Douglas F Shearer

SXC Round 4 2009 Fort William

The fourth round of the SXC was also the Scottish Champs. I was hoping to reasonably well, maybe get myself a top five. This didn’t happen for me, as on the day my legs were not enjoying the three big-ring flat sections, and I lagged quite a bit towards the end, eventually ending up in eleventh place.

The course was awesome though, with the super steep start section, then some of the climb from 10 Under the Ben two weeks before. Then into an awesome natural descent, full of stumps and dropoffs to catch out the unwary. I honestly wonder what it would have been like had it rained for several days before the event.

Muchos respect to Andy Barlow for finally adding the Scottish Champs to his Palmares.

The SXC site has results, and images are available from Colin Robinson.

10 Under the Ben 2009

No Fuss yet again put on a sterling event for the 2009 edition of 10 Under the Ben at Fort William. And they got the weather right, with 30C heat beating down on the riders in the middle of the day.

I was riding with Allan ‘The Love Machine’ Love, taking it easy, and generally having some fun. This didn’t stop me having a go at the fastest lap. I thought I had it in the bag, even though on my first and fastest lap my front mech cable slipped leaving me unable to get into the big ring. No worries really, it possibly stopped me from pushing to big a gear. It looked to be in the bag, until Mr Andy Barlow popped in to do solo, and pushed out some of the quickest laps of the day, beating my times be a few minutes. Not to worry, it’s all a bit of fun.

Like last year I felt the event was slightly over-subscribed, with far too many people on the course at any one time. Despite the good humour of those I passed, I did have one crash when someone stopped right in front of me at a water trough. I expect a little inexperience from people, but it was so busy it was feeling almost dangerous at points.

The course was a cracker though, definitely the best so far, with some of the World Champs descent used as a climb, and lots of nice natural stuff thrown in.

I wasn’t on my own for the weekend; Emma came up for a mini-holiday, along with Magnus (who got lost briefly when he went to insect the sausages cooking across the carpark). Murray and Vo were riding solo, with Dawn and Tracey supporting them respectively. Murray did six laps, which was mightily impressive since he underwent brain surgery less than a year ago. Vo beasted it up for eight laps, resplendent in his Molteni top.

Photos from the weekend can be seen on Flickr.

10 Under the Ben 2008

Team Macchiato headed to Fort William a few weekends ago for the 2008 edition of 10 Under the Ben 10 hour endurance race.

Part of the entry for the 2008 race was a ride up the Aonach Mòr Gondola to register at the top station. Unfortunately, the race was rather over-sold this year, so we were denied our Gondola ride. Maybe for next year No-Fuss would like to limit entries, but that would really go against their ethos. Saying that, the member of their team that told us this seemed rather ‘no-fussed’. Not an impressive start.

Luckily we had alternatives available; I nailed some pasta in the “Glen Nevis Campsite”: http://www.glen-nevis.co.uk/, while Vo and Tracey went into town to grab some from a fast-food outlet.

Saturday (race day)

A good sleep, then up early for registration meant we bagged a great spot for our pits, not far from the transition, and close-enough to the course to see people riding the last section of singletrack.

Vo did the first lap, a setup we both enjoy as it takes the pressure off. The course started with the usual hugely boring and draggy fire-road for the first few miles, followed by the railway track, a super steep climb, then the fun bits, full of rocks and marginally tech-stuff. The newly-cut natural section was awesome, I thoroughly enjoyed buzzing through there in the big ring. ‘The Wall’ also featured, one of my favourite course-features, mostly due to it’s mincer-baiting characteristics.

Vo and I had decided we would do 5 laps each, as since we wouldn’t be competing for the podium this year, there was no point in one of us doing a greater number of laps. Anyway, we had a booking at a restaurant to make!

We finished up 16th, the fastest team with 10 laps. Another lap would have put us in seventh, or thereabouts.

Sunday

On the Sunday we (or me, with L plates on!) drove back to Edinburgh, but not before a stop in Glen Etive for some sunbathing and a swim in the river.

Great weekend (apart from the gondola fiasco)!

SXC Round 2 - Fort William

Round 2 of the Scottish Cross Country series was held on the World Cup course, Witches Trail, near Fort William. For a change the weather decided to be nice, and there was only a slight breeze to chill spectators.

Again I was racing Expert/Elite, but was unsure as to my form after a huge ride on wednesday, and racing at Ingliston Crit 2 on the Thursday. The race got off the the usual fast start, with the Pedal Power boys taking on the Rockhard boys in some sort of 3 man team event at the front. The pack split up on the later part of the climb, with Euan Cartlidge (Rockhard MBC) closely followed by eventual winner James Fraser-Moodie (Pedal Power RT). Euan finished in second, with Ruskin Burnett-Godfree in third place.

My race was pretty steady, with a few changes of places as to be expected. I finished in 4th, not feeling all that bad considering the week’s exertions. The course totally rocked, with the steep climb playing to my strengths well. The long flat section towards the end was where I was getting passed, but I was making the places back up on the climbs.

Full results can be seen on the SXC website, along with photographs.