To quote their email:

This weekend’s event will be our last. We haven’t survived the
recession. So if you were ever thinking of riding again but not this
year, well this year is all there is!

Entries will be taken on Saturday afternoon and Sunday from 8am.

Start on the moor above town at 10am sharp.

That’s a shame. For those that haven’t ever done it, enter now.

I did it for three years but we’ve moved up to Scotland now so too far now for me, but its a good route/ride offroad for the majority.

Having taken part in every event over the last 10 years, that is very sad news. 😥

I suspect the terrain, remote riding and overall toughness of the routes over the years became a bit too much for hardened mountain bikers who prefer riding around country parks lap after lap…

It is an event I will truly miss 🙁

Really sad news as this is a great event – well organised, great route and, compared to many events on the MTB calendar, good value in terms of you get loads for a fairly cheap entry.

I’m doing it for the first time this year. Should have been there last year but broke my arm a few weeks before. 😐

EDIT: Quick question, to those who have done it before. Do they have places to buy dinner on site, for the Saturday night? Or is it cook your own/local pub?

Composite,

Most people either walk into town, there a are loads of pubs/cafés serving really good food there is also a chippy and a Indian? at the far end of town, else it’s a cook you own.

I can recommend either the White Lion Royal Oak or the Swan the first two pubs you come to on the way into town, great beer and food. A bit further towards town there is a decent Spar shop that’s open late-ish which I have used for the last few years, milk breakfast supplies, etc

Also the caterers usually provide bacon baps, coffee type breakfast for a few £££’s

Hope this helps

There was always something a bit lacking with it imo,really enjoyed the first time I rode it,but then the next few times found it all a bit dull.It certainly didn’t have the fun factor of the Dyfi for me….
Noticed last year that a lot less had entered,guessing this year there’s probably been even less…Still a shame though…

A very well organised event run by a group of fantastic people.

The most mind numbingly boring MTB route I gave ever ridden.

A shame it’s going for those who like it, but not surprised.

Not to be rude, but I’d never heard of it til now, and it’s not like I don’t pay attention to this sort of thing.

The most mind numbingly boring MTB route I gave ever ridden.

Yep, the prime reason I’ve decided not to do it again.

I took part in the first one. I also rode a Polaris that started at the same place in Kington and I assume had the same organisers and route planners. I can’t remember the year. Was it Spring ’99? I do remember quite vividly that my brother forgot to pack the tent so we bought one at the last minute from a marshal at the start, at a price we would never usually have paid for a used Milletts special.

Sorry, off on a nostalgia trip there. It is a shame to see the Rough Ride go.

I’d never heard of it til now, and it’s not like I don’t pay attention to this sort of thing.

+1, shame as it looks good

Noticed last year that a lot less had entered

That’d be due to the appalling weather the previous year.

The most mind numbingly boring MTB route I gave ever ridden.

Eh? Well its not a trail centre if that’s what you mean, but a big loop of natural riding across quite a remote area.

I’m worried. My local mountain bike club is disintegrating into a mess of bickering and bitching and dying membership. Classic races are disappearing. I think the weather is killing mountain biking, which started 30 years ago as a crazy, free-for-all informal minority sport practiced by nutters in remote countryside and has degenerated into a packaged hobby over-exploited by commerce and controlled by vested interests. But mostly the weather has done it; which explains the increasing numbers of road-riding posts on here.

A very well organised event run by a group of fantastic people.

The most mind numbingly boring MTB route I gave ever ridden

+1

Surely if inappropriate weather was responsible for killing off sports events cricket in this country would never have got beyond the eighteenth century. 🙂 I think the weather is the least relevant of your points there.

That’s a shame, always been one of my favourite rides.

A lot of the route was with landowners permission, so it not as if you can just turn up and ride it anytime you want.

Eh? Well its not a trail centre if that’s what you mean, but a big loop of natural riding across quite a remote area.

That doesn’t make it good.

The HONC doesn’t have any trouble selling out (and that’s even less of an “MTB route”)

I wonder if its just because Kington is a bit off the beaten track.

That’d be due to the appalling weather the previous year.

I know,I was there ! But last year had great weather..
As others have said the course just isn’t that good…Too hard for some & too dull for the more “seasoned” MTBers….

emac65 – Member

As others have said the course just isn’t that good…Too hard for some & too dull for the more “seasoned” MTBers….

I have only done it the once .. it destroyed me. The toughest event I had ever done up to then.
The toughness of the ride would be the biggest reason why alot of people avoided it imo.
As for it being a boring route – certainly wasnt the year I did it.
One or two technical little descent. And a couple superb long grassy fast descents .. but alot of grassy climbs to smash the legs.

Real shame it has gone. Both my mtbs were stolen recently, so only down to road bikes, the cx and a too heavy FS .. or I would have entered this year.

Eh? Well its not a trail centre if that’s what you mean, but a big loop of natural riding across quite a remote area.

Not what I mean at all. Done plenty of riding in Wales away from the trail centres on much better routes than the Rough Ride.

The riding around there is of the wide open epic variety as opposed to tight techy, but it doesn’t make use of the best trails in the area IMO. I don’t think Kington is the best base in the area and it limits the access to the good riding, but its where Jeremy lives and that’s his call.

Maybe this is just a sign of things to come (or go in this case)?

Kielder100 is gone. OMM Bike (Polaris) was Cancelled at last minute for different reasons,but entries were low. Planet X came up with the Lakes Epic a couple of years ago but was never repeated. Back in Black is off the calendar this year. The list goes on.

Are there just too many events? Difficult for organisers to make any profit?

Quite sad about it really.

That’s a shame but it doesn’t really surprise me. The Rough Ride is always held one week before Mountain Mayhem which suggests ruling out lots of riders because who want’s to do two very tough rides in 8 days. If I ride Mountain Mayhem then I don’t enter the Rough Ride because there is little time for recovery between the two events. Maybe, moving the Rough Ride either two weeks before or after Mountain Mayhem would increase entries.

I think a lack of publicity doesn’t help. I didn’t even realise the Polaris had been cancelled. I did it last year and wanted to do it this year but it took a while to find the dates and by then SWMBO had made other arrangements. I understand there is somekind of central website with details of all road sportives, perhaps something similar for MTBs is necessary, not for out and out races which have there own series websites but for more general events

theonlywayisup – Member

Are there just too many events? Difficult for organisers to make any profit?

I have no real evidence, but… I think it’s just a result of newer (better?) events coming along. My first race was 10 Under The Ben, at the time that was just the sort of thing you did as a first race. I didn’t like it much, mostly because of the volume of traffic.

My second race was the first of the innerleithen enduros. Which, IMO, was the pointy end of the stick that’s been poking endurance events in the eye ever since. More fun, more sociable, higher quality riding, not totally fitness-oriented, and by and large more like the riding more people want to do. A happy medium between the mad downhiller and the roadie-with-knobblies 😉

Anyone who was up at kinlochleven last november in the snow, for what was No Fuss’s first ever enduro and one of their very few 2012 sell-out events, will probably agree the weather isn’t putting people off… It’s just that some events are appealing enough to most riders that they’re still worth doing if the weather doens’t play ball, and some aren’t.

If weather was a factor there would be no need to have a finger hovering over the Enter key when Strathpuffer entries open. 🙂

Thanks for the info Kona TC. 🙂

It was not an easy route the year we did it. Lots of open grassy trails which sap the legs, despite it being bone dry. Fun in places, a slog in others.

Plus, I only had a granny ring and outer ring, as pedalling off at the start of the ride, I realized I’d ground my middle ring to a near disc at a super wet Merida marathon in South Wales a few weeks before.

Would be a shame if this is the last.

Times change I guess, at a time when the Rough Ride was oversubscribed you could enter the HONC on the day; now if you don’t enter the HONC within 30 minutes of it going live you don’t get in while entry to the Rough Ride is falling. It’s a week befor MM, clashes with Bristol Bike Fest and doesn’t have the marketing of a Wiggle/Merida/Whatever.

It is a big ride, too big for a lot and nowhere near technical enough for many but that’s why I like it! Plus, the tee shirts are great (except maybe a couple of years although last years was better quality again) 8)

I think fuel prices are more to blame than the weather for the lack of take-up with events to be honest. It cost me an arm & a leg to get to Kielder and back from the south west in 2011. I’ve been entering ‘local’ (within a 40 mile radius) events recently, but have to think about anything further afield. Any spare cash will be blown on the bi-annual vacation.

The cost of accommodation and getting to events must play a part.

I think people sometimes want different things from an event,and some might only want to do it once anyway.
Some are after a challenge ,some want to race other people at the same level/age,some just want a weekend away with mates having a laugh,while still having to make an effort.
Having just done two excellent Tweedlove events ,I can see what would attract people of all types back for some more next year.

There is also the work and worry of setting up an event.
Having organized and helped at a few,the only time you enjoy it is when you are going round taking the signs down and think “that went well,nice one” .

gutted, done it a few times with a group of mates, not technical riding but the distance makes it tough for me, the scenery up there is pretty epic but its exposed and ive done it in baking sun and grim driving rain

always had loads of fun camping over and a boozey bbq the night b4

my mates all pulled out this year but im taking my wife and teh kids on their first camping trip its gonna be ace

this year im using it as training to help with the UKGE series and im hoping my legs will be ok for the enduro1 the next weekend at FOD

heres some pics from 2008

I did the 2011 Rough Ride – the year it pissed with rain the whole time. Absolute epic ride. Really enjoyed it. Pity it’s stopping. I’m off to Mountain Mayhem for the first time this weekend. I’ll let you know if it’s too commercial.

If you want long then there’s the Red Kite Elan Valley challenge next weekend…130km option as the longest route.
http://redkite-events.co.uk/elanvalleymtb.html

….or maybe not. Based on the email from last night it looks like they are trying to rerun next year based on the new route. I really enjoyed it this year, nice weather helped and the route change puts it into the tough but reasonably doable category.

Fifth year I’ve ridden it and really enjoyed every one. A real nice weekend away in a beautiful part of the world.

I understand they had about 300 pre-entries, and looking at the rider list abut 100 others turned up on the day.

I don’t know how many riders are needed to make it worth while, but it must take a hell of a lot of organising.

Somewhatslightlydazed, to put into perspective, my running club holds a 10k run which for the first time we got fully sponsored, costs us £2800 to stage and 242 runners is our break even point, I’d imagine that while the numbers are bigger, the break even is probably about the same.

If the people don’t come…

I rode the Rough Ride in 2007 in ideal (not wet, not too hot) conditions. I really enjoyed it, but it is a bit of a killer. Way tougher than the Dyfi Enduro which I’d ridden the month before.
I liked the terrain – it was different to much of the riding I’d done previously, but I can understand a lot of folk – the type who’d miss out the fireroad climb on the Beast at CYB 🙄 wouldn’t like it.
It’s not technically challenging, but it’s a challenge all the same. I expect those riders who have at some stage been tempted by the darkside (as I used to be)enjoy it most.

Some pics from my 2007 ride:
[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7978895069_6f1846bb60.jpg[/img]