State of UK Enduro Racing: Ard Rock 26

Ard Rock almost feels like the UK’s condensed answer to Sea Otter or at least the north’s answer to the Malverns Classic.

Ard Rock is now comfortably the UK’s largest Enduro Mountain Bike festival, if not the UK’s largest mountain bike festival full stop. The festival side of Ard Rock is massive, with plenty of events, demo loops, coaching sessions and of course huge brand presence. There’s more than enough going on to warrant coming to Ard Rock even if you’re not fussed about racing.

There’s too much to talk about from the festival side of things for this one article, so I will stick to what I know best: the racing.

Ard Rock racing

What a race it is! Ard Rock is an event that I’ve missed out on so far and the FOMO has always been high. A huge loop (40km and 1500m of ascending), a huge field (over 1000 racers in the Saturday Enduro alone) and some iconic stages are things that get the enduro racer in me very excited.

Ard Rock runs a few races over the course of the weekend, including sprint races that are less of a huge mission than the 40km main enduro race. This time out I chose to give E-Enduro another shot. The last and only time I dabbled in motor-assisted enduro – the Llandegla Night Enduro – I didn’t find it as fun as analogue enduro. However, on considering that a night race in rainy November on relatively flat trail centre stages is probably not the fairest test of one of the UK’s most popular race formats, I reckoned it was about time I gave it another chance.

The Stages

As for the racing, the Ard rock stages lived up to the hype. The stages seem to have a unique feel that’s really hard to put your finger on. Every enduro race has a mix of rocks, roots and flow but somehow this event feels different. Perhaps it’s the spectators, perhaps it’s the scenery, perhaps it’s that the average speed never seems to drop, but epic is really the only way to describe these tracks.

Another thing that really added to the racing was three ‘blind’ stages. Riders were allowed to practice the first and last two stages but stages 3-5 were ridden ‘on sight’ which just added to the difficulty and gave the more experienced and talented riders even more of an edge.

Stage 1

The first stage started high up on the moors overlooking the massive event village. The stage began fast, open and very much exposed to the elements. What would have been a fairly simple but fun top section became extremely difficult thanks to the unbelievably strong winds that became a major enemy for the weekend. Once this wind had been endured, racers were rewarded by quite possibly the most entertaining section of any UK enduro race. ‘Hecklers wood’ has become one of the key features of Ard Rock, and for good reason. A maybe 100m stretch of seriously rocky and fairly widely taped track with easy access to the event village meant for some loose riding egged on by a considerable crowd of spectators.

Stage 2

Again stage 2 started exposed to the winds, this time sending riders straight into some alpine style rocky switchbacks. And again after a punishing exposed top section riders then entered the woods into some rewarding fast and rooty descents. These bottom woods would not have been especially difficult on fresh limbs but after a long stage, riders needed to stay strong all the way to the line to keep the speed up over the chunky roots and blown out ruts.

Stage 3

The first of the ‘blind’ stages and one of the highlights of the day. Flat out from top to bottom, starting up high in the quarries, the challenge here was staying committed over blind crests and trying not to get caught out by the wind. Riders then entered an open, natural motorway through the ferns. The speed and commitment that the top riders hit these sections with was seriously impressive.

Stage 4

This started with some fast, rocky yet flowy singletrack, but riders had to be careful not to push too hard. Not only were there some unexpected corners, one of which properly caught me out, but you had to keep a lot in the tank for the near minute and a half sprint that finished the stage.

Stage 5

After getting your breath back from stage 4 stage 5 was a shorter, yet equally physical track, down through yet more high quality rocky singletrack, with some punchy climbs sprinkled in. Based on some slightly ropey intel from the start marshall, I pushed hard at the top of this stage expecting an end sooner than it came. Regardless of my dodgy strategy I finished this one with a proper grin on my face.

Stage 6

An escape from the wind, stage 6 ran down the other side of the valley. Less steep, more flowy and with that pesky wind now on riders backs, stage 6 was one of those stages that you really look forward to. With the stage being so flowy and flat out there wasn’t much to separate riders but a crash here would therefore really hurt your time.

Stage 7

A great finish to a physical day. Starting high up, blasting through the moors and fields, trying to spot the high lines and open up corners was key to riding this top section well. The stage then dropped into the woods for more square edged rocks and in turn more crowds before a final sprint into the finish field.

Main Enduro results

Bex Baraona was the fastest woman of the day but had to battle with Chloe Taylor who took three stage wins throughout the day for a close second place. Becci Skelton fought her way into third, again having to battle Hollie Vayro who sat in 4th at the end of the day just 0.39 seconds behind Skelton.

Man of the hour for British Enduro, Will Brodie, who came back from his world cup season a few weeks ago, took the fastest time of the day by just under 25 seconds. Tom Wilson slotted into 2nd with Callum McBain in 3rd. The MTB celebrities don’t stop there with 2020 UCI World Cup Downhill Overall winner, Matt Walker in 4th with Jono Jones and Adam Brayton also making the Top 10.

Bosch E-MTB Enduro results

Enduro Legend, Tracey Mosley was the fastest woman of the day by a huge 40 seconds ahead of Vice National Downhill Champion Phoebe Gale. Morgane Such came in 3rd, with each of the women winning their respective categories.

Tom Wilson after setting the 2nd fastest time on Saturday, managed to take the win on Sunday on the E-bikes. Though he was helped a little by extra stage knowledge gained from Saturday, he will have been hindered a lot by the fatigue from a full weekend of racing. Lachlan Blair followed closely in second, with Joe Barnes in third. Again, some big names just missing out on the podium, with the likes of Josh Bryceland in 4th, Douglas Goodwill in 5th, James Shirley in 6th and Josh Lewis in 9th.

E-Bike racing reflections

The guys at Bosch and Cube were kind enough to sort me out with a bike for Sunday’s race (the Cube Stereo Hybrid ONE77 above). As my second E-bike race, I am starting to warm to the idea of E bike Enduro Racing. Many of my E-bike racing gripes were at least in part addressed at Ard Rock.

Whilst, obviously the extra weight still doesn’t help, the very low friction of the Bosch CX meant that pedalling past that 25km/h limit sucked a lot less than I remember. With such a long loop battery management was a concern, but with the 800Wh battery I comfortably got round the loop, only using Turbo during stages, with 25% spare at the finish.

The issue of folks de-restricting e-bikes is still definitely something that troubles organisers and threatens the sport as a whole, but especially at an event like this there is a clear culture against those that choose to cheat within the racing community.

All in, not only did I massively enjoy the day of racing onboard the Cube, as I sit here aching on Monday morning, I think it’s also impossible to argue that the e-bike removes the Type 2 fun aspect of enduro racing. As for the actual racing side of things, I was quite pleased to crack into 15th for my category despite a lot of mistakes throughout the day.

Ard Rock Overview

The Ard Rock stages alone are enough to justify this event’s eminence in the British Enduro scene. But these excellent stages mixed with the atmosphere and event that Ard Rock has become means it should be a bucket list stop on any UK enduro rider’s calendar. In amongst the bad news and struggles within UK and Global Enduro, Ard Rock is a clear demonstration that UK Enduro is not only alive and well but that it is as strong as its ever been from both a racer’s and fan’s perspective.

ardrock.co.uk