← All eventsHighland Trail 550
550-mile self-supported bikepacking race through the Scottish Highlands. Anti-clockwise loop from Tyndrum. ~16,000m climbing. Singletrack, gravel, hike-a-bike, bogs, river crossings. Solo only. 8-day cutoff. Part of UK Triple Crown.
550 miles and 16,000m of climbing through the wildest corners of the Scottish Highlands. Self-supported means exactly that: no crew, no feed stations, no course markings. Just you, a GPX file and the road north.
The UK's most iconic bikepacking race, and its most remote. Hike-a-bike is a defining feature here, not a failure. Even the winner walks. The wild north is where the race unravels, soaked and knee-deep in bog, days from the nearest help.
Your legs can get you round. Out here it is your head that has to agree.
Who finishes, and how
Patterns like these, drawn straight from 2025 race data, are baked into how Beina coaches you for this event.
Is Highland Trail 550 for you?
- Riders who have already done a multi-day bikepacking event. This is a serious step up from the Dales Divide, not the place to learn sleeping rough and self-repair.
- Self-sufficient types who can navigate by GPS, fix a bike at 3am in the rain and pitch a dry bivvy in near-freezing wind. Off-bike skills count as much as fitness here.
- Durable diesels rather than sprinters. FTP barely predicts anything: this rewards riders who keep moving efficiently for days on little sleep, not the biggest engine.
- Riders who accept the hike-a-bike instead of fighting it. Hours of pushing a loaded bike over bogs and passes are unavoidable, so efficient hikers thrive.
Training plan for Highland Trail 550
A training plan for Highland Trail 550 isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Three to eight days of near-continuous riding on 5,000 to 8,000 kcal a day you can never fully replace.
- Substantial unavoidable hike-a-bike: pushing and carrying a loaded bike over mountain passes and deep bog.
- Technical Highland singletrack ridden while exhausted and weighed down with bikepacking bags.
- Multiple nights out, self-navigating by GPS and bivvying in cold, wet, wind-battered terrain.
- Long off-road Z2 endurance rides, built progressively from 5 up to 10-plus hours for multi-day durability.
- Back-to-back weekends: a big Saturday then a medium Sunday, teaching your legs to work tired.
- Overnight bivvy rides, and in the specialise block a full 3 to 4 day bikepacking trip in race kit.
- Dedicated hike-a-bike sessions pushing a loaded bike uphill on rough ground, plus night navigation rides.
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
