Feb Challenge #3 - Ride the Strathpuffer Mountain Bike Course

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Working for The Adventure Show I've filmed and edited the Strathpuffer 24hr MTB race quite a few times.

Yet I had never ridden it.  Now that has changed.  However, my lap of the 'Puffer course proved a little more eventful than I anticipated.

Watching all the pictures from every camera we've had on the course I felt as if I knew my way around.

Also I imagined such a famous course would be way marked.  So it was almost an afterthought I downloaded the .GPX file and put it on my Garmin watch.  Turned out, that file was absolutely essential - the only way I could work out where to go.


I had planned to make a nice wee film about riding the course.  I carried a GoPro Session on a tiny tripod and had all the material.  It was going quite well until one event which blew everything else away.



As I bumped my front wheel onto the bridge I immediately realised how slippery the green wood had become.  I had visions of getting half-way across, skidding, and dropping over the edge.  So I braked, and tried to balance by putting my right foot on the bridge arch.  Unfortunately, it skidded off (twice I think) and then the rest of my body followed.


I felt fine for a couple of hours, but by the evening my right arm was very sore.  At 3am I needed some Neurofen Plus to get back to sleep.  I've put my next swim lesson back one week.  Healing is slower at my age, but hopefully I'll be fit again soon.

Watching the video again, I can see why my right arm hurts, because it bore the brunt of my fall.  Fortunately the bike was still set-up from Craggy Island Triathlon, with flat pedals not SPDs.  So I was wearing running shoes.  I shudder to think how much this would have hurt had I been clipped into the pedals.