Erik, Wolfgang, Andi and I took part in this 9 hour nightrace to prepare for the 24 hour World Championships in Eschlikon next weekend. This event (Sleepless in the Saddle) took place right after the European and German Championships for singlespeeders and that always spells anarchy, beer and fun. Although there were official SRAM and Magura Factory teams, we actually had no competition at all except ourselves, but that is enough for a good racer. The racecourse was wet from recent heavy rainfall but there were hardly any technical sections and only an overall climb of 150m per round so the whole thing promised to be quite easy. Any racecourse will be tough, however, if you ride it fast enough. We started by changing riders every lap but when heavy rain began to fall we switched to two rounds per rider. In the end, the mud was so deep that riding became a balancing act but none of us had any accidents. My legs  and my pulse felt good and I even managed to “sweat off” a light cold. I’m ready for the 24hrs of Eschlikon. :-)

The best of these  pictures taken by Christian Rokosch::

We were told to cover up our lights so that they could read our numbers - I always tried hard

Erik, Wolfgang, Andi & I with our “great” prices.

Spontaneous reaction to Chris asking me to pour a whole bucket of water over my beloved bike after the race. Nightracing will do this to you.