Strathpuffer

24 hours of Scottish winter. One 12.5km fire-road loop, ridden solo or in a team through roughly 17 hours of darkness, cold and mud. First run in 2005 as a one-off local event, the Strathpuffer is now a national institution — US Bike magazine rates it among the 10 toughest mountain bike events on the planet.

The race

• Lap: 12.5km with 284m of climbing, on red-rated singletrack and forest road.
• Typical winner: ~25 laps (men's solo), ~18 laps (women's solo) — over 300km and 7,000m of climbing in a single day and night.
• What winning takes: roughly 4.8+ W/kg for podium contention; 3.1–3.65 W/kg puts you in the top 50–70%.
• To finish: 6–9 laps. There's no cut-off — on a 24hr lapped race, it's simply how long you can keep starting laps. You must begin your final lap by 10am Sunday and finish it by 11am.
• The comparison: ~17 hours of darkness in the depths of a Highland January. Few UK endurance events are darker or colder.

The demands of this event

Strathpuffer is an aerobic durability race, not a power test. FTP alone predicts finishing position poorly — experience, night preparation, pacing and conditions matter as much as watts. BEINA models it as a sustained sub-threshold effort with strategic recovery, not a series of hard efforts:

• Target intensity: IF 0.60–0.65 across the 24 hours. Start conservative (0.65–0.70 in the first six hours); expect a natural decline through the long night.
• The real test is late-race power. Night laps run 25–40% slower than fresh laps as your burst and climbing power decay. Heavy snow adds 20–35 minutes per lap.
• BEINA predicts your lap count from your W/kg, then adjusts for your night-riding history, longest ride and race experience — the factors that actually separate finishers from the field.

Event summary

The Strathpuffer runs on a red-rated Highland loop in Torrachilty Forest — singletrack, forest road, rooty climbs and rocky descents — from 10am Saturday to 10am Sunday on the first or second weekend of January. 4,189 entries have been logged across 16 years of results.

What makes it brutal isn't any single feature; it's the accumulation. Sub-zero temperatures, ice and mud, and a full Scottish winter night where the sun sets around 4pm and doesn't rise until 9am. Kit management, pit discipline and sleep strategy become race skills. Three riders have even won the overall solo race on a singlespeed.

Suited to these athletes

• The diesel engine — high aerobic durability, comfortable holding a steady sub-threshold effort for hours rather than chasing surges.
• High-volume riders who enjoy long days out: your longest ride matters more here than your 20-minute power.
• Mentally durable, process-driven athletes — the winner isn't the fastest lap, it's the one who fades least and manages the dark.
• Technically competent on rough, cold, low-grip terrain — comfort on red-rated singletrack at 4am is a genuine advantage.

How BEINA trains you for it

BEINA builds your plan around the Strathpuffer's real profile: long-ride durability progressions, night-ride rehearsals, and a fuelling strategy you practise before race day instead of guessing at it. As your training data comes in, the plan adapts to how you're actually responding.

Founder Angus went from a 6-lap Strathpuffer rookie to a 24-hour endurance racer in under a year, coached by the platform he was building. This is the event BEINA was forged on.