Highland Trail Race

[Ianfitz]

I was thinking that people here will be interested in a new project that Lee Craigie and the Adventure Syndicate are looking to crowd fund. It's called joining the dots and tells the story of this years Highland Trail 550.

Lee has edited several people's accounts together into one narrative to look at not only how the event unfolded, but also peoples varied approaches to it and how different  experiences impacted riders as we challenged ourselves and each other to dig deeper than ever before. It's illustrated with James Robertsons photos of the event, these haven't been seen much but are stunning.

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/joining-the-dots-the-highland-trail-550-journal?tk=82fa3cbdcc9ffd92364eb11691c7449f6650d685


There seems to be an increasing level of interest from riders all around the world, Scotland is an incredible place to ride a bike. Plus the Pound is really cheap right now making this, and coming over to ride it next year, a bargain!

[PMalcolm]

Is there a 2017 version of this planned? COuld do with a nice pre- French Divide shakedown

[NewRetroTom]

There certainly is - happens every year.

The group start tends to fill up months in advance though.
http://highlandtrail.net/startlist.html

[PMalcolm]

Maybe one for 2018 then (to add to the ever growing list!)

Thanks!

[AlasdairMc]

You can ITT it any time other than the days before the start and the week of the race, however to get on the mass start you need to demonstrate experience of multiday racing, and obviously to enter it months in advance.

[Bob]

AlanG wrote this on the Bearbones forum in Oct 2016:

It’s NOW just over 5 weeks until I will start taking requests for places on the 2017 group start. Still not too late to get a qualifying ride in!
These include Lakeland 200, Cairngorms Loop and Yorkshire Dales 300. All should have been completed inside the time limits. I’ll also accept the northern or middle loop of the HT550. The main reason for having these “qualifiers” is for you to know what you are getting into and the best way is to have done large parts of the route itself. GPX files/links to Strava activities accepted as “proof”.
Finishers from the last three editions (since HT became 550 miles) will have a guaranteed place. An ITT finish also assures you of a place. This year I will take up to 60 names again and expect 40-50 to make the start line come May 27th. I’ll keep 10 places for women but won’t limit it to that should there be more female applicants. Also a minimum of 10 places will be for overseas riders, who should have experience of tough bikepacking routes/races where they are from.
The route for 2017 will be almost identical to this year.

I would imagine things will be similar for 2018.

Anyway, I'm on this year's group start so will report back on how I get on.