Ep. 128 ~ Gemma Baird, Highland Trail 550 SS FKT
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2022
⏱️ 123 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest today is Gemma Baird who recently set a new Singlespeed FKT (Fastest Known Time) on the Highland Trial 550 in Scotland. After battling breast cancer, surviving homeschooling her three kids through the pandemic, and turning 40, Gemma needed a big goal. That's when she set her sights on the 2022 HT550 group start. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make the group start, but that' didn't stop her. In August she lined up at the start line solo for an ITT (Individual Time Trial). She finished with a time of 5d 9h 48m which was good enough to best the previous SS FKT by Isla Rowntree.
Please visit www.BikesorDeath.com for a full writeup on this episode with an amazing gallery of photos from the HT550.
Quote of the Week: "Until you make the unconcious consious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate" ~ Carl Yung
Gemma pinned an article about her ITT for Bikepacking.com that is refrenced in today's episode.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Howdy friends and welcome to the Bikes for Death podcast. As always, my name is Patrick and I'm your |
| 0:05.3 | host. And on today's episode, I'm very excited about my guest. Her name is Jimma Baird. And she |
| 0:12.9 | recently claimed a new FKT on the Highland Trail 550 route during her ITT this August. |
| 0:23.2 | After battling breast cancer and surviving, |
| 0:28.0 | homeschooling her children through the pandemic and turning 40, |
| 0:33.5 | Gemma was ready to challenge herself, |
| 0:35.9 | and she did so by setting a big goal. |
| 0:40.0 | The goal was to line up for the 2022 group start of the Highland Trail 550. |
| 0:47.4 | Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make the group start, so a few months later, |
| 0:51.3 | she decided to tackle the route solo as an ITT. |
| 0:56.0 | In doing so, she set a new record. |
| 0:58.4 | And on today's episode, we talk all about it. |
| 1:02.6 | The Highland Trail 550 is set in Scotland, starting in the central portion of the country, |
| 1:09.0 | working its way up through the northern section with |
| 1:12.9 | beautiful blue skies and cool mountain streams and locks as far as you can see but according to |
| 1:20.5 | the highland trail website be warned the weather and skyline can change on a whim and you may |
| 1:26.9 | just as likely find yourself getting besieged by cold, lashing rain and high winds. |
| 1:33.2 | They go on to say that in short, don't attempt this ride unprepared. |
| 1:37.7 | No one will be there to rescue you. |
| 1:40.9 | Bikepacking.com lists the difficulty rating on this route as a nine out of ten so any way you |
| 1:48.1 | slice it this is a very challenging and demanding route and my guest today jemma did it on a fully |
| 1:56.3 | rigid single speed which adds a little style points on her effort as far as I'm concerned. |
... |
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