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Testing Time Trials Day

John Laughlin / 07.07.2005

Mountain biking is always something I enjoy, but getting out of bed at 5am to start a 100% effort stage on hard terrain was going to test my love of the sport. Fortunately, to lift my spirits slightly I knew that other teams were having it a bit harder, as some of the slower teams had to get started before I’d even crawled out of the sleeping bag.

This first stage was the mountain bike time trial and was also a points section, with a healthy 30 points reward for teams sending more than one rider round. In the event, the ride was beautiful and took teams to some fairly remote country on reasonable to excellent tracks, which allowed the fastest team 2x2 to get round the 40km loop in an astonishing 2 hours 47mins.

What was more impressive was that they sent two riders round in that time, with regular Polaris pairing John Houlihan and Paul Currant buddying up. Many teams came through the finish checkpoint looking utterly exhausted but exhilarated by the quality of the riding, even if it did take a good few close to five hours.

Simultaneously, the mountain running time trial was taking place on an isolated area to the East of Loch Seaforth, but before the runners even set off they had the extra thrill of being transported there at 38 knots in one of the safety boats.

The runners were set off in groups with the predicted fastest group starting last. Pre race favourite was Brendan Bolland who has won the time trial every time he has raced the Hebridean Challenge, which is a fair number of times now. Also in the mix were Tim Lenton and Alec Keith, although both had a very hard day on Tuesday so the legs were not at their freshest.

At least that’s what they were saying to each other but it may just have been a bit of pre race banter, as Tim Lenton shot out of the start and up the first hill at such a rate that only Alec Keith could keep with him. Tim threw himself down the first steep descent in his trademark gazelle like style and managed to pull out a lead that he held all the way to the finish, several hills and many bogs later.

Back on the West side of Loch Seaforth the incoming mountain bike riders were tagging a runner to head up and over An Clisham, the highest hill in the Hebrides at 799m. The start was from sea level so it was a fairly significant jaunt up the steep rocky slopes.

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