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Day Two: Riders Ready…
The second linking stage takes riders to the beautiful grounds of
Drumlanrig Castle ready and raring for the first special stage,
a team time trial on some super buff root infested singletracks,
reports Matt Skinner in the third of his daily reports…
Linking Stage Two
Moffat to Drumlanrig
Total distance: 45km
Climbing: 1,150m
Followed by:
Special Stage One
Team time trial on Drumlanrig Red Route (abridged)
Total distance: 10km
Climbing: 300m
 The
first competitive day of the Chain Reaction Cycles TransScotland
(Powered by Merida Bikes) bloomed strong under a blue fluffy sky
in much welcome contrast to the first day in Selkirk. It was rounded
out with a team time trial on the natural feeling tech and flowing,
root infested singletrack of Drumlanrig to reward riders with high
grade speed shakes. But before that, 45km of fine single malt Scottish
wilderness lay between the riders and their singletrack sugar…
 Straight
from the off from Moffat the riders were thrown into things. The
particular thing in question being a behemoth of a climb up Hods
Hill that was both steep and sustained in pitch right up to 567m.
Many riders, wary of the cumulative toll over the seven days, portaged
this wee beastie’s more severe parts as they slowly followed
the Southern Upland Way. The trail eventually then kicked downwards
over more wide open grassy ‘piste’ sections, a sweet
reminder of the awesomely steep final descent of the day before
that Keith Bontrager described yesterday in his CyclingNews diary
of the event: “Imagine a groomed black diamond ski hill, many
hundred feet of vert, covered in well mown grass, smooth and untracked.
It was a trip.”
 Back
to day two and things were again continuing in a high quality downward
vein: a 2km Roman Road descent gave back to the riders all that
the bugger of a climb had taken as it snaked its way smoothly down
the Kir Burn valley, only tempering the devil may care abandon approach
to braking by the occasional ass-kicking water bar. High speeds,
carving lines and smooth grassy contour caressing trails brought
the riders down into Durisdeer and back onto the black top. But
then the day’s linking stage was all but done: the black top
and a singletrack foray brought riders onto the picturesque Drumlanrig
estate, before the very final climb took the riders into the woods
for a brief but satisfying taster of the trails yet to come in the
special stage team trial. Not, as it turned out, an inconsequential
carrot, as the trail flitted this way and that, doing its best impression
of a convulsing serpent with plenty of pumpy undulations and a matted
network of wheel grabbing roots to boot.
With a few hours to kill before the beginning of the special stage,
the event village filled out and the riders made the most of a few
quiet hours under the much-welcomed sunshine. Riders also explored
the treasure trove that is Rik’s Bike Shed’s Bike Museum,
a literal historical walk through of the bicycle, albeit beautifully
higgledy-piggeldy.
The special stage itself would see team riders racing in relay –
one from the off who would then hand over to their partner mid-way
through the lap – around the 10km Drumlanrig circuit. With
the first half of the course containing the more techy, picky, rocky
and rooty singletrack and a plethora of power climbs, and the second
being made up of more flowing and undulating trail with more singletrack
climbs, team tactics came into play for the teams to decide who
would open the batting and who would come in at the halfway point
to bring the team home. For the many solo riders, it was just flat
out all the way round the full 10km circuit.
Set against the background of the impressive Drumlanrig castle,
the riders went off at 30 second intervals from the Chain Reaction
Cycles start ramp to launch flat out through the High5 arch and
out onto the course. After a brief fire road climb the singletrack
began in predatory manner and jumped the riders from the summit
of the climb. Snaking downwards the trails spun a web of singletrack
seduction that lasted became more and more acute as the lap wore
on. The fastest pair, Ryan Bevis and Jonathan Pugh of Ram Bikes/Scott
UK blasted the trails to smithereens in a time of 33:24 to claim
the stage win, with the fastest solo male, Andy Barlow of Whyte
Bikes coming home in just 35:27. In the women’s open, Meggie
Bichard of Extreme-Endurance.com wrapped up the win with 42:55,
and Julie Cartner and Renel Brennan of the 7Stanes did likewise
in the Buff Female category with a total time of 42:38.
With a monster 100km linking stage tomorrow and a the miles in the
legs beginning to make themselves known, riders have turned in for
an early night amdist the beautiful grounds of Drumlanrig Castle.
The morning will see them turn southwards through the Forest of
Ae towards Dalbeattie as well as tackling 2,000m of climbing to
get there. It’s going to be a long, hard day.
Special Stage 1 Results:
Drumlanrig Woods Team Time Trial
Scottish Tourism Women’s Solo Open Category
1 – Meggie Bichard (Extreme-Endurance.com): 42:55
2 – Christie Boucher: 46:05
3 – Helen Lambert: 49:24
Scottish Tourism Men’s Solo Open Category
1 – Andy Barlow (Whyte Bikes): 35:27
2 – Ben Thompson (Nevis Cycles): 35:42
3 – Mansour Youssef (Fusion Bikes): 36:35
Scottish Tourism Veteran Women’s Solo Category
1 – Hilary Bloor (Team Planetfear): 54:22
2 – Tatjana Troll: 57:35
3 – Julie Dinsdale: 1:00:23
Scottish Touism Veteran Men’s Solo Category
1 – Rob Waller (ERC One Week Younger): 37:06
2 – Antony Green (G A Cycles/gonebikinmad): 40:02
3 - Matt Scrase (MTBMarathon.co.uk): 40:17
High5 Mixed Category
1 – Jay Horton and Maddie Horton (XC Racer.com/Trek): 40:09
2 – Alice Crook and Neil Hamblin (Cakemonsters): 44:31
3 – Yolande Wase and John Singleton (Laurel & Hardy):
48:03
Gore Veteran’s Category
1 – Bryan Singleton and Peter Strong (Global/Torq/Buff): 39:08
2 – Robert Barker and Mark Langdon (Sportstest.co.uk): 41:17
3 – Arthur Rijk and Tim Snyder (TNT): 43:40
Buff Female Category
1 – Julie Cartner and Renel Brennan (7Stanes): 42:38
2 – Sally Lee and Kate Chappell (Extreme-Endurance.com): 48:41
BeOne Male Category
1 – Ryan Bevis and Jonathan Pugh (RAM Bikes/Scott UK): 33:24
2 – Andrew Wardman and Steven Halsall (7Stanes): 36:05
3 – William Pearson and Edward Kerly (Good Willed): 37:42
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