MegaSack DRAW - 6pm Christmas Eve - LIVE on our YouTube Channel
I wanted another thread to give my thanks to those who deserve it.
Obviously the organisers, marshals and medics without whom we have no event and a special mention to those who dug the trail out. fantastic work chaps!
Julie ( Mrs TJ) for a superb bit of support crew work - with help also from Big Al, Roberta, Norman, George and Matt.
Mark at [url= http://www.thebikechain.co.uk/store/ ] The Bike Chain[/url] who supplied all my spares and tyres at a good price and also lent me a light - a [url= http://www.niterider.com/prod_pro600.shtml ]nightrider pro 600[/url] which is a fantastic piece of kit. I think I rode about 9 or 10 hours in the dark and still did not use all the battery up - and the light was easy to fit on the bike and easy to use. with a great beam pattern. It may be expensive but its great.
Simon at [url= http://www.bigtreecampervans.com/ ] Big Tree Campervans[/url] for hiring one out at short notice and being very friendly and helpful. We decided at the last minute that a nice warm camper was a good idea rather than a tent.
Finally all the other competitors for showing such a great attitude. The whole atmosphere was great and everyone was friendly and helpful. In many places on the lap overtaking was impossible without co operation ( obviously I was overtaken far more than I overtook) but everyone was unfailingly polite and grateful if you made room.
Big up to you all - a great event run in a great atmosphere.
Thanks to your big warm jacket that nearly crushed me haha
And cheers to endura for being jolly good chaps and doing me a very good deal on stealth kit which i ripped falling on the ice at 6 am 🙁
And finally thanks to bnq duct tape for keeping my feet warm and dry 🙂
As my brain slowly comes back to life I remember a couple more.
The chap who stopped to help me as I was lying in a snowdrift still clipped in. " are you all right?" "yes but I can't get unclipped" as I lay there thrashing around like an upturned sheep. He pulled the bike off me and pulled me to my feet. Many thanks - that was above and beyond the call and very helpful.
JELLY BABIES!!!! without which I would still be lying in a snowdrift at the top of the last climb. I just had to stop and eat my emergency jelly babies - and again everyone who passed asked if I was OK " yes but I need jelly babies NOW!"
Finally everyone who gave me encouragement just about every spectator and marshal I passed and all the riders who passed me. It really helped. My 9 solo laps for the glory of 26th place pale rather into insignificance beside the achievements of the real racers but for me it was climbing Everest and getting an Olympic gold all in one go.
Thanks - I can retire from racing now and bask in the glow of my magnificent achievement and leave the field clear for others
Anyone else I have forgootten - thanks to you all as well.
Jeremy, you didn't do the Puffer this weekend did you? You never mentioned it...
😉
x
I was there - were you? Someone claiming to be you did 13 laps but surely a middleaged woman can't have done that.
Agree, thanks to all the organisers, great event again... we are just wading through the pile of post event steaming mudcaked ming, but have good memories. I was supporting the winners of the mixed pairs who cranked out 20 laps..... top job everyone... good atmosphere.
Now Rickmeister - tell me how Dave who is unfit and supposedly injured managed to pull that one out? Did his partner do 19 laps and let him have the glory lap?
Now Smee..... cool your jets.. the boy did good. They did 10 laps each (i assume you have checked the results, team is One fall short of a solo).... Maybe he is a Master of Spin or blag....? If the event was drug tested he did take a lot of painkillers though. He also lost 40 mins with a shredded tyre sidewall and a slow puncture on lap 14. If this had'nt happen it would have been entirely possible to do another lap. I will however add that he is not so attractive when woken up at 3 am and told to get ready to go out on his bike..... oh, neither is Naomi to be honest.....
What a brilliant event! First time for me at Strathpuffer, but had a great time. The atmosphere was brilliant and the course was a glowing testament to the snow digging prowess of the organisers and local riders! Thanks must also go to the organisers for sorting out the weather, especially the nice frost to firm up the fire road (even if it did make that slab a little interesting) and reduce the pain of the long climb, and for keeping the rain away for almost the whole event.
To all the other riders who were out there who were, to a man (and woman), courteous, cheerful and encouraging, thanks.
To the marshals at the top of the fire road climb, thanks for the generous offers of tea and the great tunes to get me through the last lap; I'm genuinely sorry I never stopped, but if I had I think I would never have got going again. To the marshals with the air horns at the foot of the short but steep (and latterly icy) climb, you're a cruel lot for forcing me to cycle the climb every time, but you kept me going.
To The Cycle Jersey.com crew, I think I've never envied anything quite as much as the inside of you lavish abode each time I ground past! Was it as warm as it looked?
Finally thanks to my team mate who dragged himself out to do laps despite a horrendous case of the sh1ts, before and during the event!
RM - try interpreting my post in a friendly if somewhat shocked way....
Smee, sorry... your probably a mate of his who I don't know... ! I am just seriously impressed with what they managed to achieve... Chapeau....
Yeah - I'm the guy who phoned him to tell him he was missing his prize giving. I too am seriously impressed by the two of them. Dave has had a lot of time off the bike in the last year so that makes it all the more impressive.
One thing which was really touching was the gratitude of the organisers towards the competitors and support. The work put in by Strathpuffer crew is immense and obviously hugely appreciated - I'll heartily second Jeremy on that (Jeremy: you beat me by 28 minutes!) - and we have also to recognise that given the conditions the turn-out was amazing, the mood was upbeat, the cameraderie and - what manners! No pushy macho rubbish, no elitism, just one big happy event.
Well, just about back to reality. Whining kids ruined by a weekend's spoiling by relatives, mountains of washing, impending return to the office...
Ah, but I can look back on a fantastic adventure 🙂
Cheers all, al.
(I stuck some pictures up: [url] http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/strathpuffer-photos [/url])
