Strathpuffer 24Hrs
“The Tuffer Puffer�
Neil Atkinson (Boys in the Buff) / 21.01.2007
In 2006 a forest close to Strath Peffer (Inverness) gave birth to a new 24hour mountain bike race. It was to be a hard race with long hours of darkness. In the first year there was a clear sky with icy conditions and a full moon. However they decided to run it again in 2007, with 17 hours worth of darkness and no moon. What the organisers did not expect was the gale force winds and torrential down pours, and that was just getting there on Friday!The weather was just horrendous. Most of Scotland’s bridges were closed, and severe flooding was expected to follow. But for some strange reason we, Bryan Singleton, Andrew Wrigley, Paul Trott and myself (Neil Atkinson) collectively known as Team ‘Boys in the Buff’, were on for a race and were looking forward to whatever the weather could throw at us!
Shortly after arriving we finally got the camper van out of a ditch we inadvertently decided to park in and quickly set up camp, and after visiting the local pub we went to bed!
In the morning the wind had calmed down slightly and the rain had stopped. An ‘early’ start of 10am meant that there was no real time for messing around looking at the course, so we eat our breakfast and sent Andy Wrigley to the start line!
We sent him as he has the biggest thighs in the world, and thought he would barge other people out of the way easier than any of the rest of us! We were by the camper van, on the start of the major climb, and when the race started and we were shocked to see this racing whippet dressed in a Lycra body suit zip passed us! At that stage Andy was in the top 10 and we thought then this could be a very hard race!
After returning with a very impressive time, and also gaining a good position of 3rd, Andy handed over to Paul, then sat down and said that the course was brilliant, with not so much mud about, but some fantastic singletrack on the top. See All Event Posts
