Baptism of fire
Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 8:53 pm
On the back of all the interest from my recent trip to Scotland I have decided to start this thread to tell my story...
Since it was my first experience with the SSDT I can't comment on it's severity except to say that the organisers said it was one of the toughest and talk in the field was "this is your first time?? You should have been here last year..."
Monday Day 1
monday was my early day so I was away at 8:03 am, we had a short road section to the first group of sections at Trotters Burn. There were 4 sections here all following the creek up a series of waterfalls that seemed to increase in size, so when I crashed off the first one hope started to dwindle 'was I goin to get through any sections this week?' But the spark was reignited as I fell over six times in the slime and water walking the next two sections then on the bike managed to keep it upright and moving forward and even clean one of them! I whimp out just short of the final waterfall thinking it is a long six days if you get injured at the first group!
Now to get to the next group of sections we had to cross Annat moore... People can tell you all the do's and don'ts of crossing a moore, but until you have done it yourself you never really 'get it', it is not similar in anyway to anything else I have ever ridden. I start following a group of older guys who are picking and weaving their way along making reasonable time, then decide that a straight line would be much quicker and my theory works alright for a little while, then my bike decides to stop in a slime hole and I learn to fly... thankfully the moorelands are soft, after another 3 or 4 flying lessons I slip back in behind the group of older guys and let them do the depth testing for me
We arrive at our next group of sections Annat, I am struggling for somewhere to park my bike when Dan Thorpe points to the quantity of grass in my spokes and tells me not to park across the river or my bike wont be there when I get back, a quick glance downstream and I decide I don't like my chances of getting my bike out of there so I find a nice park out of the water... There are 3 sections in this group, the first is tricky with large round boulders, the second has a large waterfall straight in the gate, I don't bother walking the third as I can't imagine getting up the second. Sections 2 and 3 are what is known as a double sub, so the start gates of 3 are the end gates for 2. I ride 1 and line up for 2& 3 as Nigel Birkett is walking into the section I ask " is there another way to the start of 3 if I don't make this?" Nigel smiles "oh you'll get up there if we have to drag you up..." So I get up and have to bumble my way through 3
Then another moore crossing this time alot less gunho as I picked my way between the little orange flags with a group of other riders, I have discovered it is quicker to go slower coz you spen less time up to your knees peat mud! There is another short road section followed by some gravel road and we arrive at Loch shiel A & B, the view from these groups back across the Loch is magnificent. From here we have some more gravel to Coire Dubh, the water at this group scared me! The rocks there were big grey awkward boulders and the water was gushing over them so fast you couldn't here each other speak...
Lunch was held at Strontian where you hand your card in and for 15min are not allowed to touch your bike. So we all stand around in the rain drinking cups of tea and telling stories from the morning. Mum & dad meet me here & I tell them all about my day so far, they video'd my clean @ Trotters - I am super excited it may be my only clean all week so its great to have it on film. Then my number is called and I am back on the bike. By now Nigel and the rest of the Scorpa team are starting to get ahead of me so I rush through Inversanda and Gearadh to try and make some time. Now the weirdest thing I have ever done on a trials bike, as we all line up to catch the ferry... It was surreal to sit on a ferry with ten other trials bikes, as we near the other side Katy Sunter informs me that one year a guy tried to ride off the ferry bridge before they put it down and broke both his ankles, its quite high...
The long road section and roadworks from the ferry to the final group wasn't kind to my bike and it turned into a steam engine on the drop into lagnaha. A quick fix of shorting the thermostat out & it was good as new. Lagnaha was a fantastic group, big, rolly, grippy boulders with water of course but only a trickle on what we had already ridden. An awesome way to finish the day off. We then had a long road ride home under time control so that we couldn't speed. Back at the paddock there was confusion over time so we didn't waste any working on the bike just checked straight into parc ferme - later we would realise we still had half hour but better to be safe then sorry. Now home for a warm bath and a cold lager, er orange juice
Since it was my first experience with the SSDT I can't comment on it's severity except to say that the organisers said it was one of the toughest and talk in the field was "this is your first time?? You should have been here last year..."
Monday Day 1
monday was my early day so I was away at 8:03 am, we had a short road section to the first group of sections at Trotters Burn. There were 4 sections here all following the creek up a series of waterfalls that seemed to increase in size, so when I crashed off the first one hope started to dwindle 'was I goin to get through any sections this week?' But the spark was reignited as I fell over six times in the slime and water walking the next two sections then on the bike managed to keep it upright and moving forward and even clean one of them! I whimp out just short of the final waterfall thinking it is a long six days if you get injured at the first group!
Now to get to the next group of sections we had to cross Annat moore... People can tell you all the do's and don'ts of crossing a moore, but until you have done it yourself you never really 'get it', it is not similar in anyway to anything else I have ever ridden. I start following a group of older guys who are picking and weaving their way along making reasonable time, then decide that a straight line would be much quicker and my theory works alright for a little while, then my bike decides to stop in a slime hole and I learn to fly... thankfully the moorelands are soft, after another 3 or 4 flying lessons I slip back in behind the group of older guys and let them do the depth testing for me
We arrive at our next group of sections Annat, I am struggling for somewhere to park my bike when Dan Thorpe points to the quantity of grass in my spokes and tells me not to park across the river or my bike wont be there when I get back, a quick glance downstream and I decide I don't like my chances of getting my bike out of there so I find a nice park out of the water... There are 3 sections in this group, the first is tricky with large round boulders, the second has a large waterfall straight in the gate, I don't bother walking the third as I can't imagine getting up the second. Sections 2 and 3 are what is known as a double sub, so the start gates of 3 are the end gates for 2. I ride 1 and line up for 2& 3 as Nigel Birkett is walking into the section I ask " is there another way to the start of 3 if I don't make this?" Nigel smiles "oh you'll get up there if we have to drag you up..." So I get up and have to bumble my way through 3
Then another moore crossing this time alot less gunho as I picked my way between the little orange flags with a group of other riders, I have discovered it is quicker to go slower coz you spen less time up to your knees peat mud! There is another short road section followed by some gravel road and we arrive at Loch shiel A & B, the view from these groups back across the Loch is magnificent. From here we have some more gravel to Coire Dubh, the water at this group scared me! The rocks there were big grey awkward boulders and the water was gushing over them so fast you couldn't here each other speak...
Lunch was held at Strontian where you hand your card in and for 15min are not allowed to touch your bike. So we all stand around in the rain drinking cups of tea and telling stories from the morning. Mum & dad meet me here & I tell them all about my day so far, they video'd my clean @ Trotters - I am super excited it may be my only clean all week so its great to have it on film. Then my number is called and I am back on the bike. By now Nigel and the rest of the Scorpa team are starting to get ahead of me so I rush through Inversanda and Gearadh to try and make some time. Now the weirdest thing I have ever done on a trials bike, as we all line up to catch the ferry... It was surreal to sit on a ferry with ten other trials bikes, as we near the other side Katy Sunter informs me that one year a guy tried to ride off the ferry bridge before they put it down and broke both his ankles, its quite high...
The long road section and roadworks from the ferry to the final group wasn't kind to my bike and it turned into a steam engine on the drop into lagnaha. A quick fix of shorting the thermostat out & it was good as new. Lagnaha was a fantastic group, big, rolly, grippy boulders with water of course but only a trickle on what we had already ridden. An awesome way to finish the day off. We then had a long road ride home under time control so that we couldn't speed. Back at the paddock there was confusion over time so we didn't waste any working on the bike just checked straight into parc ferme - later we would realise we still had half hour but better to be safe then sorry. Now home for a warm bath and a cold lager, er orange juice