An unofficial bothy lies on the edge of the small patch of woodland just north of their present position. Sleeps about 8. Will busy this year I think!

Lovely spot, modelled by Chew here

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.

Looks like Josh stayed at the old concrete store by the Orrin Reservoir last night, but only for <3 hours. Not far from Croik now, which is 186 miles in! Josh is up by 1 hour on Phil Simcock's pace at this point, but long way to go yet. He'll surely make over the Bealach Horn today and well round the west section toward Lochinver.

NewRetroTom - also stopped at the concrete store - has passed Steve Heading now, who looks to have stopped a bit longer than the other two. Be interesting to see how that pays off.

Ed Proctor also doing very well, in 4th.

Rich and Tom not on the move yet, which puts them in the same position for > 12 hours. Spot issues, or well earned rest?

In fascinated by the dot watching and trying to suss out the strategies playing out.
One thing that I've noticed is the dot grey's out, presume that's when it doesn't get an update for a while

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.

Anyone know which rider this is:

Josh is currently bang on Phil's time of last year, as the same point on the route. After 30 hours or riding, I'd say that it's a bit close

Rickie Cotter is in Okyel Bridge. She had her tracking turned off. All is well.

Greg, where'd that picture ^^^ come from?

Some pics here Ian

http://niksbikingblog.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... -they.html

Ian: photo came from Twitter feed of Marcus Stitz

Keeping it real


Where did Alan get his socks from

GregMay wrote:Rickie Cotter is in Okyel Bridge. She had her tracking turned off. All is well.

Yes, great ride so far.

Rich and Tom doing well too. Currently at route mile 160.

Looks like their first day was a big one - made it to Melgarve bothy just after midnight Saturday morning, which is an impressive distance into the route (~80 miles).
Day two took them to the bothy after Loch ma Stac, which is 113 miles in I think, so an easier second day and a longer overnight stop.
Day three is 37 miles long so far, and with the Orrin track behind them they've got some decent trail ahead of them

Cheers for the link to the pics.
I notice that Alan has his bouncy bike this year. Might be interesting to see how that affects his time.

Ian wrote:Cheers for the link to the pics.
I notice that Alan has his bouncy bike this year. Might be interesting to see how that affects his time.

We were chatting about this on the Cairngorms Loop - he reckons he is riding better on it as he feels less beaten up. Also, he wasn't exactly slow to start with :)

There's something weird going on here ... 70% - 80% of 'mountainbikers' ride with their left foot forwards but if you look at the pictures here, it appears to be roughly split 50/50 ... something peculiar to bikepackers perhaps?

Really?

I'm Right foot forward, but switch feet on long descents to reduce the wear on my hamstrings. Something Learnt from 24hour racing.

Right foot forwards here too, though I can do both reasonably well.

Right foot forward for me but I'm left foot forward on a snowboard.

GregMay wrote:Really?

I'm Right foot forward, but switch feet on long descents to reduce the wear on my hamstrings.

more or less that

Right foot forward for me but I'm left foot forward on a snowboard.

You see, that's just odd ... goofy on a board nearly always translates to right foot forward on a bike and vice versa.

s8tannorm wrote:

Right foot forward for me but I'm left foot forward on a snowboard.

You see, that's just odd ... goofy on a board nearly always translates to right foot forward on a bike and vice versa.

Me odd - not since the alien abduction

....back to it....

Phils pulled out a lead in the virtual 2014/15 race. A good 40 mins ahead at this point.

The real gap between Josh and Tom remains at 1.40 at CP4