Amateurs aplenty there Matt. That I know of there’s only one full time sponsored racer in the pack. There’s a few returning fast amateurs and a lot of first timers plus large field of younger women riders, all are probably having as much an adventure as a race in the way any 1st time HT550 racer will. Loads of stories of adventure for anyone listening, I’m sure.
About it all becoming about lack of sleep and speed… Always has been in distance racing, nothing new there. But not being into the way the riders who can handle little sleep do well is like saying you don’t like mountain stages of the grand tours because the small skinny guy always wins?
If you’ve ever been deep into sleep deprivation in a race you’ll know how it’s only part of the skillset, it’s self-generated fog that affects all your other abilities and no-one goes fast or makes good decisions when very tired. Balancing speed, sleep, fuelling, reacting to weather, managing your bike mechanicals, keeping your ego in check, etc – to say it’s just about sleep dep is not understanding the reality of it.
