Highland Trail 550 2015

The alternative is peeling him off the ceiling each day where he hovers in a Coke (Cola thankfully at his age) and haribo cocktail induced flying session.

Just back from Tyndrum / Kinlochleven. Saw everyone off.

Can’t believe that Josh Ibbett and Steve Headding are at the top of Corrieyairack!

One scratch already I’m afraid. I drove Steve Robbins back to Tyndrum from Kinlochleven. He had an OTB on the descent from Devil’s Staircase, hand injured, can’t hold onto bars 🙁 Some cuts, but he will be ok I think. Bad luck, having to scratch so soon.

That section is the most dangerous in the 1st day, as I said before. Also hearing from walkers of other OTB incidents there, plus numerous flats.

Pics up later today I hope.

Steve Heading is at Fort Augustus now. 7pm. That is 10 hours for nearly 100 miles, including some tough / slow sections. Racing!

I think the catch will be well before Crontin… The front runners are charging along. Is it just me or is this year faster?

Looks like the front two have now passed Rich and Tom.

Not sure about faster – Ian Barrington’s account from last year had about eight stopping at the same point as Rich and Tom on the first night but the leaders were ahead by a while.

Official Scratch Update – sorry for the delay but I was riding back from the Lakes

OK, we had a DNS yesterday from Craig McGee who had and RTA in Glasgow before he got to the start, he’s fine.

Todays scratches are:
1) Steve Robbins after a crash that may have caused a fracture in his hand/wrist.
2) Andrew Hutchenson is having some back issues and taking the smart route by stepping out.

Also, Pete Lumsden missed the start due to work and will be doing the route as an ITT in a few days! Good man 🙂

That’s it until tomorrow.

Some early photo rushes. I think I got photos of all the riders, and will post them when I have processed them all.

After midnight. They’re still going!

Tom is running second on a rigid SS. 🙂

Bonkers distances as ever!

Every year I think the leaders will blow up after such a huge first day, but they just keep on trucking mostly 😯
Incredible athletes some of these guys and gals.

24 hours in. Josh and Tom are at about 190 miles. Josh’s SPOT hasn’t updated for a while, I think he may be further on. That is a massive first day from both riders. Josh slept for 2 1/2 hours.

Tom is ahead now. Looks like Josh hasn’t moved for a couple of hours.

Watching a few pixel dots on a screen is addictive. 😕

I remember that last year a few of the trackers didn’t update occasionally, maybe that’s what’s happening.

Go Tom!
It’s his stag do next weekend! 😯

As if to prove my point, on the last update Josh’s tracker now puts him past Oykel Bridge and about 7 miles ahead of Tom. There’s a few further back whose trackers haven’t updated for a while as well.

The older trackers need to be reset every 24 hours, plus poor placement can result in loss of signal.

i like this pic, old giant, knackered rst forks, v-brakes, no gloves, not much kit, looks under prepared if anything, not much gear in that dry bag on the bike,

Overnight Scratch Update:

Ashraf Kamel – Broken derauiler before Fort Augustus.
Kristan Rivers – possible return of Lymes Disease….urk!

Thats it for now.

Lets also clarify something with “SPOT issues” – a lot of the time it is user error. Ie, not turning them back on. Or forgetting to check if they are working at all.

Greg: Perhaps I could have worded it better as “no updates have been received from the trackers” which doesn’t imply any fault with the units, not that I intended to imply anything in the first place.

Greg: Perhaps I could have worded it better as “no updates have been received from the trackers” which doesn’t imply any fault with the units, not that I intended to imply anything in the first place.

Not taking a jab at you. It’s something that irks me in general. Hardware is only as smart as it’s user. When a SPOT is in open sky, like a GPS, and is set to signal – it will. It make take 20mins, but it will signal.

Now if someone has stopped for 30mins in a building, then gone outside, you’re looking at about 50mins before it can update.

So not SPOT issue, user error. Hence why we ask riders to attach to their bike – facing the sky. Not in their pocket, facing the building.

i like this pic, old giant, knackered rst forks, v-brakes, no gloves, not much kit, looks under prepared if anything, not much gear in that dry bag on the bike,

Does anyone know which rider it is in that photo??

I know what you mean – Tom’s tracker was being shown as greyed out but his position was at Oykel Bridge so just possibly maybe he might be inside the hotel tucking in to one of their breakfasts 😛

Similarly if someone has a mechanical they could have the Spot covered or pointing to the ground for a couple of updates, potentially thirty minutes between the system/website being updated.

Back on track (sorry), I wonder just how far Josh will get today – another ten hours of daylight though on increasingly tired legs and there’s Bealach Horn to contend with.

Have you met Josh? If he’s back riding like he used to it’ll be no issue. I really hope he sets a record time.

Sorry Phil, looks like you may need to go back buddy 🙂

27 hours in, Josh at 220 miles, just on the climb from the power station now.

Does anyone know which rider it is in that photo?

I don’t know his name. I chatted with him and another rider briefly at the Kinlochleven Spar.

A bloke in 2 photos up there, for some strange reason a character from spaced comes to mind “wheels” 🙂

Is the giant rider this years underdog hero 🙂

Does anyone know which rider it is in that photo??

I think it’s Chuck Norris.

Well impressed by this. My guess is even doing it in 7 days would be not quite “fun” for most of us.

Looks like there’s a few bits of tarmac, correct? Offset buy the bog-pushes no doubt 😛

I think someone reckoned 10-15% walking Al. And the tarmac section includes the Drumbeg road 😆

this makes more sense to me than that double double south downs thing 😕

Have to say I didn’t find the Drumbeg road that bad.

It’s about 5% of the distance walking, but could be 25% of the time.

I enjoyed the Drumbeg road a lot last year. I was rested up, it was blazing sunshine, and I stopped in the store for a lot of food. If you are feeling on form, it is a great rolling cruse that section, an easy part of the course.

My guess is even doing it in 7 days would be not quite “fun” for most of us.

My feeling is that it is better to do it either as fast as you possibly can push yourself to do it, or to really tour it with lots of stops over 12 or more days.

7 days is still excellent going, and tough as hell. But to be honest, it is ‘finishing it’ that is the hard part, not how many days it takes. Dealing with the physical and mental strain is hard.

as Nick said, finishing the route is hard. It has some serious riding in it mixed with long distances and not great resupply if you’re going slow.

I’d say the walking is closer to 10% minimum – more for less capable riders.

Any idea what the tarmac % is?

Probably about 10% if you include the Drumbeg road. Quite a bit of gravel and access roads though.

Ilan Rubinstein appears to be going the wrong way?

Or has had enough?

I would suspect the latter.

He’s not officially scratched yet.

Every year, someone has taken that wrong turn though….

There appears to be a party going on in Crontin, or the cafe service is really slow.