Photos from Sleepless in the saddle 2012. We entered one team of 4 (Gary Lee, Jerome Crametz, John Speed and Tom Stickland). We came 22nd out of 75 teams in the sport category.
Like all the twenty four hour events of 2012 it rained. Lap times slipped from 50 minutes to one hour and ten. Parts of the route became a slippery mess. I remember a bike that was too clogged to ride and too heavy to carry so pushing was the only option. I slipped back by half a step each time I pushed on the bike. It was very frustrating.
The route was adjusted overnight to cut out some of the really muddy sections and conditions did improve somewhat.
It was a bad year for the big events: Twentyfour12 was a washout (we were there) and Mountain Mayhem was a total mudfest.
SITS results 2012 (zip file).
Photos from 2011.
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Sleepless in the Saddle is another of the big MTB race events. Others include Mountain Mayhem, 2412 and Bristol Bikefest.
MBSwindon had an official team in the twenty four hour team race. There were also several other teams with club members in them.
 
The route was just over 8 miles of mainly singletrack round the Catton Park venue. A similar length to the Bontrager 2412 but less hilly overall.
The event started out bone dry at 2pm on the Saturday. There was heavy rain for about half an hour in the early evening which completely changed the conditions. The trail went from dusty to claggy in a short space of time. It then spent the rest of the event gradually drying out.
 
The team put in a consistent performance and ended up about half way down the field – 54th out of 102 teams. This was an average lap time of 56 minutes. Our fastest rider (there on the day – we have faster in storage) managed just under 50 minutes per lap, the equivalent of around 30th place. To get into the top ten would have required sub 45 minute laps on average.
 
View Sleepless in the Saddle 2011 in a larger map
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Sleepless in the saddle is a 24 hour team relay race held at Catton Park in Staffordshire. MBSwindon will entering teams for this event.
If you would like to take part then email phil at mbswindon dot co dot uk. You can discuss race events in our forum here.
Random Flickr photo set of Sleepless in the Saddle.
Sleepless in the saddle route map from 2009.
all about MTB in and around Swindon and North Wiltshire, including the Croft MTB Trail
