Sleepless in the Saddle 2009
Me at the bottom of the first descent
Well, I survived! We’ve just got back from the Sleepless in the Saddle 24 hour mountain bike race in Catton Park, Derbyshire and I think all of the Ystwyth-MTB team members and supporters had a good time.
Anna, Morgan and I set off on Friday morning and arrived at the campsite around midday. The sore throat that I had oinb Thrusday was now a sore throat and bunged up sinuses but I was hoping to get rid of the cold by Saturday afternoon. The Teece-Rounds and Dan were already there so we set up our tent and gazebo that was to act as team HQ and then chilled for most of the afternoon watching the field fill up with tents of all shapes and sizes. Those teams that were experienced at such things came well prepared with marquee style tents to act as bike workshops and kitchens, tape to cordon off their area of the field etc.
Dan, Martyn and I then headed off for an easy ride around the course to see what it was like. Muddy would be one word to sum it up, but it wasn’t too bad really. No real hills, just a couple of little inclines, and no mad descents. There was one very slippery, rooty descent in the first mile that caught us (and many others) out and the sections through the woods were very rooty and slippery too, but the final couple of miles was actually quite enjoyable. Bernd, Gari and Ian then arrived at dusk with the final team member Dave due to arrive on Saturday morning.
Bike Wash
I’ll post a little bit about the actual race in a separate post, but Saturday dawned bright and sunny, I felt terrible but as a team we did OK and all enjoyed it. The organisation was really good, the toilets and showers were kept clean and with plenty of hot water and Muc-off provided a free bike-wash station that was constantly in use. USE Exposure Lights were on hand with a stall offering free battery charging for lights which I had to use a couple of times and everything seemed to run smoothly which made for an enjoyable weekend.
There were plenty of people out on the course shouting words of encouragement and ringing cow-bells etc. To all those who were out there doing that, especially through the depths of the night, we do appreciate it.
Crazy Unicyclist
Some people were obviously doing the race solo which is pretty mad. Thankfully the weather was good otherwise I’d imagine a 24 hour solo mountain bike race there would have been horrendous as the course would turn into the stickiest, muddiest, slipperiest hell on earth imaginable! So hats off to those who did it solo, especially the crazy fool who did it solo on a unicycle!
I think everyone on our teams enjoyed themselves, I did despite feeling terrible for the whole weekend. I also hope that the supporters who came along for the weekend enjoyed it too. I was certainly glad that Anna was there and she did a great job helping out with changeovers, cooking, charging lights etc. for me. Hopefully in between that and the normal child care responsibilities she managed to find time to enjoy herself as well.
Everyone else headed hom on the Sunday afternoon, but Anna, Morgan and I stayed the night so that we could have a leisurely drive home on Sunday. Of course, it rained so we ended up packing up in the rain!
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Thanks for the mention 🙂
I actually found it physically harder this year even though I did more laps (I actually did 8 but the timing gate seems to have missed one of them in the middle – grrr…). The long draggy sections of grass really drained the energy. The singletrack on the second half of the lap really made up for it though.
Rob (“crazy fool”, still hurting)
Nice one Rob… I’ve never ridden a unicyle so have no idea just how tough it is, but also don’t have a clue how you actually ride over some of that stuff.
Do you have to walk some of the more technical sections?
I couldn’t stay on in some of the sticky mud at the start of the lap (but it was MUCH better than last year’s quagmire), and on some of the short but very steep banks we had to go up I just ran out of speed, but the rest of it was all rideable for me this year. Quite a few crashes in the slippery sections though, and on the last fast singletrack just before going through the campsite/water splash bit.
And I did walk some of the climbs when my energy started to flag.
I’ll ride more _technical_ trails than you usually get in an xc race – it’s the mud that kills me most at Sleepless/Mayhem (back and abs suffering from all the twisting to catch slides). All good fun though – very different feeling from riding a bike. If you get a chance, give it a go!
BTW, hope you get rid of the germs quickly.
Rob