I can assure you I’m not getting days mixed up as I didn’t ride stage 5 in practice It’s not impossible that I’m getting years mixed up though Stage 5 last year was pretty much identical to stage 4 from the 2013 event.
Stage 4 in 2013 was windy as Bernard mannings under crackers, but dry.
I think you have got your days mixed up as I was at marshal at the bottom of stage 5 and was blazing sunshine all day right up to when I closed the section when told last man had been through
The contrast between 4 and 5 was nuts. The marshall on s4 was freezing his ass off, s5 was beautiful when we got down there.
What sort of level are the descents on the sport course – anything testing to get down? I have an entry for the mountain challenge and was planning to do it on the anthem – I’m a bit rubbish with it down steep stuff, though. So I could bring the big bike and bimble around in comfort.
9:45 here, also an early start. They ignored the team name for our group of 3 so pukeko has been given an “early” start time of 11:45! Fortunately I’m going to at least get to ride with with my missus!
9.10 for me and two mates. First time for all of us at the ard Rock, so looking forward to it.
As long as I keep my distance from the beer tent, 9.10 is a good start time for us!
Bloody Nora that means an early set off for us marshals
Not half, I see Tally is out at 7.55!
10.55 for me, as long as it’s not wet, that suits me fine.
Edit – Bloody hell, just noticed that the 2 practice stages are 1 and 4, they were mileeesss away from each other 2 years ago, hopefully they’ve changed the numbers!
It’s only a 20km practice loop. To cut off the distance after stage one you won’t climb back up The Edge, you’ll take a new path along the stream to the end of stage 2. Then you’ll completely miss the stage 3 up and down and head to stage 4. After 4 is over you’ll take a new path back down into Langthwaite and come out by the Red Lion pub, then from there it’s about 5/6km back down the road to the campsite.
Last year I ran snakeskin (not super gravity) HD’s front and rear on tubes and didn’t have any problems. I did it on a hardtail though so was picky about my lines. There was only a few sections that I needed that tread on really (muddy downwards sections) the rest would of been fine with a semi slick.
There are two stages (as far as I can recall) which are very rocky and suit a more downhill tyre with thicker sidewalls but nothing more than you would find in the dales or lake district.
Really looking forward to this! What’s the tyre of choice if it rains? I’m a soft southerner, we have clay and mud not rocks here. I usually run Hans Dampfs.
Doesn’t look like there’s going to be much rain. Met and AccuWeather forecasts seem a little more optimistic. I’ll be running a High Roller 2 front and Hans Dampf rear, because that’s all I have!
