Raasay Rumble
A Wild Ride on Raasay
Neil Atkinson (Team Boys in the Buff) / 20.09.2007
After a long drive up on Friday afternoon and night, which must be one of the best drives ever, we ended up at Sconser on Skye waiting for the morning ferry. We pitched our tents on the campsite and stood back and looked in amazement at the stars! What a stunning night!
The morning arrived too soon, so we packed up and left to find the field where we could leave our car – “Donnie’s Field�. I have not a clue who Donnie is or what his connection was but he was letting us park in his field. Thanks!
We assembled at the ferry port with other racers and waited. Finally it came, lowered its loading doors and we rolled on. A packed ferry soon reached Raasay and we unloaded and expensive cargo of bikes at an idyllic setting.
We (Bryan and I) volunteered Pete to be our team captain, so we pushed him off to the team leaders meeting whilst we pitched our tents again. After realising I had forgotten my pegs the previous night and knowing it was going to get a bit breezy I borrowed 6 more.
Not much time to spare as the race was about to start with the prologue, although the original loop was now cancelled after heavy rain had made some slabby section dangerous. With a big count down and a load cheer the race was on!
This is when I realised that this was not a normal crowd of racers, everyone had made a effort to get here and were not going to let anything get them down, it was like a party atmosphere! The rain had started and the wind had started to blow, we did not really know what was in store for us!
SleepMonsters
