WEST HIGHLAND WAY in a day

Its been on my mine for over a year now, having rode a bit of it and really enjoying it but wasn't quite sure how id cope with 100 miles of pure off road that isn't all completely ridable. I thought sod it and booked myself into a premier inn in milngavie saturday  28th April and a premier inn on the 29th in Fort william.
Sunday 6am came round quick and i managed to drag myself to start for 6.30 while leaving Liz in a comfy bed.

The start

The plan was to try do it in 12 hours and be in the pub in fort william for 7.30, and things were going to plan the 1st 15 miles is fast, it had been a cold night and it was icy but the morning sun was warm.

Fast trails warm your legs up

 Soon you get to conic hill, your first climb. Bit of a push and a bit of riding not bad at all, really nice view over the southern end of loch lomond.

Conic hill

A steep rocky descent that had my brakes cooking led me down to Balmaha where the route sticks to the side of loch lomond on nice singletrack passing by nice beaches and lovely scenery.

Nice camping spot

There was some nice steep climbs and fast singletrack runnning all the way to Rowardennan which i really enjoyed.

ben lomond coming into view

I was making good time, i was ahead of schedule this was to good. flying down fast fire roads at 30mph the miles were getting in. Then i arrived at that dreaded place where everyone gets the ferry and wimps out of the last bit of loch lomond, Inversnaid Hotel. No way was i doing that i was doing the full trail. Well its pretty grim as far as riding goes an hour and a half of walking in fact. I tried to ride but ended up with a puncture from a sharp rock. The views are nice and you get to visit rob roys cave.

rob roys house

techy trails

 

After the dreaded hike a bike i was glad to get back riding the views back down the loch were ace.

End of loch lomond

I was soon heading down nice singletrack and arriving at beinglas campsite a place ive stayed before and rode over to meet liz at the drovers pub for a quick drink and a mars bar.
The next few miles were easy going on fast landrover tracks passing by the falls of falloch.

Falls of falloch

A rather long climb that i wasn't expecting that cuts round crianlarich was good fun and all rideable with a fast track down into the flat glen at the bottom as i headed towards tyndrum.

snow capped ben more

The weather was excellent, and i had a slight problem that my chain was running dry, i had no lube with me and needed some badly. I made it to Tyndrum and stopped for half an hour where i stuffed my face with food and refilled my camelbak. I bought some 3 in 1 oil to put on my chain which did the job for an emergency issue, Gears and stiff links now running smooth i carried on and made the bridge of orchy quickly. The climb from the hotel is fairly long and can be avoided  by traveling on the b road next to it but its worth the climb for the descent down its another cracker.
Heading up onto Rannoch moor was a long drag, i had a slight headwind that didn't help matters but i had good weather so the views made up for it.

climbing across the moor

Again a cracking descent led down to the Kings house hotel where Liz was waiting with some more food and drink for me, I rested for a while as deer chilled out in the afternoon sun.

view from kings house hotel

Had a couple of gels and forced myself on knowing i had the devils staircase to deal with, a steep climb, rode a bit and pushed a bit, your pretty high when your at the top.

top of devils staircase

Now this next bit of trail is something special i really need to go back and do it on a long travel full suspension bike cause its one of the best downhills around it really is that good i cant say a bad thing about it. 2000 foot drop into Kinlochleven and it gave me the rush i needed to complete the whole ride.

The start, heading down to kinlochleven

Still on a high off the descent i headed up the last big climb round the edge of the mamore mountain range. Again it was steep and i rode bits and walked bits it passed quickly for a 1000 foot climb.

looking down towards kinlochleven

I found energy and blasted along the high mountain pass knowing if i blew up it would be bad but i just had to press on it was getting late.

high up in the mountains

I came round a corner of a hill and the view i had been waiting for was there, Ben Nevis, its all downhill from here.

Ben nevis

Through a forest and a fast fire road descent into glen nevis and the road into fort william, Mission complete.
13 hours 50 mins in total, 12 hours 10 mins riding, 11,000 foot of climbing. 98 miles.
Thanks to Liz who came up and helped me through the bad patchs i had.

Buachaille Sportive

Always a big fan of the No fuss events so headed up north for a long weekend in glencoe. It was there 1st sportive, 170km of stunning road riding what i can only describe as the most scenic sportive i've done. I drove up through Tydrum early Sunday morning in what can only be described as heavy sleet, it cleared up on the tops and by the time we arrived at Glencoe ski center there was even a bit of blue sky knocking about. I knew full well what the weathers like up here so went for a full waterproof coat and my 3/4 leggins.

 
The temp was around 3 degrees when i set off and i knew about it, nearly a 1500 foot decent into glencoe straight away woke me up. I felt good on the bike and just went out hard from the word go. The course was so fast I managed to do the first 60 miles in under 3 hours riding completely on my own.
The weather just got nicer which was excellent for the views but not so good for me, i was cooking in my winter gear, i had to ride with my coat pretty much unzipped to keep me cool.
There was so many highlights in this ride for me, one was this singletrack road (the B8074) it was around 10miles long up the most scenic glen i've ever seen, google it its excellent you have to ride it. The only let down on this ride was i snapped a spoke in my rear wheel which just made the last climb a killer as the brake was rubbing on the rim where it had come out of true. I completed the course in 5 hours 35 which i was quite impressed with.

View from the start

last climb on the a82

If you like riding sportives then i recommend getting yourself booked onto there 2nd one at the end of September cause the route looks like another cracker.

Midlands XC round 1

Shaun talked me into entering this, I wasn't really up for it, ive never done a short race before and im not exactly riding at my fastest at the moment. I had it in my mind that i was going to do really badly at this. We both entered the masters category which is 5 laps of a 3 1/2 mile course so basically flat out from start to finish.
The race started and i didnt really struggle i felt like i could of gone quicker if needed i was sat mind pack in about 20th place, the course was good, flat fast with hardly any mud.  After the 1st lap i knew where i was going and started racing, i kept catching people up and taking them. I was warmed up by the end of my 3rd lap and my fastest lap was lap 4. I finished my 5th lap in 6th place which im totally stoked about, Shaun came in 13th place 5 mins behind me. I really enjoyed it and will be doing another one.

Strathpuffer 2012

Everyone goes through bad patch's in 24 hour races, I just didn't expect mine to hit me on my 3rd lap. Something wasn't right with me from the start. i was slow i couldn't pick up speed and Shaun was lapping 2 mins faster than me. However we were in 1st place. I ate some food and had a drink and set off on my 3rd lap, I tried my best to ride hard up the fire road climb but half way up found myself slowing right down, i was sure 2nd were going to take me. I couldn't breath correctly and wasn't recovering from being out of breath, coughing uncontrollably and feeling weak. Then it happened while having a coughing fit while riding, i was sick not just a little bit but a hell of alot all down my jersey and my toptube, this carried on until i had nothing in my stomach. I finished the lap still in 1st and sent shaun out. Funnily enough this was good, I ate more food and drank some vimto. From now to the end of the race i was fine, i was doing the faster lap times out of both of us and i didnt have anymore bad patch's apart from being tired. I dont know why i had a bad start and i dont know why i was ill but im glad i came round.
I hadnt done much training for the race and both me and shaun had been ill through december, So i new it would be hard for us to place on the podium. The weather was very kind to us through the event, heavy rain and wild winds rocked our caravan the night before the race and kept everyone up, as dawn broke though it was nice calm and very mild, Shaun set off on the run on the first lap and was 2nd person on the bike, he held that spot and came through the finish with 2 other people (a quad rider and a soloist). I set off on my first lap and just about held everyone off, we were 1st overall.

me heading off on my 1st lap

As the laps went by the course got more and more cut up in places but this was only for the odd 100 meters, in my eyes the course was running fast and fun. This wasn't the puffer at all, the weather was nice no snow, ice, sleet anywhere, i was kind of glad, i wasn't to cold and i was warm between laps.
Night came quickly and the lights went on, lap times slowed down by 5 mins or so but we still gained minutes everylap on 2nd. Half way through and i lapped 2nd place, that was it then we had at least a 45 min gap and we could both relax and just plod round now without worrying about being caught.

warming up before a lap

We kept gaining time and come dawn we were 3 laps up, we'd done 32 laps were really tired and noway could anyone catch us, so we called it a day and threw the towel in, had a shower and watched the rest of the race from a spectators view. I watched a good mate Phil destroy everyone in the Solo cat and take the win and also Jason took 1st singlespeed. The podium had a very north manchester feel to it even though we were in the northern parts of scotland.

Healey Nab

Holcombe to healey nab. Good days riding legs gave up towards the end, hopefully due to me not having enough drink with me. All the trails seem to be getting slipperier by the day and i may have to change to a more aggresive tyre soon. Healey nab is a good loop to add in even though its only a mile long, it adds a bit more fun to the ride. Arrived back home with just over 50  mile on the clock.

Converted?

5 years ago i'd of told you it was just a fad and it would pass but  it looks like 29ers are here to stay, with big companies spending more time designing them and pushing them more and more i decided it was time for me to give one a go. I sold the trek top fuel and bought myself a trek garyfisher superfly al to use as my winter bike, a hardtail with 100mm of fork travel, 30 speed and of course 29 inch wheels.
So here i am now with a few 100 miles on the clock and all i can say is i love it. I was expecting it to be sluggish,slow at cornering and have more toe overlap(some of the bad comments you here about 29er's) but gary fisher seems to have got these bikes right, i have no problems with accelerating and its fine on tight twisty singletrack. The bike seems to glide up the cobbled road of rooley moor  with ounces of comfort compared to a standard 26" hardtail. I did notice i was using a slightly lower gear than usual but this had no effect on speed due to the wheels. The bike has slightly longer chainstays and it is a tiny bit harder to pull the bike into manual or a bunny hop but i got use to it straight away and now cant tell the difference. I can see i'm going to enjoy this bike more and more as time goes by for long distance xc rides as well as my usual after work jaunts.
I can see 29er hardtails taking over 26" hardtail  bikes in the higher price brackets over the next few years, so with that said does anyone want to buy a lapierre pro race 700 frame, fork and industry 9 wheels?

todays off road ride on it

kielder 100

What a balls up!
Was feeling a bit iffy all week before it, camped out the friday night and didn't sleep much was coughing most of it and the constant rain wasn't helping banging on the tent roof. The plan a month before was to do really well and hopefully make a top 20 place.
I awoke by mick telling me it was 5.15am, it was dark and still pissing down. I got up and changed drank some porridge(because i forgot spoons) and got my self to the start line for 6.15.
6.15 is a bit late if you want to be anywhere near the front, i was placed a few hundred places back, luckily once the race had started it was led out at a slow pace by a pickup and i did a mad sprint for the front.
Once the pickup left the top guys let everyone know who they were, the pace was unreal i was coughing my guts up straight away and let them go. I ended up on my own pretty much from the start, the leader group had left me and i was ahead of the 2nd bunch.
The weather was bad it still wasnt properly light and was drizzling with morning mist, i slowed my pace as i wasnt racing i just wanted to complete it. The odd person caught me and we chatted about how bad this was going to be. I was covered in mud and was wet to the skin after 5 miles (only 95 to go). I was feeling ok considering i wasnt well but a problem soon hit when i got to the top of the first major climb and i couldnt ride fast enough to keep myself warm, i was cold by the time i had done any flat or downhill. I reckoned i was in the top 30 riders or so and new the conditions were bad as i saw a few good riders pull out who were in front of me by the 20 mile mark! I carried on knowing that if i took it easy i would easily complete it.
The course was wet, muddy and slippy, from the 5 mile mark i could hear my xtr transmission grinding away (not a good feeling). I was determined though to do it even if it wasn't at a race pace. At the 40 mile mark i hit a problem going down a decent, my brakes weren't working! I had to hold my rear brake lever to the bar just to remind me it wasn't there. I had to ride just using the front brake which was fine until one of the front pistons sieze'd up and pumped my lever up. I got myself to the half way point at 50 odd mile at 4hours 30 feeling ok considering and had  to call it a day, i had no pads, and was coughing my guts up. I wanted to carry on but the lack of brakes meant i couldn't, they where fine on the singletrack decents (which were fun even with no brakes) but  it was the fire road decent's where you'd hit 30mph in no time and had to brake for a corner that was the concern.
So that was it from me, half way and pulled out with numerous other people. Gutted but will be back next year as i loved 99% of the 54 mile i did.