Welcome to the Strathpuffer website
Hi There!
Our favourite energy providers, Scottish Hydro, have agreed to be our main Sponsors this year.........Nip down to your local Hydro Electric shop, buy yourself a freezer, and sit in it for 24 hours to recreate that authentic Puffer feeling.........
The seventh Strathpuffer will take place on 7th/8th January 2012. Entries for solos, pairs and quads are now open and will close at midnight on 25th December 2011.
If you don't know what you're letting yourself in for, here's a blog from the Daily Record's James Moncur... http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/ironman/2011/12/
The fourth Puffer Lite will take place on 7th/8th July 2012. Entries for solos, pairs and trios will open at 10.00 am on 1st February 2012 and close at midnight on 10th June 2012
A wee bit of history
The Strathpuffer started in 2005 - it was meant to be a one off local event but somehow six years later we have a national event with a legendary status
Over the years we have had every possible type of weather conditions - gales that blew away our marquee, iced roads, 2ft of snow the week before the event, temperatures down to minus 10 degrees, rain, hail and even sunshine . . . . you get the picture but then if we insist on staging a 24 hour event in the Highlands of Scotland in the middle of winter what do we expect?
We now attract competitors from all over the world - probably because we were included in the US Bike magazines top 10 toughest Mountain Bike events on the planet - and we are widely recognised as the event every decent mountain biker needs on his palmares
In 2009 we launched The Puffer Lite to give riders chance to enjoy the wonderful trails we have around here in summer conditions. The Lite is a far more chilled affair being only a 12 hour sprint in conditions more conducive to cycling than those normally experienced in January. We have found that riders lap on average 10 mins quicker in the Puffer Lite than in the Strathpuffer.
The events
The Strathpuffer follows the traditional 24 hour mtb format with laps of a circa 11km course
We start at 10.00 am on Saturday morning and competitors must start their last lap by 10.00 am on Sunday morning and complete it by 11.00 am
The event is open to solos, pairs and teams of four
The Puffer Lite follows the same course but only lasts 12 hours.
We start at the Puffer Lite 8.00 pm on Saturday evening and competitors must start their last lap by 8.00 am on Sunday morning and complete it by 9.00 am
The event is open to solos, pairs and teams of three
The entry fee includes a meal from our wonderful local caterers Red Poppy who are around throughout the event to keep you fuelled up so the pedals keep turning
The event is timed by our friends from SportIDENT - bombproof accuracy and reliability
And to keep you smiling we have music playing throughout the event in the transition area - sometimes live, sometimes just good tunes
