10 under the Ben/ Fat Tyre Weekend

im out and a bit gutted tbh.

my faither is away on hols and i have to pick him up from the airport on the sunday.

next year!

good luck for the ride though lads.
 
good luck to Kaiser and Clubby who are the only 2 that managed to make this in the end. Let us know how you got on lads.
 
A family doo is preventing me getting up there tonight so it'll be an early start the morn, still no real details out about the enduro and I've a horrible feeling its just an afterthought to 10 and the endurance downhill but we'll see.
 
kaiser":q35cjqyz said:
still no real details out about the enduro and I've a horrible feeling its just an afterthought to 10 and the endurance downhill but we'll see.

Same here, but entered and accommodation paid so nothing to lose now. I've got an inkling that it'll be a fairly short loop compared to a normal enduro but its something different and as long as they don't screw up the timing it'll be fine. Just hope the weather forecasts wrong. Hoping to do a gondola run down the red DH afterwards. Had hoped to stop at Laggan on the way up today but that's off the cards now, maybe on the way home tomorrow.
 
Theres an idea! Can you buy a single lift ticket?
 
I'm back! Ok, impressions....

Pretty much what I expected, a 10 ish mile loop based around the 10 under course, 4 timed sections one of which was new to me, the others had been in previous courses. Kaiser had done this section but not others. Section 1 was nice, fast rocky flowy, couple of small rises but apart from that you could keep you momentum. Looooong transition to stage 2 took us up a climb to the puggy line descent then along and up another climb to stage 2 start. I think they could easily have fitted another stage in there. The bottom of the dh course crossed the untimed descent we were on as did other natural singletrack bits. Missed opportunity or just plain lazy? Start of stage 2 was wet and blustery, I could have done with a break but it wasn't weather for hanging about so off we went. Start of the stage was steep uphill switchbacks then finally onto a flowing bermed descent used in the WC cross country course, very nice but over too quick. Back up an earlier climb took us to start of stage 3 just below stage 2. This took us down an old natural section called blue crane. I struggled here. It was sustained steep ,wet and slippery rocks and all I could think was don't go over the bars and hit your ribs again. So I got off and walked, which was just as bad and quickly got caught by Kaiser, who committed to it and made it look easy. Next part was natural rooty stuff and really nice, but someone had gone through the tapes and I missed a turn and had to go back up. This was a long stage with a pedally bit on fire road in the middle, which wasn't marshalled and left the wondering if I'd gone the right way. Eventually I saw a proper arrow which directed us into another steep natural bit that was a bit peaty and not very grippy, again I walked a bit of this. This lead to the end of stage 3. Stage 4 was a nice part of the WC course I knew from previous 10 utb races. It was always one I enjoyed, but again over too quick. That just left the return to the finish, but the course marking was rubbish here and us and other riders didn't see one of the tracks and just rode the fireroad to the finish. Only the stages were timed so it didn't affect anything and like I said we weren't the only ones left wondering which way to go.

So who came out on top of the Macretro race? Well Kaiser's stage times were quicker than mine by a minutes and a half thanks to my abysmal stage 3, but on stage wins we were equal at 2 each. Taking out stage 3, there were only a couple of seconds between us. He's graciously calling it a draw, but I know I got beat. Must work on getting over my fear of steep rocky stuff and also work on my fitness, and allow more recovery time before events ( a Munro day, and two hard 40k's in the week before an event aren't a good idea) but you live and learn. On the plus side those extra k's took me past him in the Strava Junedoggle challenge, although I made the mistake of telling him this and I can see him getting the road bike out tonight to do exactly enough to beat me. Still it was motivation to get me well over 400km this month, not bad as due to my ribs I didn't ride much the first week and a bit.

Overall I like the format, but think I'll wait for a proper full enduro next time.
 
First things first, well done clubby on beating me in the Junedoggle, we compared excuses and they were much of a muchness and all things considered you went further. I did mention the format to my wife and that I was thinking about heading out on the road bike to beat you, I said it was a bit childish and she reckoned it was more pathetic :oops: so I took your lead and got the curry and beer in :D I do intend to muller you in the dirt one :twisted:

Anyhoo, the Enduro Enduro was a big disappointment for me. Felt a bit cheated to be honest, the timed sections were really good but the rest was poorly put together, I'm being generous and reckon 80% was fireroad/path. And when the course is only 10 mile long is doesn't add up to much, in fact when you take away the fire road section in stage three the guy who posted 10mins was probably only racing for 6!! In hindsight I should have guessed (or asked) how long the course would be, but the more I think about it I was convinced there would be more to it. The website blurb mentions that the race would start at 10:30 and the last riders would be in at 16:00ish, I now realise that this was just a cut and paste from the HPE blurb which disnae help with the feeling that the whole thing was just an afterthought. You'd think with Fort William being the mountain bike mecca that it is that a more interesting course could be come up with. Don't get me worng my opinion is slightly coloured with the fact I had a 240 mile round trip for a 10 mile 'race' as well as using a precious family pass. Such a pity because the HPE was really really good.

But in saying all that I did beat clubby and thats me noo 2 for 2 because I beat haggis anaw at the least one :D and that offer of a draw was only cause ah felt sorry fur him :LOL:
 
well done chaps, does seem a long way to go for a short track. I'd imagine they'll develop the format through time, so at least you pioneers can claim to have been there at the start :cool:
 
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