The Story Continues

In the slightly cold and damp conditions of a Scottish summer the story continues.

Day 3 – Drumlanrig to Dalbeattie. The longest day of the week started
with the delights of more Drumlanrig singletrack. Afterward, we headed
out into the hills and over a super drovers road towards Ae Forest.
Joining the Ae-Line part way round we took in all the best descents,
finishing with Omega Man. I rode in the good company of Charlie
Eustace and Paul Murrin most of the day, and we set a good pace to
knock off 110km in 6 hours 2 minutes.

Day 4 kicked off with special stage #2 at Dalbeattie. An intense stage
of 15km on technical rocky built trails hurt tired legs from the
previous few days. I managed a good performance, nearly catching
Charlie, who was a little over 30 seconds or so ahead of me overall.

The link stage to New Abbey was made via more Dalbeattie trails to get
us to the coast overlooking the Solway Firth with the Lakes beyond.
From there a long forest road climb took us back to Mabie for some
fine off-route singletrack and on to the camp in just over 52km.

Tomorrow starts again with a special stage of 10km before heading to
Moffat via Ae Forest again. I’m currently in 9th overall, but very
little separates those between 10th and 6th, so a lot to ride for.

Rob Lee has pulled out because of illness which is why everybody has moved up a place. Hope you feel better soon Rob.

Ian is feeling very upbeat even though his legs are feeling a little tired. He is enjoying all the Scottish trails.

Next update soon, Beth