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Inside 8 days

The DGs

Saturday morning update

Friday evening summary

Andy West and Jason Thorman's  dots are bouncing 

No let up in the weather

More action in the Great Glen

Sleep strategy

The weather

Sadly, news has come through that Michelle has had to scratch. She ran out of time at Kinlochewe.

That means the race is over for this year and what an epic it has been. The weather has been very poor and tested the resolve of all riders. 

Well done to all riders who completed the route under such testing conditions. 

Alan Parkinson finished last night in a time of 7 days 15 hours 30 minutes. Remember this was on an ex-hire bike. Well done Alan, a fantasitc effort. Great to see such a big smile on the finish line. 

[Alan Parkinson](https://twitter.com/AlanParkinson2/status/1134979272039378945)

After having rode so much of the route together, Nick Bubb and John Mark Beckley got separated on the final run in from Kinlochleven. Nick finished at 05.45 this morning and John Mark at 07.45. Both riders completing the route in under 8 days. Great riding and great determination. Well done.

This means the eyes of the entire dot watching community are now focused on Michelle. Come on, Michelle we are willing you to the finish. As I write, her dot is still stationary at Kinlochewe and she has another [two days of rain forecast](https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2645398). 

David Gooberman has successfully finished. His provisional time is 7 days 4 hours and 20 minutes. Well done. 

Sadly, the other DG (Daniel Gona) has had to scratch because of a broken rear axle. How gutting to have got within 40 miles of the finish. The HT550 shows no mercy.

Berten De Canne is also a scratch. He had to bail from Fort William in order to catch a ferry back to Belgium. He smiled his way through some terrible conditions and I'm sure he will be back again. If anyone is riding the [ACT-5](https://www.act5.be/) this year they can expect to a warm welcome from Berten - just don't try to keep up with him when drinking Belgian beer. 

Alan Parkinson is in Fort William. Nick Bubb is riding down the Great Glen and I'm assuming John Mark Beckley is with him but it is hard to be sure as his tracker hasn't updated for a while. 

Michelle Dulieu is about to descent to Letterewe before tackling the Postman's Path. 

Well done to Petr Kohoutek who finished at about 01.00. He has ridden very strongly over the past 2 days.

Another night time finisher was Adrian Baskerville coming in some time around 02.00. Well done, a great effort.

A big congratulations to Iain Cormack. It looks like he didn’t stop in Fort William and rode on all night and has just finished. I wonder if he was motivated to finish in under 7 days? If so, he has achieved his aim. Well done.

David Gooberman is a few hours away and Daniel Gona should finish this afternoon. (If you are dot watching then don’t mix up the ‘DG’ dots)

Alan Parkinson, Nick Bubb and John Mark Beckley should all finish at some point today.

Michelle Dulieu is safely over the Fisherfield river crossing and hauling herself and her bike up the hike-a-bike. Keep going Michelle!!


As things stand, Dave Simons, Mike Sheldrake and Ron Thomson have all crossed the finish line since the last update. Well done to all three. Fantastic efforts. 

Petr Kohoutek and Adrian Baskerville should push on to the finish even if they have a late end to their ride.

For the other riders, it seems like it will be a question of staying dry and warm for another night. 

David Gooberman has been stationary in Kinlochleven for a while now. He is either having supper in the pub before carrying on for a late finish or settling down for the night in a B+B.

Daniel Gona and Iain Cormack look like they are safely lodged in Fort William. 

Nick Bubb and John Mark Beckley look like they have found shelter in Camban bothy at the head of Glen Afric whilst Michelle Dulieu has stopped in Shenevall.

This means the only rider who might be sleeping in his tent is Alan Parkinson. 

For those riders who don’t finish tonight at [least they can look forward to a dry day tomorrow](https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2649169). Everyone bar Michelle should finish on Saturday so please spare a thought for her as she will still be riding on Sunday when the weather looks to get wetter again. She has not been daunted by the weather so far so I hope she stays strong all the way to Tyndrum.




Finishing within minutes of each other, Andy West and Jason Thorman have just crossed the line. Well done guys.

Dave Simons and Ron Thomson are not far behind.

Mike Sheldrake is in the mix somewhere but has tracker has given up the ghost. The other riders between Fort William and Tyndrum would do well to smash it out in order to reach the finish and have a proper bed for the night. 

Given the weather, I hope Michelle opts for an early night and the shelter of Shenevall bothy. If the weather is truly grotty, then Iain Cormack and Daniel Gona might opt for a night in a B+B at Fort William. The only other riders out there are on the Kintail hike-a-bike / Glen Afric descent. There are not many bothy options in that stretch - they may see if they can reach Fort Augustus if they are keen for an alternative to a night under canvas. 

In case you thought after the dreadful weather at the start of the HT550 that the riders still out on the course were having it easy then take a moment to examine the riders in the image above.

It is clearly still very wet and hard going. Thankfully for these four riders (Jason Thorman, Andy West, Mike Sheldrake and Dave Simons) the suffering will soon be over. They should all be at the finish in the next couple of hours.

For the riders still out on the course, the weather will continue to test their resolve until tomorrow when it [looks set to dry out a little](https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2635277). 


In addition to the exploits of Andy West (who is just descending into Kinlochleven at the moment) Petr Kohoutek continues his charge towards the finish. 

Having stopped near Tomich pretty much level pegging with David Gooberman he has continued to set a great pace and is now quite some way ahead of David. Keep pressing F5 to see if he catches Adrian Baskerville before the finish...

It looks like Andy West may have deployed a fantastic sleep strategy in Fort Augustus last night. 

He stopped early and while he was stopped Jason Thorman, Dave Simons and Ron Thomson all caught him up. They all started earlier than him (at 04.00, 05.00 and 06.00 respectively). Andy had a later start and got underway at about 08.00.

The extra rest has clearly done him the world of good as he has raced down the Great Glen and passed Dave and Ron (time gains of 3 hours and 2 hours respectively) and is not too far behind Jason.

It can be really hard to convince yourself that it is better to stop for a long time and start again feeling refreshed. It is not uncommon for riders to be constantly aware of the ticking of the race clock and to feel the urge to keep moving and keep stops to a minimum.

Well done to Andy for his sleep strategy. It has clearly worked to great effect. 

The [weather](https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2649183) is offering no respite for the riders still out on the route. By this stage, I suspect that everything the riders are carrying will be damp if not totally wet. I hope they have all taken the precaution of putting their sleeping bags inside double dry bags.

It takes much more effort to stay warm in the wet. It takes much more mental resolve to keep riding in the wet. It takes much more effort to ride over wet ground. 

Keep going everyone. Don't give up. 

After riders succumbed to torrential rain within the first two days, the 2019 HT550 had a surprise around every corner of the trail.

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