Ten under the Ben

This weekend I headed up to Fort William for the no fuss event Ten under the Ben bike race. After last year’s relentless 24hr race as a pair with Nikki we thought we should go solo since it's only half the time. Nikki unfortunately didn't get her solo place but entered in a girl trio, placing well to finish in 3rd.

Somehow I convinced Amy and a few of her friends that it would be a really good idea to come up and support and go walk Ben Nevis in the day whilst I'm on the bike. This proved to be a success with cracking weather on the Ben, however with it being the summer solstice there were supposedly loads of people. On another note after nearly 3 years of not meeting any of my mates she finally met too many of them!

The race started at 09.30 to finish at 19.30 with the extra hour to trail I'm taking it to 20.30. Lining up behind the bagpipe lead out band and then the model t ford I followed Rich to sneak to near the front, thankfully starting ahead most of the 600 people strong pack. This from what I expected and hears about afterwards avoided a fair few crashes, scrapes and mechanicals as soon as the single track was reached.

The course itself was a great 10.5 mile lap, diverted on the first to 9.5 mile to spread folk out. Long fire road uphills and fast technical downhills were the order of the day, including the upper red trail with the big fire road slog. Not my proudest moment getting completely dropped by an 8 year old kid who just flew up it. Didn't see him again! The river crossing seemed to result I. A few pulled brakes and wet feet too!

In the end I decided in lap one to try and get 7 laps in, switching positions constantly on the first 5 with a girl with a bloody elbow Nikki knew. I fuelled up every lap for ten mins but on the 6th I came in for a big feed. I saw her cycle past but didn't have any energy for emotions! In the end she did 9 laps coming 4th in female solo. I did feel for her though as I started looking respectable with the bib shorts under some MTB shorts and a Jersey and top on that. Lap 2 I shed the top and lap 3 the shorts to be in full Lycra the rest as it was so warm! What a treat?! Amy and her friends thought it was funny when they got down off the Ben...though I was laying out in the bibs!

I ended up doing 7 laps (73 miles) in 9 hours 35 mins. I had time for another though I was happy with that as I didn't want to kill myself. Especially since on the last lap my seat bolt sheared off leaving me without the saddle and a protruding pole! Thankfully i was coming near the start so stole another seat of a friend’s bike to finish! Another great No Fuss event which I'll try to do again next year.

Food:

Pack of jelly babies

Jamaica ginger cake

Half warm microwave pasta

Bag of cashew nuts

Spinach

Flapjack x3

7 energy gels