Me and Trail_Rat are planning on having a ride round the 300km Snow Roads Audax route on either friday the 18th or saturday the 19th of december. Any of you care to join us? It is one hell of a route with some brutal climbs and blisteringly fast descents. A lot of the ride will be in the dark, may be in the snow and it is pretty remote – so potentially pretty serious.

the blisteringly fast descents may well be a fair bit slower in the snow ……

you will require warm clothing and be prepared for a 15 hour day starting at about 5am – with lights etc …

pace will be about 23-25 kph ave

No.
Where's that anyway?

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/kirriemuir/609782436

Ye'r mad. Mad I tell thee.

Oh – what's going on around the 60 mile mark??

Ah Scotland. Deffo no then, not been there since soloing at the first Strathpuffer.
Plus it's the first weekend free after the cross season so it'll be a very relaxed freindly ride with mates that weekend
Enjoy!

i just had my works night out date confirmed as the saturday so ill be doing it on the friday.

druidh – pingu ( i think i may have ridden with him on one of these audaxes this year) seems to have taken a wrong turn.

Alot of these audax guys have laptops strapped to their bikes with the route on it !

Hmm. Might start the Audax lark in 2010. Depends on whether or not I can spirit up the right steed for it 😉

Depends on whether or not I can spirit up the right steed for it

Orange 5?

i sadly will not attend mainly cos i'll be snoing it up in NYC baby!!

Would of loved to do it though and the pace seems gentle enough for the mileage involved. Arrange another one after new year please!!

Would love to think I could do it, even in the summer on a nice day. About 80% too far for me at the mo. Plus far too many miles away.

Have fun and come back to tell us the tale guys.

Would love to do it, but I that's the day I've put aside to polish my spoke nipples.

Would anybody be interested in extending this ride by a 100-200km and placing a bivvy stop in the middle of it?

I would…. but its a school night….

I'd come but I think you and Terry are both ****s.

We have a new plan. Inverness to Durness and back, starting at midnight on the 17/18th. Anyone? Perfect Puffer Training. 😉

sacked off the snow roads due to high snow risk on the lecht and i didnt fancy riding down the A9 AGAIN its a **** shite road ….

there will likely be snow on inverness to durness but not vertical roads so no wheelspins 😀

ps – im still not convinced this is a good idea lol …

oh and stu – we love you too …..

its a brilliant idea.

its a brilliant idea.

Snow Road was a better idea.
I'd love to come but you'd just be eating my (snow)dust all the way and I'd hate to embarrass you both.

sounds good james – you can set the pace in that case !

*blows a big kiss back to Terry. 😉

Would anybody be interested in extending this ride by a 100-200km and placing a bivvy stop in the middle of it?

Seems you're not exactly getting much support for the 300k ride, of either route, so I'm not so sure about extending it 🙂

I wish you good luck, and will happily act as 'remote technical support' during daylight hours, as long as your problem can be solved by phone.

Perfect Puffer training I think not… unless you are solo-ing which will only happen if the rest of us wimp out !

The perfect Puffer training would be to camp somewhere cold for 24 hours, and every fifth hour get up and ride really fast for an hour, spending the other 4 trying to keep warm, eat, change your break pads and not punch somebody for breathing loudly.

Are you serious about this ? I was half convinced it was a wind-up to see if anybody would bite. I would give it a go maybe in summer but current endurance fitness not good enough and well, it will be cold and dark.

Hels we are deadly serious. Im solo singlespeeding the puffer so going for a get the head into the correct mindset for all the dark.

the longer route is drastically less climby – the snow roads is about 4000m iirc

more get out clauses too snow roaads only has one exit if it goes pete tong . Plenty stations on the long route for getting outa trouble

Oh and nick is that like the day before transwales mike ayles phones me from brecon saying get me a tent to the start of transwales – i live in north east of scotland !

Solo singlespeeding eh ? You target should be to do more laps than Anja did last year on hers.

I admire your commitment but not sure that 15 hours of mental and physical torture is required to prepare for Puffer – you might end up doing more damage to yourself and not have time to recover. Marathon runners don't train by running marathons and all that.

Anyway I had expressed an interest in this on another forum but now that it's on a school day no chance.

Dont worry hels its in my Schedule. 15 hours low intensity before xmas recovery its my last big ride. There will be no beasting it.

How many did anja do ?

ah anja did 20 ….. Im in a training for a wee bit above that …george knows the score.

I wasn't there but I think it was more than all of the blokes – but then she is a kiwi – will ask my old flatmate she passed him heaps and he won the pairs, having retired with 4 hours to spare (but I don't think that will happen this year the standard is higher in the mens I hear, and Anja has gone back to NZ I think)

Oops sorry how does one delete a post ? I am meant to be talking up said ex-flatmate and his awesome fitness to psych out the opposition – more of this chat and I will have to pay for bike servicing !

I am contemplating a 'mid winter Whitton' with a few mates – the idea being to do the FW starting as it gets light and aiming to finish before it gets dark on the 21st December.

Mens pairs it looks a fair toughy this year dont fancy that much. Quads looks like it would give keswick boys a run for money.

Solos has a few fast boys in too ….

Oh and nick is that like the day before transwales mike ayles phones me from brecon saying get me a tent to the start of transwales – i live in north east of scotland !

Yep, he phoned me too wondering if I knew anyone he could 'crash' with for the week. Nowt like forward planning…

I am contemplating a 'mid winter Whitton' with a few mates – the idea being to do the FW starting as it gets light and aiming to finish before it gets dark on the 21st December.

Take a canoe, there's still a few roads round there that are impassable…

Anja was pretty damn impressive, but I don't think she beat Shaggy.

Hels – Steve will be fine.

Well tonight's the night people. Anyone joining us? We have reverted back to the original plan of Snow Roads Audax route and are starting at midnight.

oh and its snowing …. should the lecht proove impassible – aviemore for breakfast 😉

sorry just read the thread .so a bit short notice for me otherwise id be mad for it ..good luck !