Keith Forsyth would never be so bold as to start this thread … so I had better get it said! On Saturday (27/06/2015) he destroyed the WHW record (11hrs30mins; Steven McInnes of Isle of Mull – then Rab Wardell 11hrs45mins) and has put in an astonishing time of 10hrs27mins. He had superbly synchronised support from Mark Livingston, no punctures or mechanicals, dry-ish ground, lovely weather, no wind and was just on fire after his ’10 Under the Ben’ Pairs win with Steve Deas the weekend before. It gets better though… The ride was part of the longer GT24 Coast to Coast ride (Gran Tourismo … honest ;-), from Glasgow Riverside Museum (River Clyde) to Inverness South Kessock (Moray Firth) which means also sucking up the Great Glen Way, after the WHWay, within the ride – inc its two new and stiff High Level sections above Loch Ness – and the links from Clyde to Milngavie (River Kelvin mainly) and a touch north in Inverness. So, that was all done in 18hrs41mins and the GGWay in 7hrs08mins. Geesh! It’s been validated by using a SPOT Tracker, which also meant he had quite a few live followers. All in, a big step forward for the Scottish/UK Endurance story! (I hope that some of the readers here get to experience the WHWay as a fluent MTB ride at some point in their personal MTB journey. We ride these LDR’s whenever we can and they never fail to deliver!!) We’d like to make the GT24 a regular fixture, supported, unsupported, bike-packing. You can even get a rest on the train back to Glasgow from Inverness!

How was the first bit for riding on? My wife walked the WHW a couple of weeks ago and reckoned the first bit would be awful to ride.

They are, indeed, quite a climb up away from the old Lower Level route. Well worth it for the views though.

Great achievement for Keith!!

Hi, she’ll be meaning the section from approx Inversnaid to Inverarnan/Ardlui. Which is from 34 miles to 41 miles. It’s notorious. It’s a bike carry, push, scrunge. Mostly unrideable. Danny MacAskill would like it! It’s a right of passage for the WHWay, whether walking or riding it. Imagine how that section feels to the riders that have managed to ‘Double’ the WHWay, which I believe, is only 5 riders in 35 years. Oh but MTB’s were not in the UK until 1985.

Cheers, that’ll be it.

I heard about Keith’s new record at the weekend. He’s certainly on form at the moment.

Although I’m still struggling to comprehend the new running record of 14h44m44s that got set last weekend. Works out at an average pace of just under 6.5mph, to cover the 95miles with 14’000 foot of ascent!

14.14.44 Paul Giblin 2015. Human Potential. Keeps on giving.

I was just thinking one of my mates was posting something about this on FB – then checked the name of the poster 😳

I gather somebody also set a new record for the John Muir Way 😉

Yep, we’ve all been up to a few endurance-tricks lately 😉 JMWay in 10h35m. The weekend of awesomeness. The trails were dancin’

Wow nice one, that’s some achievement. Unbelievable quick for the WHW, then to smash the GGW straight after.

How was the first bit for riding on? My wife walked the WHW a couple of weeks ago and reckoned the first bit would be awful to ride.

The first bit’s fine, it’s the north bit of Loch Lomond which is essentially a ~10km carry along a rocky shore.

Cheers Tom – first bit/a bit in the first half, I wasn’t listening that carefully 🙂

Meanwhile… In Ramsbottom… Phil Simcock draws up a plan. 😉

Amazing effort, was just thinking this morning that I need to do the WHW.
I also don’t feel so bad about only getting a second place to him at ’10 Under the Ben’.

Well done Keith !

He had superbly synchronised support from Mark Livingston

What does that mean? I assume he was being fed etc. then?

So not an unsupported time? Sadface 🙁

Edit: That came across badly – still an awesome time.

That’s an astonishingly fast time, and having ridden it last year for the first time (solo/unsupported) I figured getting around 12 hrs was do-able with support (and super-strong legs and good conditions), but under that was beyond me. So 10:27 is bonkers fast!

Did he get someone to open all the gates before Drymen? That started some early grumbles from me, as between Mugdock and Drymen there are loads and loads of gates – just seems determined to slow momentum, especially when you’re by yourself.

“superbly synchronised support”

yep, in my terms, this means having a support person that is totally dialed to meet the rider at many locations, for food, water and anything mechy.

GavinB I know what you mean about those gates. Keith rode that section alone and with no gate helper. The gates are good though – they are nearly all good self-closers, and can be opened with one hand without fully dismounting.

Good work Keith, impressively quick! I’m interested in the route between the Clyde and Milngavie. Obviously the Kelvin walkway for the most part-but then signs to Milngavie disappear, and I’ve taken ages trying to rejoin the Kelvin and mostly given up and taken the road. Did Keith Strava it?

Anyone that sub-12’s the WHWay is an exceptional rider. KeithF (he might have sub 12’d it 3 times now). Phil Simcock (did he sub 12 it during his Double?) Rab Wardell x 2, Steven McInnes. Rich Rothwell?, and by him – uniquely – unsupported. Others done it? Maybe not, but there are a few that want it. There is only one female non-stop completion. Nicola MacLeod unsupported in ?sub 18? as part of a Double completion. It’s all a bit niche, but I think it’s cool to show what’s possible with modern and optimistic attitudes of mind, bike reliability, riding styles/pace, nutrition, kit, support (or non-support) prep, and a bit of luck!

emcheese, Kelvin ‘walkway’ (ahem) is good (it’s a neat ride ‘below’ the City) all the way to A81 Dawsholm Park, then we designed GT24 to jump on the road from there to Milngavie. There is a reasonable trail beside the River Kelvin (towards Bardowie) that then links to another riverbank trail to Allander Water (all still called Kelvin Walkway) and then a final disarticulated trail wriggle through Milngavie to the WHW terminus marker. But seeing as the road only takes 10-15 mins, and the rivers take a tortuous routing, we have chosen the road as the link. We also want the GT24 (WHW+GGW) to be more achievable rather than less, and therefore it made sense to have a fluent link from the Clyde. Keith may have Strava’d it. He’s not a GPS user so he’ll not have a track to upload. He’s very practiced on the route though, and we had a SPOT tracker on him, so we do see it as validated. Give me a shout if you want me to draw up the Kelvin link but you should be able to see it on 1:50 from my description above.

Blimey, that is impressive going. I’ve raced against Keith before at the Puffer and he really is an animal.

Ah that makes sense-the path past the A81 takes a hefty detour. And it’s frustrating to even find it. I assume from the whw finish its the road to the Neptunes staircase? Think I’ll give it a bash sometime next year-did South Glasgow to FW in 18 hours unsupported a couple of years ago but made a mess of the route in several places!

emc, the 3 miles of route beyond Fort William is not as you assume. The Great Glen way is defined though. The detail (zzzZZ) is: Reach the Glen Nevis WHW (old) terminus marker near Woollen Mil, shop/restaurant, then by-any-route 1 mile to the (new) WHW terminus marker in the small renovated square by Travellodge and the sculpture of the fella on a bench, at the south end of High Street, then by-any-route 1/2 mile north to the GGWay terminus marker set in the grass of the Old Fort near roundabout, then it’s the paths of the GGWay that after 3 miles passes Neptune’s Staircase. The 1:50 map shows it well as magenta coloured diamonds, here; http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=211365&Y=774976&A=Y&Z=120

Amazing effort Keith and everyone else involved.

I was cycling the WHW on 27th June with my brother Colin and we had almost completed the 7 mile Inversnaid to Inverarnan carrying stage, when we thought we were seeing things as we noticed someone also carrying a bike and quickly catching up with us. This was Keith, who briefly stopped for a chat and told us he was attempting the record. We were amazed as we were attempting it in 20 hours. We went over, but managed to finish on the same day, the hardest thing I have ever done. Within a few minutes Keith was out of sight and on his way to the record. Congratulations Keith on breaking the record and we feel privileged to have shared a few moments with you on the way.
George

George, glad to hear you and your brother made it to Fort William !
I had been wondering if you guys had managed to complete your challenge ???
Hope you enjoyed the ride, we certainly got lucky with the weather that day !
I’ve now completed it a few times and think it’s a fantastic route.
Should of said it earlier, but, thanks to garytompsett for planning the route and planting the seed… anyone else up for it in 2016 ???

Is this a strava record or where is it recorded? I quite fancy a wee shot at this. (less quickly however)

**** me. Did the whw then ggw last year but over 3 days.(unsupported..) 15 hours in total for whw then 7h20 for the ggw. i took a lot of photos and enjoyed it but was still moving quickly the whole time. Just cant imagine doing it in one go that quick so serious kudos! Would love to set up a ggw race but north to south, anyone up for that ? (All the climbing is at inverness so gets it out the way)