voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu May 23, 2024 3:37 pm Good luck everyone

Bikepacking.com have published a “bicycles of the HT550”
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/2024-high ... -550-rigs/

Quite surprised by how many bikes don’t have a rear mudguards
Thought there would be more

Mart wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 8:33 am
Quite surprised by how many bikes don’t have a rear mudguards
Thought there would be more

'Tis a mystery to me - they will wish they had! Even last year my bike ended up sprayed in mud and that was a dry one...

Tracker's up

https://trackleaders.com/highland24

I see Alan G is out already, bitten by a dog 2 weeks back. This will be the first one he'll not ride

Looks like the only differences from last year's route are:

• back to the northern shore of Loch Lyon
• the diversion to avoid the collapsed/risky bridge before Loch Rannoch - a bit of a frustrating loop after that as you are on the road, back up into the hills to rejoin the original route only to drop back down to the road 5km or so further along.
• There's a section just prior to Contin that doesn't go past Fairburn House

What time is kick off?

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 1:08 pm What time is kick off?

Usually 08.30 Saturday

Really looking forward to this. Love seeing the bikes/gear and the dots starting to ping from Tyndrum. The very best of luck everyone!

sean_iow wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 12:35 pm I see Alan G is out already, bitten by a dog 2 weeks back. This will be the first one he'll not ride

I'd never actually seen his name on the list so I think he was never intending to ride?

whitestone wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 12:57 pm Looks like the only differences from last year's route are:

• back to the northern shore of Loch Lyon
• the diversion to avoid the collapsed/risky bridge before Loch Rannoch - a bit of a frustrating loop after that as you are on the road, back up into the hills to rejoin the original route only to drop back down to the road 5km or so further along.
• There's a section just prior to Contin that doesn't go past Fairburn House

ooh, they get to do the huge river crossing on the north side of Loch Lyon! Just as well it's dry
The Rannoch diversion is actually pretty nice- the descent down to the road is lovely and I recced the bit back up to the (not) knackered bridge and it's OK - not much of a climb really.

OK I'm now officially wishing I was there rather than attending a sodding rail line opening

fatbikephil wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 2:46 pm

sean_iow wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 12:35 pm I see Alan G is out already, bitten by a dog 2 weeks back. This will be the first one he'll not ride

I'd never actually seen his name on the list so I think he was never intending to ride?

On his Insta is says

Birthday cake yesterday. This year, for the first time ever, I won't be riding due to an unfortunate encounter with a dog two weeks ago. Time to find out what being "race director" is all about

If it's your race do you need your name down, just turn up, you're not going to get kicked out But he does usually have his name on the start list.

Oh well, he usually has his name up but maybe he was hedging his bets. Quite a few new names appeared on the start list in the last few weeks...

https://dotwatcher.cc/race/highland-trail-550-2024 wrong route on the ridewithgps map though

And bring back the days of the grim reaper

The dots are converging on Tyndrum …… nearly time

And they're off. Never seen so many pink dots!

2 hours in and no scratches yet

Not sure if the leaders are quick as other years or not - the current leader is at Culra bothy as I type, then there's a large group on the section between Benalder Cottage and the Bealach Dubh.

Always amazes me the pointy end, the speed the riders do!

116 miles under 7 1/2 hours

Its not a bad road average that

Slight miss-reading of the table there? The 7.5 hrs was to CP1, took 11 hours to get to 116 miles, but that's still flying

The leader has just gone past where I was after 24* hrs and he's only been riding for 12

I had stopped overnight but even if I didn't I'd still have been nowhere near there after 12 hours, I was still eating at The Moorings at this time.

Pretty much my thoughts Sean. I think we've similar finishing times and from memory I think I got to Contin around 11am on the second day so yeah, he's 12hrs up on my/our time.

Depending on how strong he is (I suspect very) there's only the steep climb just ahead that *might* cause a bit of bike pushing (I've cleaned it when starting a ride from Cannich) and then there's nothing steep or technical until you start going up Glen Golly on the track to Bealach Horn.

Alex(inThePeak) Berry is at the burial mound at Corrimony and doing well, not sure if he's up on last year. Allen (Escape Goat) Boardman is just approaching the top of Corrieyairack so is taking it steady.

sean_iow wrote: ↑Sat May 25, 2024 8:50 pm Slight miss-reading of the table there? The 7.5 hrs was to CP1, took 11 hours to get to 116 miles, but that's still flying

Ah yes, I was reading the clock as time gone rather than the actual time

Busy at both Melgarve and Blackburn bothies tonight

Alex (the leader) has now covered 250 miles in under 24 hours

He's now over a day ahead of where I was after 1 day!

Looking at the pictures on Alan G's Instagram at how much luggage he's got (I have more on my bike on the Monday commute with my office clothes) I'm going to predict he's not going to stop.

Chuffin' hell!

24 1/2hrs in and he's at Lone, in about 15mins he'll have finished the outward GPX file and start on the homeward one

For reference, he's now at the point where Ian Fitz bivvied for his second night in 2016 when Ian finished in 4d 2hr.

sean_iow wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 8:19 am Alex (the leader) has now covered 250 miles in under 24 hours

He's now over a day ahead of where I was after 1 day!

Looking at the pictures on Alan G's Instagram at how much luggage he's got (I have more on my bike on the Monday commute with my office clothes) I'm going to predict he's not going to stop.

D'you reckon someone could keep that pace up and finish inside 3 days Sean? Superhuman effort

Apart from the bit around Ben Alder, the outward part of the route is easy riding. There's the peat hags getting to the climb up to Bealach Horn but they are frustrating rather than hard and are downhill. At his current pace it will be around twelve hours at a guess before he gets to the hard stuff through Fisherfield and Torridon. With 36hrs or so on the go at a hard pace that's going to be slow especially as he'd be heading through Fisherfield at night.

Alan G reckoned on about 18hrs from Dornoch back to Tyndrum, but that was on a 4 1/2 day schedule with having had decent rests. Assuming that the extra speed and tiredness cancel each other out ( a big assumption I know) then he would need to be at Dornoch for around 2pm tomorrow afternoon to get under 3 days. However looking at Liam Glen's and Angus Young's times between those two points, Liam took 21hrs and Angus took 20hrs. Alex is currently about 3 1/2hrs up on both Liam and Angus at his current location.

psling wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 9:31 am

sean_iow wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2024 8:19 am Alex (the leader) has now covered 250 miles in under 24 hours

He's now over a day ahead of where I was after 1 day!

Looking at the pictures on Alan G's Instagram at how much luggage he's got (I have more on my bike on the Monday commute with my office clothes) I'm going to predict he's not going to stop.

D'you reckon someone could keep that pace up and finish inside 3 days Sean? Superhuman effort

Surely not Petr. I'm guessing that he is doing alot of anaerobic effort there just to create a massive gap. The body is an amazing thing but I'm gonna guess that at some point, at his pace he might accumulate too much oxygen debt (from riding above an appropriate heartrate that would keep him in a nice breathing/aerobic zone). According to the book by Alex Hutchinson called Endure (about this very subject) records are broken by seconds and minutes. Not hours or days...

Take for example Kipchoge when he broke whichever running records he did and brought the marathon time into sub 2H. There was alot of unethical stuff going on like excessively bouncy shoes and having a group to lead his draft... etc etc

Just my 2 pence