Ten Under The Ben here we come

The trainings all been done, the waiting's nearly over and the gear's all packed. I've never prepared for something so thoroughly for years and with the new bike I'm really looking forward to this event. For the non mountain bikers, Ten Under The Ben is a ten hour race/event held in the shadow of Ben Nevis at Fort William where contestants see how many laps of a roughly ten mile course they can complete in ten hours. You can take part solo, in pairs, as a trio, or as a foursome. Baz and I are taking part as a pair (naturally!) and qualify by a few months for the senior veteran class!! Should be interesting..........................

Biking with a difference!

This gentleman certainly views the world differently from your normal cyclist. Turns out he was recovering from cancer and had taken up recumbent cycling as exercise. The front three wheeler was pulling a two wheel trailer that contained a battery as an additional power source!

Killer in the back garden

You don't often get the chance to see Mother Nature close up and in the raw in your back garden but I did tonight, and luckily I had the camera at hand. I don't think I'll win any prizes for my photographic skills but considering the pictures were taken through the patio door glass they've come out not too bad. The hawk, a Sparrow Hawk I think, suddenly dived across the window with a young sparrow in its claws,landed and then proceeded to tear its prey to pieces! I took about a dozen pictures and the short video clip, not all of the pictures were very clear.

Mother Nature at work in the back garden

The hawk stands astride its prey

Picture taken through the kitchen window so slightly bleary!

Commentary not quite up to David Attenbrough standards

Another great ride at Innerleithen cross country

Back at Innerleithen again today, and another cracking ride. Innerleithen has a mixture of cross country riding with man-made single track, rock gardens, natural trails and killer fire road climbs, excellent training for Ten Under The Ben which is only two weeks away. Twenty eight miles again today in a slightly faster time than last week and the only real mishap was when my foot slipped off the peddle and I banged my shin as I went across the car park before we started on my way to the loo!!

Some of todays pictures

Don't know what's best, the man, the bike or the view!!

A welcome break after a hard climb up the fire road

Not far to go now

The Tweed Valley near Innerleithen

Strictly for "biking geeks"

The jockey idling sprockets on Clive's rear derailleur had definitely seen better days so a search of the Internet biking sites was instigated and as replacements he plumped for a pair of very bling gold ones. How long they'll remain gold is anyone's guess and how long they'll actually last is anyone's guess yet again!

He's proud as punch though of his new blingness, all he needs now is some gold teeth to match.............

The new "bling" jockey sprockets

The old "seen better days " sprockets

Cycling through Bluebell Wood

Clive tackles a slightly technical bit.

Interested spectators.

Almost there.

More fun at Innerleithen

The Bomb Hole at Innerleithen, an old quarry with an interesting entrance and exit!

Baz rides the Bomb Hole.

Clive does as well.

Innerleithen Cross Country Route plus a bit more

Today we went to Innerleithen for a change of scenery and did the cross country route plus a bit more that is done on the Selkirk Merida course. This involves three big climbs, some very technical descents down through the forest on little used tracks and some fast descending on the man-made singletrack. Though there had been a lot of rain yesterday on the whole the ground was reasonable and we managed 28 miles in 3 hours 20 minutes. The new Trek performed so well again I'm beginning to think it's maybe the rider who's getting better!!!

28 miles at Innerleithen

The three bikes taking a rest at the top of Minch Moor

Sorry Baz, but you came last on the climb back up!

At the crossroads high up on The Southern Upland Way

More investment to help the economy!

I've taken our glorious (?) leaders' advice and put yet more fiscal stimulus (whatever that means) into the economy. I got fed up with my pathetic grainy photos and on the spur of the moment while in Costco invested in a half decent camera. The bonus was that is was the only one left, and being the display model I managed to get another 10% off the price. So here's hoping that I can manage a few action piccies now instead of the blurry rubbish I've been doing............

Better pictures now (hopefully)

Sitting pretty in Bluebell Wood!

But not for bikes!

Another member of the cycling clan

Yet another keen(ish) cyclist, pictured in her cycling helmet, but I suspect her ambitions lie more in the Kate Moss envelope by the pose!

Records tumble at Glentress!

The records that were set just the other night were shattered today at Glentress. Clive took the lead from the start and set a blistering pace for the first 4 miles up the black route. Baz then shot off along the goat track where he's always fast and left Clive and me back a bit and as Clive was experiencing drive train problems (or so he said!!) none of us could catch the blighter on the climb to the mast.

Baz set a new record of 1.01.45 while I set a new old codger record of 1.02.52 to actually move into second place in the fastest times stats..

I've no doubt Clive isn't going to take this lieing down, so watch this space, though I've had enough of racing up there for a bit!

The new bike performs even better than I'd hoped, fantastic , when you consider I've knocked 13 minutes off my previous best time.

A few mishaps today, Baz misjudged a corner at a steep chute and came off and whilst I was observing this I managed to hit the banking and come to grief as well!

The pictures of the times were just too grainy for even my standard of photography to post but for any doubting Thomases they're stored on the computer.

whoops!

down round the log steps

over the bridge

aint she beautiful!

My garden visitor

Absolutely nothing to do with bikes, but here's a visitor I had in my garden this afternoon. Where he came from nobody knows, where he went nobody knows either!

New bike unsqueaked (we think)

Out on the new bike again today and the goddamn squeak started again at a low speed. Had a few different theories as to the cause and tried them all but the squeak was a persistent little bugger and always returned after a minute or two. Finally Clive and me turned the bike upside down out on the trail and when Clive held the front brake on I could actually see that one of the pads wasn't actually making contact with the disc. Out came the multi tool and a bit of severe tweaking ensued accompanied by the odd expletive and warning to the bike to behave or else............... and it's worked (so far anyway), no more squeaking. So the answer is always accompany your repair with a good hefty warning, you can't fail!