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Sleepless In the Saddle 2007

The Sleepless in the Saddle has got to be the favourite event of the team. This year the team consisted of Pete, Dave, Mick and Chris. The original team from back in the hay days.

Having had the wettest summer ever the team weren’t optimistic that the rain would hold off. In fact the guess was that the event would be a water logged affair with laps edging the 1 hour 30 mark. How wrong could they have been……?

As usual Dave and Pete arrived first and set up the camp. This year the camp was more like a hotel than a camp. There were three Taj Mahals to sleep in and a very grand Buckingham palace to lounge and eat in. It was marvellous. Everything was close – The start line, water, showers and track viewing points. It was already looking like the perfect race.

Mick arrived on the Friday evening and Chris turned up early doors on the Saturday. The usual roam around the events centre took place with Dave and Mick picking up some new lights. Bargin. After some bike tinkering the time came to line up at the start line and send Chris on the run.

The countdown to the start of the race was a bit of an anti-climax but never the less all teams and solo riders were on their way. As expected Chris came through the run in 2nd place tussling for the front spot with a RAF rider. I’m sure Chris would’ve won over a longer distance. Again a great start for the team. The first lap in total was around the 40 minute mark.

The lap times followed a similar pattern with Pete picking the up the faster laps of around 35 minutes. After the first set of laps the team were still in the top 20. This continued into the night stage where pairs were established to allow some sleep.

Until this point the weather had been dry and warm. However at about 2 am the pitter patter of rain could be heard on the tents. Luckily this was only a mild shower to wet the ground. It made the grass sections difficult through the trees for a short period. The new lights did the job (see a review of them – click here).

Eventually the sun rose and the team were in a healthy 15th place. Some hard work during the morning would mean the highest finish ever in the Sleepless in the Saddle event.

The last four laps came round as quick as ever. It worked out the Mick would finish the race. All four put in 110% to achieve times equal to first few laps 24 hours ago. The result was tremendous. An exceptional 12th place. Here’s the full breakdown.(For the over all Results click here)

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