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See Javi go. Go dude go.
He's just starting the Postman's Path (appropriate given his job), two to two and a half hours to Kinlochewe. He's about 24hrs up on where I was last year, with luck he'll get down the Torridon descent before dark then it's a bit of road before the climb over to Dornie so will probably bivy somewhere in the Strathcarron area.
Looks like the leader is feeding up at the Whistlestop Cafe in Kinlochewe. Lee is about a mile behind.
Minipips is going well. Impressive young lad.
Lots of impressive rides in v. tough conditions. After dark now and Lee seems to have whistled by Kinlochewe, leaving Javi and Alex behind as she heads past Loch Clair. [edit] And seems they are following. I thought earlier that one of the leading 3 might make a decisive move overnight, time will tell I guess. Go well everyone!
Think I might stay up late tonight dot watching. 🙂
Lee in the lead by 2 miles at midnight.
Did alex even sleep last night ?
That's a commanding lead he's got. Lee second now.
Going through Alex's log it certainly doesn't look lie he has slept. Is this too early to make a dash like that?
29c recorded in Achnasheen and Fort William yesterday, widely 28c.. Same forecast today. Possibility of thunderstorms from later tomorrow.
Last year Chris Hope went for home from The Schoolhouse bothy just after Oykel Bridge. From Alex's track it looks like he slept at or near Suileag bothy just outside Lochinver. His last ping was 30 mins ago from Camban bothy in Glen Affric. TL also shows he's stopped for a total of 10 hours which is a long time for a single bivy but I can't see another camp icon but timing wise there's a big gap near Garve which for his pace seems about right.
Lee is dropping down to Inverinate - there's a filling station there that opens at 7am and the next refreshment point is the youth hostel in Glen Affric so a good chance she'll take the opportunity.
Fraser McBeath is at Strathcarron hotel and is considering scratching - he posted this on the Bearbones forum.
Fraser also reported that Javi is having problems with his drop-outs. He's zip-tied them together but not expecting the fix to last until Tyndrum.
whitestone
...Fraser also reported that Javi is having problems with his drop-outs. He’s zip-tied them together but not expecting the fix to last until Tyndrum.
Either he's having more problems with them or with his tracker because his dot hasn't moved in over an hour.
Glen Affric is dodgy for spot reception usually. Always get some blackouts in there.
Javi is having tracker problems, since it fell off his bike and got damaged.... He lost the nut from his rear axle just before Kinlochewe. Carried on with a proper trailside bodge of DT RWS cable tied to frame, to stop the axle falling out. Hopefully he has managed to sort a more secure fix now!
And Fraser has scratched
Looks like Lee is in Tomich for some refreshment given her timing through Dornie and Inverinate - the pub there know about the event plus there's a cafe on the other side of the road.
Alex is about 20 minutes from FA, for the front riders it's about ten hours from there to the finish so an ETA of around midnight assuming no mishaps or long cafe breaks.
Further down the field: Phil Fraser-Thomson is well ahead of where he was last year, he passed me at the Sealga river crossing at midday which puts him about 8hrs up at a guess. Pete McNeil is also doing well, looks like he's riding with Alan Goldsmith who will no doubt not be stopping at the Dornie toilets tonight! Rich Munro is on the way in to Fisherfield.
I feel for those suffering in this heat; we met Darren Smith near Loch Pattack on Sunday afternoon and again at Wolftrax café shortly after. He was a little confused and quite frazzled in the heat but was convinced he was now dropping out and was thinking about a revised plan, bailing at Fort Augustus and taking an easier return towards Tyndrum on the last leg of the route.. Darren is another who suffered a hefty pinch flat on his tubeless set up on the climb after Ben Alder cottage. I doubt that Wolftrax would have an extra spare 29+ tube for him as he was now down to a single spare and we didn't.
On the plus side, his track shows he must have been up on the Corrieyairick at dusk, which must have been simply spectacular.
A wee footnote: he described much of his training as having been in the snow, ice and mud of an up-state New York winter. Normally, that'd be perfect prep for a summer ride in the Highlands.
whitestone
...Alex is about 20 minutes from FA, for the front riders it’s about ten hours from there to the finish so an ETA of around midnight assuming no mishaps or long cafe breaks.
The race is well and truly on now. 🙂
Looks like Mike Clarke is scratching 🙁 He's heading along the main road towards Corrieshalloch. He'd gone partway up the Corrie Hallie track in to Fisherfield then turned round.
Javi's SPOT has just updated and he's left Tomich so whatever bodges he's done are still working.
What do folks use for waterproofs on this? I can't imagines you want anything heavy but nor do you want anything any less than completely waterproof as you are out for such a long time
Waterproofs. Last year the forecast was for some very heavy showers (which we got) so I took a Haglofs windshirt and an Endura MT500 jacket. The windshirt dealt with lighter showers but I was glad of the MT500 on the two occasions I used it. This year I took the windshirt again but took a lightweight Endura top to go over it if there was heavier rain.
I don't bother with waterproof trousers in summer, for some reason I can cope with my legs getting soaked but not my torso.
Mike has a cut foot and is heading for some medical attention.
for some reason I can cope with my legs getting soaked but not my torso.
Are you happy to live with wet shorts for a few days in a row? I guess it's 'summer'
Are you happy to live with wet shorts for a few days in a row? I guess it’s ‘summer
They do dry out you know. If you've got wet shorts either from rain or sweat then when you get to a bivy, take 'em off, wring out, apply talc to help dry, apply talc to yourself, go to sleep, apply more talc in the morning, start riding.
For things like this you need to know your strengths and weaknesses.
And love of talc....
Spent 8 weeks doing a fast tour (2700 miles)* in only one pair of shorts. Just washed them every other day and used plenty of sudocrem.
Well done for getting as far as you did Whitestone. Massive admiration for all the riders out there. Just being on the startline is way more than I could do.
*my fast is still glacial...
Yep, massively impressive but inspirational as well. It looks worth doing
There were two guys at the start who'd toured it over ten or eleven days which would be a very nice way to do it as there's bothies at a few suitable locations when going at that sort of pace. There'd be one or two sections where you'd need to have food, stove with you but for quite a lot of the route you can eat in cafes, pubs, etc.
@Andy, ta, losing fluids through sickness is only really going to have one outcome in that sort of heat. I think I'd have scratched anyway either at Laggan or Fort Augustus even if I hadn't had the wheel/tyre problems, that just made my mind up. Scratching there meant that the logistics of getting back to Tyndrum weren't too bad.
Yep Whitestone - good call and escape that, textbook actually!. Alway remember my yachtmaster examiner saying she didnt want to see us doing things right. She wanted to see us f*** up, and then see what we did to get out of it. Only time I left course on my tour was after riding with a root canal infection for 3 days, and regretted not bailing sooner.
43 miles to the end for Alex.
Lee has 67 miles.
Dot watching is going to be better than watching the telly tonight...
Looks like Alex is refuelling in the Co-op at Caol rather than requiring the 24hr service stations. Not sure what the fast riders need from there, 2hrs to Kinlochleven, 2hrs up the Devil's Staircase, 3 to Tyndrum, something like that.
The new finish section will add on a bit of time. The climb over to Bridge of Orchy will be slower than the road.
What's the record for the HT550?
Hats off to all that have a go
3 days 10 hours 22 minutes courtesy of Mr Neil Beltchenko last year. His total stopped time, that includes sleeping, was under ten hours!!!
The course does change slightly each year, usually due to things like hydro schemes but this year has the sting in the tale at Bridge of Orchy where the WHW is followed rather than the road around the side of the hill.
The current route has only been used since 2016, earlier editions started out along the WHW to Kinlochleven before heading towards Laggan. They also exited Fisherfield via Poolewe rather than the Postman's Path and did the Annat ascent and Coire Lair descent in Torridon. The WHW start was replaced to avoid having 50 bikers and all the walkers mixing. The Torridon section was changed because of some very close calls due to weather.
Forgive me if this is a daft question but I don’t understand the leaderboard/who is wining.
looking at the map it looks like Darren Smith currently on about 515 miles but on the riders page he is well down with Alex pilkington at the top and lee craigie not far behind.
Am I missing something here?
Darren didn't start along with everyone else, he is doing it as an ITT (that's why his marker is in yellow)
If you look at his History, you will also see that he has only done a small part of the route
The page takes a bit of working out. The map shows everyone out on the route with a tracker regardless of when they started. The icons are a different colour depending on whether they are on the group start or an ITT, male or female. The map also shows the distance as the point on the route they are at *not* whether they've actually ridden that far - last week someone started round the route "the wrong way" and immediately got shown as being at mile 540!
So Darren has a yellow icon meaning he's doing an ITT and is at 515 miles but if you click on his name in the leaderboard then you will get a new page open up and you can see his track history. In his case it shows that he didn't do any of the route beyond Fort Augustus.
The leaderboard shows the current order of riders on the group start but also has the ITT riders.
It never fails to amaze the sheer pace of these racers. It's tempting to say Lee does amazing for a female, but it's an amazing pace full stop.
I'm not sure she's actually really a human tbh.
I did a big Cairngorm loop on Sunday /Monday and the heat was punishing if I tried to go fast. I quite enjoyed it, bimbling along, soaking it up. Keeping up a fast pace, no thanks!
Thanks for the explanations...one last query - what does ITT stand for? (Will probably be really obvious!)
ITT is an Individual Time Trial. You choose when to start, you're not part off the group start and therefore not racing anyone except the clock.
"I’m not sure she’s actually really a human tbh."
And she's just back from riding round the uk with Richie cotter doing their divided video tour.
Which btw is good. Caught the last show in ellon .last week
It's mindbogglingly that people can function on so little sleep. Seriously impressive.
It seems I am the first to say congratulations to Alex for an amazing ride. No surprise to those who know him.
And Lee has finished, well done to her.
Javi won't be far off, his tracker last pinged on the Devil's Staircase over three hours ago.
Brilliant efforts.
As for functioning without sleep I don't know how they do it. I fell asleep dot watching and missed the finish.
They were having to ride their bikes... 🙂
I see Javier is shown as finished an is placed in front of Lee.
When did he get in? The tracker obviously was broken.
If you click on his name in the leaderboard you get a new page with his details. From the last tracker time he got in just 15 minutes after Alex. Apparently he dropped his tracker and it wasn't working reliably. There's no pings from his SPOT after the Devil's Staircase so not completely sure what's happened after that.
Provisional times:
Alex Pilkington: 3d17h11
Javier Simon: 3d17h26
Lee Craigie: 3d21h49
Edit: Not sure what's going on with Trackleaders as both Sarah Caylor and myself who scratched on the first day are shown as active whereas we were shown correctly yesterday.