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I’ve never been one for organised events, but this one has an appeal. It’s in my favourite Dale and the riding around there is great.
But the comments on the other thread about queues, delays, shut stages etc just put me off.
one year maybe…
I’ve never been one for organised events, but this one has an appeal. It’s in my favourite Dale and the riding around there is great.
But the comments on the other thread about queues, delays, shut stages etc just put me off.
one year maybe…
Real life feedback vs the mountain bike media... 🤔
There are 2 good practise/demo stages open to anyone. I went on Friday, £12 to park, did those stages twice each, Expo is free to look around, wandered up to watch some racers on the two close stages etc. Try that next year then decide if you want to actually race the year after.
Ard Rock is almost entirely to blame for me starting riding bikes.
I spent a few years doing the MR control for the event. At first I looked at it and thought it was crackers. Then I started to get curious, last year I did the Intro on a hardtail and had a lot of fun.
I didn't enter this year and really regret it, I went up anyway since my partner was helping out and rode the demo tracks. My daughter got a last minute call up to help with registration when they realised they needed more help.
I ride in Swaledale most weeks but the Ard Rock stages are different to almost all of the normal riding there (for a start, there are corners), cheeky or otherwise.
I've done it twice and think its great.
In part that is because we always get a group together for the camping/riding so its a great social weekend. Quite often we're doing stuff like marathon/XC/CX/gravel so Ardrock is a nice change as it's less serious and you can have a few beers the night before without thinking about how it will affect your fitness. Pretty relaxed about the racing, I just go for a blast and enjoy trails I can't ride at other times and enjoy the entertainment. If you wanted to turn up and just race it probably isn't the best event.
We did the Sunday. Set off at 10:30 and were pleasantly surprised by the lack of queuing this year. Seems a lot of people signed up to the Saturday?
There's always going to be a mix of abilities. One lady in our group won her sport category. The rest of us were split from 22 to 26min for the sections. I caught a couple of people and lost a few seconds. But I was mid table so not massively bothered.
I've spoken to a few people now who are doing the Friday to get visibility of the stages for saturday or sunday. If you want to pay, you can practice.
The difficulty is about right I think. It's not super hard to ride but it is hard to ride fast. But I suppose that depends on bike and experience. My enduro bike feels like cheating compared to an XC bike and I ride places like Golfie, Thrunton, Hamsterley, Penmanshiels etc.
I'll be going back next year. Also going to do Boltby Bash which is like a more low key option. Missed that for the last few years as I've been torturing myself at the Gralloch (gravel race) which is always the same weekend.
I don't race very often, usually when the trails/stages are race only/private land. Done Ardrock once and had no interest in doing it again personally, its not the hardest enduro in the UK despite all the vids on YouTube and Instagram saying it is. Ardrock is a big day out but the Naughty Northumbrian is definitely the hardest enduro race I've done
