Couldn't face a full loop in this weather and switched to Intro, if it had been our only race of the weekend probably would have stuck with Sport.
Turns out 4,5,6 are not weather proof and even though they were slimy and had a headwind on 5,6 they were a hoot. 7 was as I thought - mudaggedon - and even though I was prepared for the off camber came in too hot did a 180 and flipped myself into the wall. No harm done or so I thought until I saw my daughters times, she had been flying and aced the stage obliterated my time. She said it was down to her cyclocross skills (not the waste I said they were obviously) not only winning her category but fastest women overall. I still sent it on the final drop and she didn't so I still count that win. I need something.
It did mean hanging around in the cold and wet for podiums but they rattled through them quickly. The site was pretty messed up by this point and tractors were pulling vehicles out. There were a lot of happy muddy faces at the end, maybe the joy of surviving the experience but I suspect like us they'll look back and think yeah I had a pretty good time.
Top race, great course. Headwinds and and mud meant that pedalling power was probably more important than descending prowess to get a good time today. Which was good for me!
Ok.
I stuck the muddy clothes in the washing machine.
I rinsed them.
I washed them.
They were still muddy.
Now on their second wash.
Did the Sport on Sunday
I've never felt that cold in July! Had stop a few times to dig mud out of my eyes, was still finding it this morning! Stages were amazing fun as always though.
Only fall of the day for me was when I lost my footing pushing up from stage 4 and slid about 20 feet down the bank on my face 🙂
Healing vibes to the guy that came a cropper on the Stage 2-3 transition.
First time for me, practice Friday and Race Sunday (Enduro)
Riding was great fun, despite the forecast (and seeing Sunday's conditions) we were very lucky weather wise.
Got a bit frustrated on stages 1+2 as there were lots of riders making no effort to accommodate friendly "rider" calls and the wooded sections at the end were just a convoy.
A lot of people struggling on the link to the pub after two, pretty claggy mind.
After the big transition to three things spaced out a bit and moved more freely.
A long day out (7 hours on course) meant it felt tougher than EWS Tweed last year somehow despite the riding being less technical.
Looks fun
I wonder if me 5:10's will be dry in time for next year? 🤔
Yeah I felt the same @rockthreegozy
I wanted to race. Chose the Saturday enduro for that reason. Stage one I caught 3 people before the woods. Got past another 3 people in the woods! It was the same on stage 2. Things did clear a bit from 3 onwards.
Do they put riders on to the course based on speed? Faster first, slower later? It felt like everyone went out early. Maybe some people didn’t know what the stages would be like and they were way out of their comfort zone.
I overheard a few people talking about the fact they paid their money so should get a ride, the racing isn’t important. I agree everyone should get a day out but why enter the main race if you don’t want to race?!
its generally done fastest first but doesn't work that well due to booking with group names to ride together so some groups have slow and fast in them. previous years i've been fairly early but this year despite putting top 10% down on the entry i was vertually at the back although i went 45 minutes early with a mate.
part of this years problem was somebody hurt themselves on stage 1 fairly early on which caused all the backlog on 1 and 2.
i was lucky going into 1 being behind a group of fast lads but did catch and pass 4 people on 2 again luckily between the tight section with the netting and before it dropped down towards the end so didn't lose to much time. passed a few more on 3 and 4 but werent to bad.
theirs always been loads of people racing that are way out of there depth doing it just because of the kind of event it is, go for the festival side of it and also do the race. they should really be doing the sunday race but probably prefer to race saturday and get pissed saturday night.
i treat it as a race but less serious than other races(not that i treat any races that seriously at my level) and just enjoy the whole weekend with mates, if i lose a bit of time behind someone it doesn't really matter although if i got stuck in a train through hecklers wood or other similar bits it would be annoying.
I wasn’t racing, I was just getting round.
I was honest about that, rode on the Sunday, moved to the side or even stopped if fast folk (that’s 95% of other riders to me) were coming through, and if stopped tried to find a gap to drop back into.
To be fair though, by mid-morning on Sunday (we had an 1100 start time) the trails were actually reasonably quiet.
Two of the three days was super wet. I was taking photos on stage 1 Friday and then stage 4 for the other two days. High winds on Sunday didn't help. Hiding under my umbrella trying to keep the camera gear as dry as possible.
I rode the Epic on Friday, from what I can gather it's the same thing as the main Enduro event. Very lucky with the weather, glad I wasn't riding the Sat/Sun. Great event with some great riding. Managed 23:07 in the end which I was happy with.
I did find the practice riders quite annoying, well those that decided they weren't going to follow the official practice stages at the appropriate time and clogged up some of the early stages.
@unsponsored - you managed to get a few pics of me too 🙂
@unsponsored - I think you were using those special lenses that make the rider’s face look worried and the terrain look like a green route.
Some good photos of my son and me. He’s talking about buying a couple. Thanks.
Anyone here riding Naughty Northumbrian? Seems like you can still enter for next month.
I had a great time riding Boltby and Ard Rock after not doing enduros for years - fancy another one, but it seems a fair step up in difficulty - How does it compare?
I see there's a sportive event where you can get the lie of the land.
Finally got the tent dry and packed away, still not looked at the bike though.
Haven't been since 2017 and was impressed at how much it had grown, the extra stages and how well organised it was. Loads of trade stands and interesting stuff to see, if the weather was better I'd probably have grabbed a couple of bikes to demo on the Sunday but conditions were just too grim.
Managed 11th in the enduro (vets) which was a bonus and thought the tracks all rode well despite the weather. Got out at 8am start which helped with traffic and the weather was better than forecast and looked to improve as the day went on.
Cheers @unsponsored and all the photographers that braved the weather, will get on roots and rain and have a look.
Friday is the new Sunday.
Practice riders have no business being on the Friday race route. Stages scheduled as such.
if the weather was better I’d probably have grabbed a couple of bikes to demo on the Sunday but conditions were just too grim.
got the dirtiest i'd been all weekend demoing an orbea wild on sunday, didn't care about the conditions flying about in turbo with a grin on my face. it could have done with a mudgaurd on it though, even after showering at home later on was still finding bits of mud in my eyes.
now where can i find 9k for a new bike.
Can anyone see the official Ardrock videos from each day on YT? The Sunday one popped into my feed yesterday and I watched it, not now I can't find it or any of the others (if they exist!)
If I go to the Ardrock channel there's nothing there. Just last years.
I'm in Portugal at the moment, would that have anything to do with it!?
got the dirtiest i’d been all weekend demoing an orbea wild on sunday
Which spec level?
I'me eyeing up an M-Team as my next bike
@unsponsored Thanks for braving the conditions on the Sunday! You got me nicely and I bought a pic.
Took a Wild out on Saturday and it was an incredible bike. It descended so well.
Didn't think it would be my cup of tea, but genuinely on the verge of being converted after a couple of P3 laps on the Saturday. A fantastic machine. It was the M-Team spec so Orbea have some in their demo fleet. Give your dealer a shout and I'm sure they will hook you up for a ride. Really, really good bike (although I'm not a regular e-MTBer). But it came down the hill better than the Intense Tracer.
