Worth keeping an eye on http://www.highlandtrail.net.

Hard to say what’s happening with Oliver.

Will assume Nik is the new back marker.

Interesting watching the spread of riders as Spots still active, so we know who has scratched but can still track there escape routes.

Well done mr AlasdairMC! Heal well.

Bryan is out with sore knees. Steve Wilkinson faceplanted himself and is out but don’t think he had a tracker. According to Matthew Lee SW may need surgery to regain his dashing looks. Hope he is ok. Anothetr of the front runners has knee issues but do not want to give anyone encouragement.
Oliver Webb is on his honeymoon and no great rush. Saw him atk Ossian YH where we had brandy with the warden. Andy Farish went wrong in Kinlochleven losing 2 hours but doing ok now.
My seatpost kept slipping causing a knee problem. After Ossian it could be a problem getting out so on my way home, sadly. I also think I did to much a few weeks ago – I bikepacked across Spain – and was not riding strongly.
Awesome route and plan to tour it sometime. Cannot believe Aidan’s pace. Aidan, Mark and Ian Barrington all on singlespeeds. Arno Minaar is and Oliver even built his own singlespeed.

Thanks for the offers of help. Managed to patch the bike up as a makeshift SS and rode to Inverness. Now on a bus back to Glasgow.

This is an awesome race, and well done to Alan for organising it. I’ll be back next year without a doubt!

I reckon Andy Farish will make it. He started at Loch Ossian YH yesterday at around 4:30am, and we met him at Melgarve around 9 looking frozen to the core. We met him again just outside Fort Augustus where he bought most of the shop and pressed on to Contin. He’s a tenacious guy.

Despite his cock-up Andy Farish had a massive smile on his face at Ossian. Big trip for him from Denver.

Anyone know the correct positions of the racers? It seems to show John Russel as leading but his tracker shows he hasn’t done the full route.
I thought Aiden Harding was leading? Also i was particularly interested to know what position Alan Sheldon was doing as i ride with him regularly, it looks like he was next on route after Mark Goldie

Its aidan harding mark goldie , alan sheldon

The others went to drumnadrochit and then turned back to rejoin the course and continue on the return leg so show as ahead.

Thanks trailrat i thought that was the case but wasn’t sure

Leaderboard is here:
http://trackleaders.com/highland13#leaderboard

This all just keeps getting proper awesome.

Riders down, serious fight for the win, and Oliver 🙂

Thats pure class, make your bike, saunter round on your honeymoon (is Mrs Oliver with him) and stop for brandy breaks, he must be a STW member.
So Oliver is just making it round at leisure so Nik is racing back marker.

Anyone thats attempted this, i salute you. From the comfort of my armchair.

Edit.
Nik is nearly halfway, about 106 miles behind leader Aidan. Quite certain i would not have made halfway by now.

Big Kudos to all riding. Brilliant fun watching, hope the weather is not as bad as last night forecast I saw. 3 out of top 4 on Singulars, Sam will be happy. If you do a search for #HT400 on twitter there’s some extra info.

The weather has been grim at times. I rode around loch ness earlier and Invermorriston and Fort Augustus were great shelter stops.It said 14c on met check but I wouldn’t have guessed it in double figures at Fort A.

^ Not surprised to hear about a local bus (usually train with room for 2 bikes :O/ )not letting him on. It’s not like its hard to throw a bike into its massive luggage compartment.

Are you quoting odds on that? Assuming Aidan carries on to Fort Augustus this evening he then “only” has a fast blast down the embankment/railway/towpath to Fort William before tackling the WHW 😆

Aye – the fast section of the WHW – that’s got to be 4 hours at the very most.

I’d not be surprised if Aidan just keeps going now until he’s finished.

Sitting in bed in hotel in ullapool. Ahead of where I thought I’d be but still back marker! Very very tough ride so far, way beyond anything I have ever done before. Staying fuelled is a problem, too easy to crash physically. Feeling sick a few times a day due to too much going out and not enough going in. Can’t even begin to imagine what everyone else, esp the leaders are going through. Legs stiff as heck, left knee sore on side , think muscular from day 1 “awkward moment”. Bath, breakfast, then see if I can still turn the pedals!

Well done Nikk – keep going!
I am wondering if I could take the kids up to see a finisher in….

Hi Nikk – its Kevin from Friday night / first day. You are going well, you will get through it. Try and each fresh food rather than processed for a bit if you can.

Just having a look at my saddle bolt, I have rounded it off trying to tighten. Oh dear!

I see overnight Mark Goldie has dropped to 4th and Ian Barrington has pushed on into second place. Mark seems to have rested longer. Looks like Aidan pretty much rode through the night to increase his lead.

Ah so its who thought with sore knees 🙁

My photo’s are here:

HTR400[/url]

Good luck Nikk. Just get a couple of breakfasts down you and see how you feel. Well done for making it through yesterday – how was it compared to the days before?

I’m still eating like a horse so imagine you’ll be the same!

What happened to Mark over night he still seems to be in the same place? I thought he was on for second but Ian and Alan have shot past!

looks like alan and ian rode straight through the night on the replay where as mark slept.

We could really do with Aidans tracker kicking into life about now 🙁

It looks like he camped, and John Russel is sneaking up on him..

John russell… johns not racing anymore is he , he headed back with PE ?

watch the replay – its quite funny when PE gets on the train…

MG Is now out looking at his facebook.

He has injured himself , he is heading for the road and is heading to get checked out by a medical professional.

I believe he has it all in hand with regards to being extracted.

Sorry to hear about Mark, he was going so well. His partner, who is up there, had DM’ed me via Twitter to say he was having knee issues.

Anybody know anything more about Steve Wilkinson?

Arno Minner got a move on after a slow start. Last saw him just after Kings House and he was 3rd from the back at that point. As a veteran of AZT750 I suppose Scotland is not so tough. A really nice, friendly guy.

Ahhh shame for Mark I was cheering for him there. 😐

Mark on Twitter:

Crashed on Monday morning. Not sure if it’s a cracked rib or whatever but too painful to ride through today so that’s my race over.

Aggggh, bollix. I was following MG and initially thought he’d ridden the wrong way round the Loch.

Hope he is OK and not done any lasting damage. Still, he has ridden further and harder than pretty much all of us will ever do.

🙁 Heal quick.

Ive just been in contact with him, sore and out for sure. Hes off to get an Xray and a shower and some sleep.

Aidan has just tweeted he finished 20 minutes ago. So a time of ~3 days 2 hours and 20 minutes. His SPOT stopped some hours ago.

nice one , chapeau aidan , suspect that record will stand for a long time 😉

That record wont be beaten for a while.

Good work.

hugely impressive, well done that man!

[edit] Infact well done everyone who started, irrespective of where they are or if they are still going, big risk taking on something so huge with no idea how it might turn out[/edit]

Aidan is a machine! not sure when he last slept

Another tweet has said he did a straight 31 hours into the finish!

Amazing feat.
Come on you others, keep at it (he says from warm kitchen table…)