Hi everyone. After many years away from the sport, myself and some mates have finally decided to get fit, bought some bikes and have been enjoying the joys of Glentress/Inners for the past 6 months. Anyway we’ve decided to set a goal of competing in our first race next year, and picked Ten under the Ben as it looked to have a fair mix of abilities and would let us enter as a team of 3.

Anyhow, I have a couple of questions that if anyone could answer it would be most appreciated;

Firstly, whist I appreciate its not going to be full of world champs, whats the standard going to be like? We obviously have no intention of winning, but don’t want to get absolutely humiliated either. We can currently all do the Red at Glentress in about an an hour and a half/hour 40 ish but have a bit of time to train so hopefully can get this down. Is this ok, horrifically slow, or will there be plenty of other rank novices there???

Secondly, any advice on the event itself? ie do we need to get the entries in now, do we camp on site or in fortwilliam etc etc?

Thanks all

If you’re doing it as a team of three, don’t worry about it! There is usually a pretty mixed bag of riders, I would say the size of the team roughly equates to rider ability. Me and a mate did the 10 at Kirroughtree last year as a pair, neither of us fancied doing it solo and felt we wouldn’t have got enough riding in as a trio.
We hired a van and taped a garden gazebo to the side of it! This was great for getting changed in and sheltering from the rain. We had a tent for sleeping in set up next to this so that it didn’t interfere with the rest of our set-up. It all worked out spot on and saved any running about we would have had if we’d stayed in a B&B.
The No Fuss events are probably the best organised events I’ve been to with a great atmosphere as well.

thanks for your sharing ! 😀

Thanks for the advice, hopefully you wont pass in a weezing heap at the top of the first climb!

We’re bringing one of those oldschool 1970s family tents (complete with matching curtains!)which will be perfect for sheltering from the elements. Assume the onsite campsite will be right next to the start line then?

ta

The camping was a little bit along the track last time, not actually in the transition area. We had our wee gazebo up in the nevis range carpark, total lifesaver tbh, I’d probably have spat the dummy and quit after 2 laps instead of 3 without it 😉

There are all levels of rider, quite a few folks looked like they’d never ridden a bike offroad before race day, but there were plenty of folks who could turn me inside out both up and down so I’m obviously not in any position to criticise.

tpbiker Much like you, mates and I entered 10 at Kirroughtree in 08 as a way of getting fitter and focusing riding. Great events to be involved in. Trios work really well- just right social/ riding balance for me.

NC21, thats exactly why we’re entering!

Thanks all for taking the time to respond.

Worth checking out Glentress Seven too (June 2 next year – bank holiday weekend) – great course, 7 hours, teams of two or three, good event village and atmosphere : ) Part of the TweedLove festival, where there’s a ton of events to take part in. Check out website