Cairngorms Loop this weekend

[99percentchimp]

Good luck to everyone riding this weekend..... Looking forward to the photos and stories!
Looks like a better forecast with the wind dropping a bit; should help :)
Anyone carrying a Spot that we can watch?
Cheers, Mark

[numplumz]

Mine will be on Mark, better take some photos then.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... AnD5cs3dFJ

I might see Aiden,Shaggy and Steve Heading for a few minutes at the start :D
Looks like colder air coming in from the North over the weekend, hopefully with clearer skies.

[99percentchimp]

Cheers Jack.... I'll be watching and good luck with the weather! Have a good trip

[99percentchimp]

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... conditions

Just seen this Jack - might help.... you got some snow shoes for the climb after Glenmore Lodge to Loch Avon? Looks brilliant esp. if you get the cold air with sunshine too :D

[Ian]

Last sunday...Blimey

Good luck Jack, Kevin et al!

[slarge]

Blimey. Good luck all - I guess the midges aren't out yet, especially with all the rain!

Love to do this, but it's a proper commitment!

[pedalhead]

All the best to everyone taking part. I'll follow your progress with interest, Jack

[Wixey]

Work is done and now en route... Big grin!!!!

[99percentchimp]

Good luck Rob - have a great ride! Very jealous!

[Ian]

Looks like Jack has made good progress, about 100km in so far

[99percentchimp]

Jack seems to be going great guns; past Loch Avon and into the Lairig an Laoigh.... as you say Ian, well past the 100km mark in 8.5 hours.

How come you weren't riding this weekend, Ian? I know you'd mentioned loosing your mojo recently.... it must have got bad :(

Would be good to have everyone with trackers - like watching the Tour :)

[Ian]

Nowhere near enough miles ridden for me this year, unfortunately. I've had abad run of illness which affected the mojo a fair bit. Fitness coming back together now, just too late for this ride.

[99percentchimp]

Blimey - you go for your dinner and he's ridden down Glen Derry and Glen Lui and looks like he's turned right at the Linn of Dee. I'm interested to see how far he gets tonight?
Ian, hope you are feeling a bit better now - I had a bad run of kiddy induced stuff before M'n'B and that ride was just kill or cure for me.... got me back into the swing of things slowly.

[Ian]

Jack is still going strong and should have cleared 100 miles by now, just over 12 hours in
Impressive, and "only" 80 miles left to do.
Would love to know how he's doing against other entrants, but I don't know who else is operating a SPOT...

[Ian]

Aidan has finished in around 22.5 hours

[Blackhound]

That is an excellent time by Aidan. Ridden and run parts of CL300 route. I did 300km yesterday and it took me 15.5 hours including cafe stops and 3 puncture repairs. I was on a carbon bike on fairly flat roads and not the sort of terrain these guys are on.

[99percentchimp]

What a time by Aidan 8-) - averaging over 13km/h for that length of time.. Wow

Jack is still going strong too, after what looked like an overnight in a bothy in Glen Feshie. He was back on the trail before 0600 I think and looks to be going for a finish today!

[numplumz]

Well that was nuts, amazing trails and some real slogging sections. Mental time from Aiden, well done to him.
I set off relaxed at the back and then seemed to spend Saturday hovering people up as they stopped.
By the high point at the Avon refuge I passed Kevin who said the only two up front were Aiden and Steve Heading.
So I was in third! Yikes
The downhill run was massive fun and I kept waiting for the fast scots lads to claw me back, but that didn't happen untill dark on a very slow section after the linn of Dee. It snowed a lot here and was more beautifull than a hassle.
I had a bit of a moment and fell in one of the numerous fords in the dark and everyone stopped at the bothy about 10pm, including Steve. I kept going and was hoping to get way past Aviemore but the water on the bike started freezing as the temperatures dropped.
I gave up with painfull feet at 12pm and bivyed in Aviemore in a bit of wood and fell asleep with still numb feet. I let my body wake me so got going again at a tardy 6pm

At 8am I caught tom hill and Welsh Rob, and over a huge breakfast in Tomintoul they told me of the cramped bothy and little sleep. Tales of people getting going again at 2am and tyre tracks showed me Id dropped right back. Tom and Rob looked very laboured even on the flat, so I ploughed on and some of the final sections were really tough. I ended at 7:37 and still I'm so knackered I haven't worked out my time.

A great route and how many shin deep water crossings... That was the tough bit for me. By the amount of guys, 2 Steves and the Scots lads in the pub at the end I think I was 7th back, my body is wrecked and that's one of the toughest rides I've ever done. One of the guys throwing up in the carpark, showed it wasn't just me then.

Despite the forecasts the weather was about as good as you could hope for, it could have been so much harder.

[Dan_K]

Well done mate.
Sounds like an epic ride. What kit were you carrying?

[stevew]

As and when I get times in, and I'm next to a PC, I'll update the completions list:
http://www.cairngormsloop.net/completions.html

Thanks to everyone who set off 10:00 Saturday, I hope you had fun out there and a story to tell.

Aidan has laid down a phenomenal marker for any ITTer to challenge??

[pedalhead]

Well done Jack, brilliant effort! Sounds like one heck of a route. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it (and rather tempted to have a go when I'm up there in July).

[99percentchimp]

Brilliant effort Jack and thanks for taking time to write something up so soon.... it was good to watch your progress over the weekend. Hope your feet thaw out soon and we hear more of your ride as well as from some of the others. Excellent!

[numplumz]

Well done mate.
Sounds like an epic ride. What kit were you carrying?

Too much! Not knowing the area or having a plan I opted to cover most possible conditions. Tarp,bivy, bag spare clothes, even spare gloves. I took loads of food too. With the food on board my kit was actually heavier than for a 4 day ride in summer. I was very happy that I had nothing on my back though.
The most important bit, good boots, if you could get some cleats onto Wellies that would be ideal.

Will write a tale at some point,

[Wixey]

Well what a ride! Thoroughly enjoyed the scale of it all and safe to say it enjoyed beating me up!!
Got in at 20:50 last night so got under the 35hr mark, which I'm more than happy with... last 60k slapped my arse! A top ride with some top riders, couldn't have gone off better imo... Top work Steve.

[24tom]

"Very laboured" eh Jack? Pfft. I'll have you know I was just letting my 2 x bacon and egg butties go down

Great weekend, thanks again to Steve for organising. Thanks to Wixey for the great company over a big chunk of the ride.