Updated 7 September 2005
Sleepless In The Saddle 24hr Mountain
Bike Race Catton Park, 24th-25th August 2005
Pics courtesy of
www.singletrackworld.com and
Joolze Dymond
Sleepless
in the Saddle (SITS) is the UK’s second 24hr race (after the Mountain Mayhem
held in June) and is a bit more laid back, typically a smaller field and not
quite as competitive but still great fun (as much fun as 24hr racing gets
anyway…)
What with it being the end of summer, the night time hours
are much longer, from around 8.30pm until 5.30am, which calls for some serious
lighting power. Unlike SSMM, SITS has a Pairs category which Ross and I had
entered. Cliff Steele was there too; he was racing solo (see his separate write
up). We arrived on Friday afternoon and set up our campsite in a prime spot
right next to the race circuit then headed off to pre-ride the lap. Ross and I
had both raced the EnduroPlus at this venue back in May but the course was
substantially different, longer at 6.7 miles but with a lot of fireroad and
tracks round the edges of fields to allow for overtaking. There were only 2
climbs of note, one off-camber grassy climb out of the arena and then a tight
steep singletrack one towards the end of the lap. There were however numerous
undulations that would tire the legs out over the course of the race and a total
of 600ft of climbing per lap.
Saturday dawned grey and overcast but it was warm and dry
and good conditions for racing. The track was rock hard and also very bumpy, it
was the sort of course that would favour lightweight short travel full
suspension bikes such as my team S-Works Epic.
I had volunteered to do the Le Mans style run at the start
and lined up along with several hundred other riders as the start time of 2pm
approached. Also there (riding in the ‘retro’ De Laune colours) was former
member Pete Brown who now lives in Scotland. He was also racing as a Men’s Pairs
team and would be competing directly with Ross and me. The horn sounded and the
race was on, an 800m run to the bikes up the first hill with riders pushing and
shoving their way through the melee as they ran round following the lead quad
bike. I got a reasonable start in the run and got out onto the course up in the
top 100 or so. It was difficult pacing myself, I’m used to doing these type of
events in a team of 4 which allows decent recovery time as well as the ability
to ride harder each lap but with it just being the 2 of us, I knew I couldn’t go
charging off. I started by doing a double lap then Ross went out for a double.
After that, we swapped to doing triple laps, which took just under 2 hours; this
was to allow the non-riding team member time to recover. We kept this format
right through the night as it allowed time for the lights to be recharged. Our
consistency paid off…we had started the nighttime stint in about 8th place in
the Men’s Pairs but by dawn we were up into 4th. The course, although not
particularly technical, was making for some great racing with beautiful flowing
singletrack sections combined with some fireroad and grassy climbing and always
with someone in sight to race against. The night dew made things a bit more
interesting with some of the grassy corners becoming treacherously slippy and
causing the tires to spin as they scrabbled for grip on the off camber climb out
of the arena.
Sunday
dawned with a spectacular sunrise although I had little time to appreciate the
scenery as I began pushing harder now that the psychological barrier of
nighttime was over and the dew had dried off the course, making times quicker
again. Both Ross and I had put in some good laps and once we realised how close
to podium we were, we swapped back to doing single laps, as this was
significantly quicker than pacing oneself over 3 laps. Sunday was a glorious
day, it quickly became hot and the course was by now rock solid and quite dusty
in places. The bikes were taking a real pounding; the bottom bracket on mine had
worked slightly loose and was creaking viciously while Ross was suffering with a
sore back as a result of riding a hardtail and not having the luxury of rear
suspension to iron out the constant grassy bumps. We’d each done 2 single laps
when Ross arrived back in the arena for handover with just enough time for me to
go out again. I’d somehow managed to save enough energy to pull out a sub 35
minute lap which combined with Ross’s excellent last lap performance had
elevated us from 4th place at dawn to 2nd place by the finish at 2pm! That last
lap of mine was actually the fastest that either of us managed on Sunday, it’s
always a huge boost to tired legs knowing that it’s that last lap you have to
do!
We’d ridden a total of 39 laps (261.3miles), which
included 23400ft of climbing in an overall time of 24.11.18 putting us 6 minutes
clear of 3rd place and 12 minutes clear of 4th place. The winners had managed an
amazing 41 laps and had been way out in front from the start.
By 3.30pm we were stood on the podium and received not
only our prizes but also a word of congratulation from Carole, Specialized UK’s
Marketing Manager who was delighted by such a strong De Laune team performance.
The effort had taken its toll on us both though; for 2
days afterwards neither of us could actually ride our bikes! However, there’s
now a month of recovery time before Ross and I face our next challenge, the Dusk
til Dawn nighttime mountain bike race held at Thetford Forest. We managed 4th
here 2 years ago, let’s hope for podium this time round.
Huge thanks go out to De Laune CC for paying our team
entry fee, Carol Steele who not only supported Cliff in his solo racing but also
found time to cook fresh pasta for us at all hours of the day and night and
provide us with moral support…Carol, we couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks also to Evans and Specialized for the sponsorship and providing us with
the team bikes and to Patrick Adams, the organiser of not only SITS but also
most of the other enduro mountain bike races on the UK calendar.
James Lyon
|
|
Number |
Rider |
Time |
Speed |
|
1 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:36:13 |
11.10 mph / 17.86
km/h |
|
2 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:32:54 |
12.22 mph / 19.66
km/h |
|
3 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:31:52 |
12.62 mph / 20.30
km/h |
|
4 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:33:18 |
12.07 mph / 19.43
km/h |
|
5 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:42:23 |
9.48 mph / 15.26 km/h |
|
6 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:34:51 |
11.54 mph / 18.56
km/h |
|
7 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:33:09 |
12.13 mph / 19.52
km/h |
|
8 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:35:31 |
11.32 mph / 18.22
km/h |
|
9 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:33:07 |
12.14 mph / 19.54
km/h |
|
10 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:33:56 |
11.85 mph / 19.07
km/h |
|
11 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:36:00 |
11.17 mph / 17.97
km/h |
|
12 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:38:13 |
10.52 mph / 16.93
km/h |
|
13 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:35:53 |
11.20 mph / 18.03
km/h |
|
14 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:37:12 |
10.81 mph / 17.39
km/h |
|
15 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:37:46 |
10.64 mph / 17.13
km/h |
|
16 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:39:02 |
10.30 mph / 16.57
km/h |
|
17 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:40:18 |
9.98 mph / 16.05 km/h |
|
18 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:39:24 |
10.20 mph / 16.42
km/h |
|
19 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:37:58 |
10.59 mph / 17.04
km/h |
|
20 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:39:47 |
10.10 mph / 16.26
km/h |
|
21 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:40:05 |
10.03 mph / 16.14
km/h |
|
22 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:39:57 |
10.06 mph / 16.19
km/h |
|
23 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:40:44 |
9.87 mph / 15.88 km/h |
|
24 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:41:24 |
9.71 mph / 15.63 km/h |
|
25 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:39:35 |
10.16 mph / 16.34
km/h |
|
26 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:39:15 |
10.24 mph / 16.48
km/h |
|
27 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:41:10 |
9.77 mph / 15.72 km/h |
|
28 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:37:45 |
10.65 mph / 17.14
km/h |
|
29 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:38:32 |
10.43 mph / 16.79
km/h |
|
30 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:37:28 |
10.73 mph / 17.27
km/h |
|
31 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:37:12 |
10.81 mph / 17.39
km/h |
|
32 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:39:37 |
10.15 mph / 16.33
km/h |
|
33 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:36:43 |
10.95 mph / 17.62
km/h |
|
34 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:35:52 |
11.21 mph / 18.04
km/h |
|
35 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:34:38 |
11.61 mph / 18.68
km/h |
|
36 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:35:22 |
11.37 mph / 18.29
km/h |
|
37 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:36:24 |
11.04 mph / 17.77
km/h |
|
38 |
1184 |
Ross Fryer |
00:36:28 |
11.02 mph / 17.74
km/h |
|
39 |
1183 |
James Lyon |
00:34:20 |
11.71 mph / 18.84
km/h |
|
Rider |
Laps |
Best |
Average |
Worst |
|
James Lyon |
20 |
00:32:54
(12.22 mph / 19.66 km/h) |
00:37:07
10.83 mph / 17.42 km/h) |
00:41:24
(9.71 mph / 15.63 km/h) |
|
Ross Fryer |
19 |
00:31:52
(12.62 mph / 20.30 km/h) |
00:37:17
(10.78 mph / 17.35 km/h) |
00:42:23
(9.48 mph / 15.26 km/h) |
Event Results by
Singletrack Magazine
