Mountain Biking

The Outer Hebrides is a wild place with very few trails, but those it has are fabulous, and we try and make the best of them in the race. Apart from some terrific singletrack in the hills of Harris there are tracks across large open areas of short grass called Machair, which in the summer can be like riding over a carpet of flowers. There are also miles of white sandy beaches that can be ridden if the tide is out.

In the race, mountain biking is an important skill and a good technical rider will make up some time in places over riders who are merely strong. In 2004 the course had around 85 km of mountain biking with 1300 m of climb. A mountain bike time trial on one day allows the specialist/s on the team to shine, with a small prize (but mainly just glory) for the best individual rider.

In addition to the designated mountain bike stages in the route, there are also lots of other opportunities for teams to use their mountain bikes. Very often there will be the chance to use one at the very start or end of a "run" as there are many short peat cutters' tracks that lead a short way off the road into the hills, and if these can be incorporated into a run, so the runner can ride for a few hundred meters, then minutes can be saved.

Mountain bikes are also sometimes used for road biking sections if required. Typically, teams only have two road bikes with them (as that is all they can get in/on their vehicle) so if they want to put three riders on a road bike section then one will have to ride a mountain bike. So spare road tyres (or wheels + tyres for a quick change) can be useful.

Finally, mountain bikes can be useful for delivering other bikes to areas that are inaccessible or out of bounds to vehicles. Some teams use a device made out of a bike rack with a fastening to take the front fork dropouts of another bike so that they can tow it out onto the course.

The other disciplines in the Heb are: hill running, sea kayaking, road biking and swimming.