Anyone else going this weekend? It will be my first ever event, doing the six stage. Who's battling it out for last place with me? Weather looking ok 🤞
I'm doing it, my first event too. Entered the full enduro which I'm now feeling rather daunted by!
Glad to hear the weather's looking ok, after a summer of dry riding, my tuesday night ride reminded me how much more difficult mountain biking is with no grip! Fingers crossed...
yep im in! not done this one before - missed the original sale but got lucky on the waiting list- been doing ard rock most years so keen to compare how it stacks up against this event.
More moors, less rock?
Not too worried about fitness, more concerned about staying upright. Back tyre was looking low on tread so I've stuck a fresh one on which should be good unless it's properly muddy.
been doing ard rock most years so keen to compare how it stacks up against this event.
I've done a couple of ArdRocks, but never a Moors - I'd be interested to hear your comparison!
How much food/water is anyone planning on carrying?
2l in the bumbag and probably a bottle with carb/electrolyte drink. Lots of gels and cereal bars, and probably a 🍌.
They usually have a feed station half way round so worth checking. Could be done on a bottle tbh
More tech than ard rock. A better variety and quality of trails too.
Theres a feed station at 16km according to info - in the past its been at Chop Gate.
With the rain we've had its going to be interesting 🙂
Now I'm worried. Has it been very wet up there?
First time for me too, doing the 'sprint' (😅) event on my hardtail.
Praying for dryish conditions
Holy s*** yes. Well Im 30miles north of Ard moors give or take and its been proper biblical here. Nearly two days of some of the heaviest rain storms I've seen.
Yep 2 days of heavy rain...
Its now not raining (Friday afternoon ) but its not that warm. Hopefully the wind will help dry it out a bit.
But the ground was quite dry so it could have mostly run off.. After the saturday practice the tracks will be completly different anyway
its a great event absolutely love it, i prefer the riding to ardrock.
I've done the last 3, cant make it this weekend ;0(
if its wet it'll be slippy, stage 1 and 6 are the toughest with 250m elevation drops, with steep gripless chutes..
the transition 1 to 2 has nice moorland singletrack.
water stop between 3 and 4,
stage 3 is lumpy, care for your tyres
the transition upto 4 is horrendous hike a bike 150-200m up a stone staircase.
if you have an ebike, cheat and go back to lordstones and take the track back upto top of 6 and then over the moor to s4 (route as per practise day)
the transition at the end of stage 6 back to base is horrible, especially if wet..
strava 36km 1369m, 3hr49 moving time.
Thanks for the info sucka! Sounds challenging 😬
enjoy, i'm supporting the missus at great north run , otherwise i'd be chomping at the bit.
rode last year after a full week in granada mountains/spain, we were absolutely knackered.
some heavy rain in west yorkshire, but my local woods have dried off a few times this week
cant imagine it'll be like the mudbath that 2017 was,
😆 hopefully won't be that bad!
What's the camping like - can you stay in a van?
the camp area is like a windbowl, plenty of vans and tents,
i stopped in osmotherley yha last year and got a good nights sleep,
previous years 2-3 hours max. howling gail, tent felt like it was going to rip to shreds
Luckily there is very little wind, but its very greasy! We're just in a wet cloud constantly. Let's see how it is tomorrow!
Well, surprisingly things were brighter and a bit firmer on race day. How did people get on?
I had a terminal mechanical* just after stage six, so had to retire before 1 and 2. Still, had a cracking weekend. Sunday felt much less sketchy and a lot faster. Not as many hardtails as I had hoped! I only spotted one other (hi nice Pipedream guy) but I never once felt the need to go full sus, it was an absolute blast. Also the hardtail was nice when it came to hike-a-bike transition after stage 6.
* brake hose yanked out at the lever. My fault for not replacing them after moving them onto a new, longer bike.
Yeah much better on the Sunday. Stage 1 on Saturday afternoon was ridiculous! Well I completed all stages, not without drama. Dropped a chain on stage 1, crashed on stage 3 and got held up by another crash on stage 5. Finished about 2/3 of the way down in the end but happy to just get through it tbh! Met some nice folk. Lots of fast riders out there!
Other than a longish wait for stage 1 and the crash on stage 5 I had a pretty clear run of things. Would definitely do it again.
Shame about being held up on stage 5, that's a cracking short and flowy run. I'm definitely up for another - hopefully in the dry this time!
DNF for me 🙁 ended up with cramp in both legs so I retired before stage 5. Not sure why, I must have drank 4 litres of water and had plenty of food. It came on bad after the hike a bike before stage 4. I rode 5 and half of 6 on Saturday, but they were obviously awful.
Disappointing not to finish but I came away more pleased about the stuff I'd got down. I bottled a few of the steepest features. Stage 3 was the only easy one I was totally comfortable with. Dropping into 1 after the massive wait was genuinely scary.
It wasn't hugely beyond my skill level but I certainly felt out of my depth. And I don't have the racing mentality. I was good at letting people past me.
Glad I gave it a go but enduro racing is definitely not for me!
Well done Davros. I passed a guy on the hike-a-bike transition who was rolling in the ferns with cramp pains, so it wasn't just you!
I was racing the Sprint category. First time doing an 'Ard' race and thought the tracks were great. Stage 1 on practice had me wishing it got pulled for race day. Give me that stage on a weekend ride and I'm loving it, at 'race' before dropping in and my head goes! But the change in weather on the day was a little more confidence inspiring. Unfortunately the wife slid out quite spectacular on stage 6 and had to be walked off the mountain, so that was race over for us. She's fine now, albeit gutted as she was having a storming few stages until then.
How was stage 1 on the Sunday in the end?
Stage 1 was surprisingly much better on Sunday. I did a late practice on Saturday and it was like trying to ride a kids slide coated in vaseline but on Sunday there was actually some grip and you could push on a little. The bottom half would have been great had I not dropped my chain - decided to push on despite my feet being in an awkward position which was probably quicker than stopping but not as enjoyable!
Yeah I was gutted to get stopped on 5, it was just as I was approaching the drop line and I had decided to take it on only to get stopped and redirected.
I'd say 2,4 and 6 were the ones I enjoyed the most, probably down to them being my cleanest runs.
I was genuinely surprised how much better everything ran on Sunday considering how sketchy practice was.
Conditions on Saturday:
and Sunday:
Ah 2017. What memories 😂.
Fwiw, I loved it and was in the top 10 in my cat.
There was a lot of pushing up, but if you want steep downs, you gotta deal with steep ups.
The ebikes were especially struggling on the hike a bike sections - ebike specific transitions but be a suggestion for future events.
I did Ard Moors last year. I quite like going up hill and don't mind a bit of hike-a -bike but the transitions really put me off entering again. Felt sorry for a fella behind me on the really steep transition carrying a Spesh Kenevo🥵
All enduro races should have a downhill finish not a push up some steps and then a 1in3 road climb!
What a hoot - even in the wet practice was mental, glad the sun came out on race day and dried things up a bit. Really enjoyed stages 1,2 5 and 6, rock garden off stage 4 nearly sent me flying! Stage 3 was pointless.
Not a fan of any of the transitions - way too much hike a bike and the climb up from stage 3 to 4 - that should have been reversed into a downhill stage on its own!
Overall was a good fun weekedn but the transitions killed it for me, if i can be arsed to enter again i might do the sprint instead next year. Oh and i was massively over biked - did not need a 170mm enduro rig - a 130mm xc full sus or hardtail would be the ideal.
