[Closed] StrathPuffer - Missing the misery?

Have been out night riding every week in all conditions since autumn. Recently it has reminded me of SP and I thought "aww maybe I should do that again when possible". Then I stop riding after a couple of hours, have Christmas cake, a whisky and tea and forget those silly ideas. Will dig out a picture from my favourite year...

What misery ?

trail_rat
What misery ?

Surely you've felt it?

You know, the feeling at around 9:59 on the Sunday morning knowing that now the fun is about to stop. 🙂

I reckon 36 hours would be better.

Looks horrific this year, missed a bullet by the looks of a photo on the puffer facebook page..

I think the conditions would have been brutal this year.

I was out on my road bike this morning in the freezing rain thinking that we had very much dodged a bullet this year.

However, a quick peruse of the Puffer forum made me realise just how much I was missing the event this year.

Fingers crossed that normal service has resumed by this time next year.

@dazh I put my running shoes on and ran round the course yesterday morning.

There was a lot of old compacted ice that had frozen overflow, and with the light (?) sleet coming down, it was very slippery, but nothing decent studs wouldn't handle. Even my dog ended up on her arse a few times, which she's never done before.

The thing I thought would cause the most misery was the way ice had frozen at the edges of bits of the track that are usually well drained, but were now dammed by the ice, creating lots of deep puddles. These were ok as they stood, but after been churned by several hundred riders per lap, would have turned into the Somme.

Combine that with the potential for sleet, I think we dodged a bullet this year. 🙂

Surely you’ve felt it?

Yep about Nairn on the drive home when I take my place with all the other vans in the layby

That photo sums up perfectly the local riding this weekend. After days of beautiful hard frozen ground topped of with snow it's melted but with the subsoil still frozen the melt water has nowhere to go leaving quagmire with bergs of bottle ice.

Bullet dodged.

Next year.

[img] [/img]

I like that one of me from 2020. I'd sort of pinned my hopes on the Puffer being my comeback race given I didn't do as well as I'd liked last year (I think we were 8th) and there being no other races.

I had planned some sort of challenge to make up for it but given the strain on the hospitals, the ride I had planned (every trail north of Red Road in the Pentlands) didn't seem appropriate with all the ice about at the weekend. It was nice to just chill out for a year to be honest.

Those conditions must be close to puffer 3 or 4. You know the one with sheet ice.

I spat the dummy three years ago, when by 8am the climb was just folk socialising and my wee tent was up past the dam.