at that point.

she said on FB that she had an epiphany and decided to quit at that point.

I did that, except my 'epiphany' was about 3 weeks ago! 😆

Any news on what happened to Mr Martin?

epiphany = wall ??/

He stopped and had a few hours kip mid-race.

Sensible chap.
I did that once at a very muddy Mayhem, stopped and had a few (actually about 8...) hours kip mid-race.

I hadn't even ridden to the event either!

I must try to ensure my epiphany next year is stronger.

Trouties homebrew ruined my dry January 🙂 There was no way I was going to share a gazebo with those shiny kegs of wonderment without partaking. Never mind homebrew, it's some of the best beer I've tasted full stop.

There hasn't been a proper muddy puffer for a few years. I think this one qualified though. Fatbikes don't steer too well on top of that gloop...

+1 for troutie's beer. It was ace. Jo decided that she was done torturing herself purely for the validation of others. Legs and body were fine but her head wasn't. Shame as I had her down to win it, I hope she comes back and gives it another shot. She loved the course when I showed her round it a couple of weeks ago but that was sans muck.