D
Devs
Guest
Here's the report of my Saturday jaunt. 108 miles and 12878 ft up and
down:
Got picked up from home on Fri at 6pm. We made our way to Glen Affric
and parked up in our camper van. Went to bed at midnight after braving
the midge fest to set up the bikes. Got up at 3 am, the midges hadn't
been to bed (Avon Skin So Soft is the best repellent known to man -
honest!!). We set off at 3.45am in the gloom and made it all the way to
Balnain near Drumnadrochit for breakfast at 7am. We had to wake the
support team up so the fry up was a bit delayed but very welcome. When
we left there it was dry. By the time we hit Drumnadrochit 10 mins later
it was pishing down torrential stylee and it never stopped again! Lunch
and the 50 mile point was at Fort Augustus car park. The low point of my
day was putting my wet kit back on after a good feed and drying out. We
set off again in the monsoon in conditions that felt like January but
the murderous climb from hell soon had us sweating buckets. I'm sure the
views are very nice but we didn't really get to see any along the Great
Glen way and other bits of singletrack above Loch Ness. We just didn't
get to see any as the cloud and rain was too thick. We made the most of
it by ignoring the flying wet mud and blasting down the descents as
quick as possible. Good fun for us but I don't think Steve Peat needs
to worry about us lifting his crown at the Fort William World champs
just yet. I did an extra 8 miles by Invergarry because I took a wrong
turn 100 yards from the 3rd checkpoint at the 75 mile point. After
realising and retracing tracks (uphill unfortunately) we had a quick
stop ready for the final push. The clever ones that had done it before
had clean dry clothes for every stop. Didn't see the point myself, they
were soaking within minutes anyway, but I'm sure it gave them the nice
psychological boost required. Myself and Wes, the youngest member of the
team blasted ahead on this leg. We tried to wait for the rest at Clunes
but the cold and the midges made this impossible so we pressed on and
finished at 9.30 pm at Banavie. Some of you reading this will recognise
that as being where we played rugby against Lochaber just a few times.
The rest came in at 10.10 pm. 108 miles and the equivalent of cycling up
and down Ben Nevis 3 times in height. I had a couple of glasses of Cava,
a bottle of Stella and all of a sudden it was 8am! Pretty much slept all
the time since too. They reckon we burned off 12000 calories in the day.
I don't know if I managed to counter balance that with my intake but it
will be a long time before I eat another Snickers or drink an energy
drink.
Thanks to all that sponsored me, I think we have raised over a grand for
Cancer Research UK so that makes it all worthwhile. Would I do it again?
Ask me in a couple of weeks once I can sit down again!
--
Devs
"Punchdown Pete the old Kroner"
down:
Got picked up from home on Fri at 6pm. We made our way to Glen Affric
and parked up in our camper van. Went to bed at midnight after braving
the midge fest to set up the bikes. Got up at 3 am, the midges hadn't
been to bed (Avon Skin So Soft is the best repellent known to man -
honest!!). We set off at 3.45am in the gloom and made it all the way to
Balnain near Drumnadrochit for breakfast at 7am. We had to wake the
support team up so the fry up was a bit delayed but very welcome. When
we left there it was dry. By the time we hit Drumnadrochit 10 mins later
it was pishing down torrential stylee and it never stopped again! Lunch
and the 50 mile point was at Fort Augustus car park. The low point of my
day was putting my wet kit back on after a good feed and drying out. We
set off again in the monsoon in conditions that felt like January but
the murderous climb from hell soon had us sweating buckets. I'm sure the
views are very nice but we didn't really get to see any along the Great
Glen way and other bits of singletrack above Loch Ness. We just didn't
get to see any as the cloud and rain was too thick. We made the most of
it by ignoring the flying wet mud and blasting down the descents as
quick as possible. Good fun for us but I don't think Steve Peat needs
to worry about us lifting his crown at the Fort William World champs
just yet. I did an extra 8 miles by Invergarry because I took a wrong
turn 100 yards from the 3rd checkpoint at the 75 mile point. After
realising and retracing tracks (uphill unfortunately) we had a quick
stop ready for the final push. The clever ones that had done it before
had clean dry clothes for every stop. Didn't see the point myself, they
were soaking within minutes anyway, but I'm sure it gave them the nice
psychological boost required. Myself and Wes, the youngest member of the
team blasted ahead on this leg. We tried to wait for the rest at Clunes
but the cold and the midges made this impossible so we pressed on and
finished at 9.30 pm at Banavie. Some of you reading this will recognise
that as being where we played rugby against Lochaber just a few times.
The rest came in at 10.10 pm. 108 miles and the equivalent of cycling up
and down Ben Nevis 3 times in height. I had a couple of glasses of Cava,
a bottle of Stella and all of a sudden it was 8am! Pretty much slept all
the time since too. They reckon we burned off 12000 calories in the day.
I don't know if I managed to counter balance that with my intake but it
will be a long time before I eat another Snickers or drink an energy
drink.
Thanks to all that sponsored me, I think we have raised over a grand for
Cancer Research UK so that makes it all worthwhile. Would I do it again?
Ask me in a couple of weeks once I can sit down again!
--
Devs
"Punchdown Pete the old Kroner"
