Ultracycling

There's a lot of racers with real off-road pedigree in HTR this year, It's going to be a tough race, and the forecast is proper shite. an ITT rider just scratched at the Fisherfield crossing because the water was too deep.

At least if it's raining there won't be midges.

Isla Rowntree, former Cyclocross National Champ in all categories from FJ to FV40.

Not racing this one though as last seen hobbling around Tyndrum with a broken ankle.

Lol wat - raining makes the midges worse!

Not really. Standing water and warmth makes them breed more. They swarm less when its actually raining.

Nice quote in the dotwatcher.cc report

As a seasoned adventure racer once commentated: “You spend the whole of the first day fighting to gain a few minutes and the whole of the rest of the race fighting not to lose hours”.

Skinny is going pretty well for a roadie.

Yeh he’ll do that.

i met liam glen (current course leader) briefly at TCRno5. Seemed a really nice chap - wonder if he can hold this lead against the pack?

Lots of new names. Dustin Eroh sounds a bit fastidious. David Gooberman sounds as if he's not going to accomplish anything. Guy Whaley could be a hippy-alike. Shovel Clem is French and must have an English nickname--or is it genuinely his name?

I count eight women in the race.

Ha, and the single-speed category says: 'Must start/end on same ratio.'

Apologies if that's not news to anyone, I haven't been paying attention.

'Must start/end on same ratio.'

This is taken from the tour divide rules

I doubt anyone will catch Liam, he's very quick and quicker than most of technical stuff too.

After surely? In my experience anyway (only been to scotland once)

9 withdrawals so far, mostly from the pointy end of racing citing too wet and cold, including Lee Craigie. Looks like some underpacking may have occured.

Wondering about Skinny, slowed up a lot over night but never seemed to stop suggesting walking pace. Only started moving at riding pace after a pause at a bothy with Markus Stitz and Jenny Graham. Now stopped at the bottom of a hill so I think maybe mechanicaled.

If he has mech'd it seems fixed though as he's back moving again.

I never watched any of the Marvel films but I bet they're not as exciting as this.

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5 Attachments

Organic pads + scotland + rain = no good outcome. Amazon prime order to Kylesku or somewhere further on needed.

Those pictures were probably taken in Fort Augustus so hopefully he managed to get some there. Arrived about 6.30 so a chance the bike shop stayed open.

Alan Goldsmith (organiser and I think 8+ time finisher of HT550) is heading home, it's getting dangerous to cross rivers he says... https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx6wQh9FJip/

James and brake pad issue, metal pads next time! A friend who did the Cambrian trail wore through the metal back on his pads and ate half the pistons by the time he'd cycled from Llandudno to the Gower!

This is his first MTB race, he will learn a lot from it.

Yep metal pads...

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx6_yj7F7in/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://twitter.com/TourInTune/status/1132613586168242176

Yeah, Lars has now scratched.

Mrs TSK has scratched. I'm now predicting no more than 5 finishers. Rain to continue through today which means waters could still be rising beyond midday tomorrow.

Lars crossed that stream by means of some "brave jumping".