The Hardest Race In The World - The Strathpuffer - Part 3

And they are off.......
The real racers set off at and alarming pace with Dougie Vipond somewhere in the middle, with a cameraman following close by his side.
Ross was jogging happily at the near the back, smiling away.
Picking up this bike he set off up the steep fireroad climb, which was all covered in inch thick ice after the first 600 yards.
I headed to the catering, which was in one of the farmers sheds, hastily cleaned out due to the high winds and flooding. Grabbing a cup of tea I headed back to the tent to get the bike ready and stuff down half a bar of chocolate and a few chocolate digestives, obviously for energy reasons.
Trekking down the mud slide entrance to the start/finish to get a few shots of my partner coming home from his first lap.
Flying down the down the ice riddled fireroad about 45 ish minutes came the first load of riders, many of them just dibbing in and going straight out for another lap. There was a steady stream of competitors rolling in over the next 45 minutes with some of them looking ready for going straight to the 'recovery center' for a beer, other why they came but most were grinning ear to ear despite the course being 80% ice and 20% 4 inch mud.
Ross came around with the same grin on his face covered in mud (pictured here) and describing the first loop as ICE! ICE! MUD AND MORE ICE!...mmmmm very encouraging.
Handing him the camera to take a shot of me setting of I to wondered why I was here??..

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

The Hardest Race In The World - The Strathpuffer - Part 2

Bleary eyed, and rubbing my head due to the 'few beers' from the night before Team MountainBikingScotland.com strolled down to the Square Wheels bike shop to hear the announcement, on whether the event would go ahead or not.
With hats, gloves and warm jackets up to the max we were promptly told that it would go ahead but must park where the organiser say and not to park in ' any random places' as it was likely we would get stuck in the ever softening ground.
After returning to the hotel and wolfing down as much 'Scottish Breakfast' as possible we set off to the site with Ross riding up. I took the Team Van with all the supplies and on reaching the turn off and slowly winding down a wide-ish footpath, realised that there may be trouble ahead.
Ross returned from the 'recce' to inform me that the organisers had said 'once you are on, you are on' (the camping field). What did they mean?? As I moved around the corner I saw to my amusement a 45K 4x4 Mercedes being dragged onto the field by a tractor!!! At this point I was looking/wishing/hoping for alternative parking.
Ross scooted off to sign on has he was up for the first lap (so I could take photos) and I was still stuck in the queue waiting to get parked.
Managing to find a space right at the bottom of there hard-pack road, I dumped loads of the gear at the top of the hill and cycled as fast as I could laden with equipment to the sign on, got my 'dibber' and numbers and rushed to the starting line, for the 100 meter sprint to the bikes, and the first lap....
Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

The Hardest Race In The World - The Strathpuffer

THE TRIP & TALES
As we loaded up the MountainBikingScotland.com Team Van (my wife's Scenic with the back seats out) our anticipation and excitement of the road trip ahead was hard to contain.
As usual I had packed 2 0f everything and a spare one just in case, filling more than half of the space in the boot, whereas Ross had 3 bags and a sleeping bag for the whole trip.

We wound our way North past Perth and onwards as the wind blew harder and all around us was getting colder, snowier and icier!! Was this the shape of things to come?
After two and a half hours of pointing in a Northerly we pulled into the Ralia Cafe on the A9 for a bowl of the best tomato soup I have tasted in ages and a double shot 'milky one' to set us up for the final furlong.

Dingwall was passed and onto Strathpeffer to the Ben Wyvis Hotel where after checking in and heading to the bar we heard the rumour that due to the high winds the campsite was closed and that the registration had moved to the Community Center. After a beer or two we dashed up but found it closed, so we got back to the bar as quick as we could to hear the tale that there would be an announcement at 7am out side the Square Wheels shop.
Find out what happened tomorrow.....

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

The Strathpuffer 24

Another year over and time for more New Year madnesses in the the shape of the Strathpuffer 24 hour Mountain Bike Race.

This is the only 24 hour race in the World in Winter conditions...and MountainBikingScotland.com will be there as a Duo/Pair/Couple of Loonies (delete as applicable.)

Since we missed it last year due to injury and laziness we will be going full tilt to have as much fun as possible, get as muddy as possible and hopefully be able to make it home in one or two pieces.

My riding partner for this event is my long time 'bike buddy' Ross J Aitken, also a photographer and former courier (come on out of the saddle lad!!)
He will be in charge of editing and uploading images from the event and I will be updating the site throughout the night, keeping you amused with our progress, or lack of it.

We have a couple of tents to use as Base Camp, but as back up have booked a hotel in the village of Strathpeffer just in case (we get tired/cold/fed up/want to kill each other!!)
Keep a eye on the site for up to the minute news and pictures.

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

UCI World Mountain Biking Championships 2007

Mountain Biking Scotland has been at the BIGGEST Mountain Biking event in the World.......
In FORT WILLIAM! Yes, that's right it is finally here all of he glitz and glamour of the Mountain Biking circuit are upon our shores. As this is THE WORLDS the number of media in attendance is huge. Expecting over 40,000 people to attend this is the 'other' event happening in Scotland other than the national teams playing football and rugby. We will be bringing you the results and photos of the 4X, XCountry and of course the crowd's favourite the Downhill.

USA certainly made their mark in the 4X with Brian Lopes taking 1st place in the Men's and Jill Kintner taking the Gold for the Women. It was certainly an eventful evening with he racing starting at 8.00pm to comply with live TV, the Men's 4X got off to a great start with Gee Atherton setting a blistering start from the gate, taking the lead and jumping with style into the next round.
His luck never held out though and was knocked out in the quarter finals, but Scott Beaumont of Team GB made it through to the Small Final taking 3rd place. Cedric Gracia was not so lucky taking a crash in the bomb hole in the quarter finals, he was led away by emergency crew limping and dusty, but still in one piece. Lets hope he will be ok for the Downhill on Sunday.

In the Elite Men's XC Julin Absalon of France took the win by more than one minute in a field of over 100 riders.

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

Barlow Wins TransScotland

The final day of the Chain Reaction Cycles TransScotland (Powered by Merida Bikes) brought Britain’s toughest mountain bike challenge full circle and home to Selkirk after seven full days in the saddle and almost 498km (310 miles) and 14,100m of climbing (46,300ft). Course designer Pete Laing brought to bear the big singletrack guns together with more open country riding and vistas, to make the final linking stage from Glentress to Selkirk one to truly savour.

The riders clipped in by The Hub café and bike shop and got on with the business of climbing upwards on a mix of singletrack and fire roads into the heart of Glentress forest to 602m. The hard work and effort of forcing reluctant legs and depleted muscles into action for the final push was more than rewarded once the summit had been crested: the trail dropped down on curvaceous singletrack, broiling downwards with an unmitigated intent to deliver a turbo-charged, endorphin shot straight to the frontal lobes that, for the smooth singletrackeers in particular, was simply seventh heaven.

Then after 21km, the riders were eventually spat out to refuel at Cardrona from where they snaked down into the Cardrona Valley and upwards once more to 400m up Wallace’s Hill. The trail dropped via the Glen Estate and onto Innerleithen’s Traquair trail, where riders steeled themselves one final time for some serious gravity gains up to 500m on the singletrack climb up Minch Moor and out onto the Southern Upland Way. A descent and 230m climb back up Broomy Law to the Southern Upland Way had to be cut out at the last minute, so the riders were left with a final chance to savour Scotland’s scenery from the back bone of the Borders before a fast skittering descent swept them finally, gratefully, and for the last time back into Selkirk to complete the course and to receive their finishers’ jerseys.

With What Mountain Bike magazine hosting the finisher party, providing copious amounts of free drink and a choice selection of good time tunes for the well deserving and saddle sore riders, the final prize presentations were made: For some, the spoils of victory, for others the commiserations of coming so far and yet so close; yet all could lay claim to a share in the proud knowledge that they had completed and survived Britain’s toughest mountain bike challenge, the Chain Reaction Cycles TransScotland (Powered by Merida Bikes).

Meggie Bichard (Extreme Endurance) took the Scottish Tourism Women’s Solo Open Category competition, whilst her male counterpart was the popular Andy Barlow (Whyte Bikes), who had a winning time of 47:13:13.

The Scottish Borders Veteran Women’s race was claimed by Julie Dinsdale ahead of Tatjana Troll. In the men’s, Rob Waller (ERC One Week Younger) clinched the title and led the thanks and praise for the organisers and support teams from the podium. The High5 Mixed Category was a runaway win for the pairing of Maddie and Jay Horton (XC Racer.com/Trek) who finished almost 20 minutes up on second placed Alice Crook and Neil Hamblin (Cakemonsters).

Elsewhere, the Gore Veteran’s Category was sewn up by Bryan Singleton and Peter Strong (Global/Torq/Buff), whilst Robert Barker and Mark Langdon (Sportstest.co.uk) took second, with the charismatic and ever playful Police Team Italia pairing of Mario Brunello and Fulvio Damian rounding out the podium in third. The winners of the Buff Female Category were the strong and fearless pairing of Julie Cartner and Renel Brennan riding for the 7Stanes. And finally, Keith Bontrager finished the event himself to claim ninth overall in the Scottish Borders Veteran’s Men’s Solo race.

Thanks to Matt Skinner of TransScotland for the words and pictures.

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

Dalbeattie SXC - The thirst

The SXC Round 2 at Dalbeattie was a fantastic weekend. I have ridden in previous years in the 'fun' catergory I was looking forward to a clear and hot day on Sunday for the race. I arrived on Saturday afternoon in time to go for a quick loop around the course. After the first 5 minutes of smiling riding the boardwalk section it was head down for the 2k singletrack climb....sweaty nightmare!!!

Having succesfully negotiated the steep on-the-shoulder-carry-section in was mostly downhill, some very steep and gnarly with a few drops, one large one in particular that I managed to avoid, many didn't. Watch ou for the chain ring on a few bits or jump them.There was plenty of time to enjoy the hard work of the 'Trail Faries' at the end of the course on the built up sections which included the infamous Log Ride,avoiding the deep mud, which I managed to clean twice!!

During the race on Sunday I ran out of water 10 minutes into the second lap and was dying for a drink but just had to keep going. I treated myself to two cups of sweet, milky tea and a double bacon roll to make up for it.

All in all a great course and a fun filled weekend, including staying in a great B&B 2 miles north of Dumfries called South Park House, who have given us a great deal for all Mountain Biking Scotland members. Watch out for the offer in the forthcoming newsletter. Not a member?? Sign up now here!

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Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

SXC Mountain Bike Race Series - Round 1 - Laggan

After a long drive up to Kingussie late on the Friday night I managed to get a good sleep in the Tipsy Laird Bothy.
After turning up on the Saturday, checking out the superbly stocked cafe and the bike shop, I took two loops around the course, which had a few small puddles but all the rocks seemed fairly dry.
Somehow I managed to miss the 'natural' section, which came as a great suprise when I hit it on the first lap. Total mudfest!! See the videos.

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The Saturday night was a little different. There was a live band playing in the Tipsy Laird Pub (right next to the Tipsy Laird Bothy) which finished at about 12.30 and a group of women arguing and shouting until about 1.15am. Eventually got to sleep at about 1.30am!!
As the sun came up and started to melt the frost on Sunday morning I loaded up my Orange Sub 3 mountain bike onto the car and put on my 'bonnett' and headed from my bunk house down to the first Scottish Cross Counry (XC) Race at Laggan.
There was a great turn out. New model of 'this' and improved versions of 'that', new cycling tops, shorter racing carbon bars and squeaky clean mountain bikes. As a seasoned entrant in the 'fun' section I was well prepared to take on the all comers... by making sure I had loaded with carbs by having a Chinese take away the night before and was ready for some FUN!!
The sun warmer everyone in time for the start of the races at 11 am. The Juniors race was well attended as was the Fun with 20+ entrants. Then it wa time for the 'serious' mountain bikers of the XC world to come out to play, after the Vets and Grad Vets had done their blinding segment of trail. The Elite men stepped up to the line.........

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

New SXC Season Begins

Well I am looking forward to the first SXC Mountain Bike Race, at Laggan Wolftrax Mountain Bike Centre, on Sunday.
I normally do the Fun Race, 2 laps is normally enough to warrant a 'bacon buttie' and a 'cup-0-tea'. I have been doing a small amount of training and keeping up the commute speeds to add some extra zip to my legs.
As ever there will be the usual shouts in my ear of 'rider' as one of the more elite riders pass by, but I just enjoy the event and the atmosphere, leaving me trembling in their wake.
You should be able to read a report of the event along with some photos of the hard riders and mud covered mountain bikes.
PS. Look out for the Mountain Biking Scotland FLYERS at the event.
Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"

Relentless 24

Andy Barlow racing earlier in the year in the Scottish XC series

Here are the results from this weekends Relentless 24 event at Fort William, Scotland...
RESULTS

Well done Andy Barlow (of The Bike Chain - Edinburgh)and Team for winning the Quads and getting the fastest lap of the event!!

Tony Haresign
Mountain Biking Scotland
"Get Out of the Woods!"