I’m tracking Steve Field a fellow coach and club member, very unassuming guy doing well in the midfield for his first outing, also Markus Stitz who I used to work with and a previous finisher.
They’re heading into the bit I’ve ridden through so quite exciting just tracking the blue dot (dare I say Inspirational!! not sure if I’m up to it… but maybe?)
good luck to all.
dotwatcher – Member
It appears the small legs have fallen off. Greg, Rich will contact you later. They are heading back to Contin for tonight and then to Fort A.
Agrred Steven. Been watching how rigid SS Tom is getting on in trying to catch FS + gears Josh, then being distracted from the race by zooming right in on where Ilan is and looking forward to hearing about his ride 😀
Quick update – They are going to Contin, then onto Fort A. From there to Fort Bill where tehy are going to pick up the bottom section of The HT550 trail back to Tyndrum.
It was a case of Rich making an execuitive decision after pussing up the hill – they would have been out on their timings for Bothys and shopes. Minipips is not broken as earlier reported.
Its with a real glum face that I confirm our race long leader Josh as a scratch.
Spoke to him on the phone, he’s fine and safe if a bit sleepy.
Looks like his suspension linkages are toast – not sure if it’s just the bearings or if they snapped. Either way, he is out.
He sounded surprisingly chipper for a bloke who’s had sod all sleep – planning to head to the pub/inn in Strathcarron – fuel up – have a rest then get the train out.
That’s a real shame for Josh. It’s the old story in endurance, eliminate anything that can break or cause trouble because it will break or cause trouble.
Full credit to minipips. I await his next exploit.
I’m in Ullapool for the night. In two minds about continuing as I don’t think my knee will give me 230 painless miles and I know fine well that the next day or two has a lot of pushing. I’ll report back in the morning.
Sorry to hear that Alasdair. You were going strong as well, but I saw you have a slow start this morning and wondered if you were hurting. Rest up and hopefully you’ll be ok tomorrow!
Thanks for following guys. This is the toughest race I have ever done. I massively underestimated it and unfortunately the conditions took their toll on my bike and my bike maintenance skills! the lower swing arm linkage has collapsed meaning no hard pedalling. I’ve had to to push really hard to stay ahead of Tom and he doesn’t even have gears or suspension!!!! Fair play to him a top effort. I pulled the plug given the state of my bike and the grim conditions all week. Now I’ve stopped my feet legs etc are swollen and I didn’t even realise I.can’t feel my fingers… Imagine how Tom feels riding single- speed !!!
Came over on the ferry from Stornoway this afternoon, and came up behind one of the riders going down loch broom. I think if I was him, I’d have waited half an hour to miss all the ferry traffic, he wasn’t getting much space from passing cars overtaking him.
Bloody impressive ride though josh. It’s been great watching your dot! Hope you are satisfied with what you’ve done, although I’d imagine frustrated at being stopped by kit failure…
Hope you are able to enjoy a few restorative beverages. Anything under 5% is re-hydrating 😉
Josh – sorry to see your ride ended the way it did. Great performance to that point though – didn’t look like an effort from someone who had massively underestimated it!
