SSEC17...

Roadtrip;  Single Speed European Championships,  Evanton, 2017

Friday evening and work finished and heading North on the A9 bound for Inverness and the 2017 European Single speed championships with friend Mike in his van...

Unpacked we rode along to the Venue tent and caught up with old friends, met some new ones, and goofed around. Good to get a ride on Charlie Bikemongers Surly Big Fat Dummy Cargo bike!...

Saturday;
The day dawned a roaster!, and it would have been easy to sit and laze around in the growing heat but    after some food we peddled up to the venue and signed on and received our goodie bags of souvenirs and number and returning to the campsite prepped for the day with err some Cider!...

The start was to dump the bikes at a field then walk into town  piped in by the local  pipe band.
From there -after an ice cream, we all walked back to the football pitch where after a presentation by the local mayor there was a warm up dance session which was hilarious to watch as those in fancy dress got down and shook there booties...

lol...
SSEC17; The warm up!!! from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

Race Start...
The race was hard in the heat which was sweltering for us blue blooded Scots. The idea was we were going to try ride two laps while the fast folk rode 3 laps, we soon scrapped that idea in the midday heat as we struggled to ride some of the steep climbs and many were pushing. We descended to the Beer stop and hung out there until time to descend to the finish tent and party time...
Despite the crazy heat  it was great to ride some great descents like this...

SSEC17; 2nd Descent from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

Was real hot on the climbs, sweating buckets!..

Soon cooled down on the descents. With one gear we just rode off the brakes as much as possible to keep up the speed...

SSEC17; 3rd Descent from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


The fat bikes were ace on the descents and i was now wishing i had single speeded my Surly Wednesday as it would be even quicker!, again great descents...

SSEC17; 4th Descent from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


We were told the beer stop was coming up so time to turn up the speed a bit more as starting to get real thirsty!...

SSEC17; The race for Beer! from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

Our cheese and biscuits along with some Gin and Tonic went down a treat with the gang,  was some good banter as we waited for the racers to finish 3 laps before descending to the finish tent...

Charlie Bikemonger had brought his Surly Big Fat Dummy cargo bike that his friend Joal was riding about on. Despite the chain snapping the bike rode real good on the descents with its long stable wheel base, fun times!...

SSEC17; Charlie Bikemongers Surly Big Fat Dummy from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

Saturday evening;
Food in the Novar Arms Hotel and more booze before heading up to the venue and live music, highland games, drinking behaviour and bonfires before somehow finding our way home to the digs :)

Back at the Venue and it was a mad evening!, with live music, mini Highland Games, Beer, Cider, Whisky, crazy activities and bonfires, somehow we managed to ride back to camp!...

Now THAT`S a hip flask!  lol...

Sunday morning;
People slowly drifted off home through the day from what was a superb fun weekend.
Until next time...

SSEC goes to Holland next year, i`m hooked after my first SS event and plan to be there!...

lol...

Mmm err menu...

:D

Everything burnable was burned when i revisited the Venue to see about a back pack i left lol

Ha ha what a mad weekend!
And here is it from Friday evening when we arrived crammed into under 4 minutes!
Song is `Eighty Eight` by Working For A Nuclear Free City


SSEC17 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

More soon...