So what difference does it make how you rate yourself when you buy entry? I would always put “just happy to make it round” but I’ve had two really early starts and 11am this weekend (sport everytime.)

Dunno, I put mid-pack rider down for me and the mates that I entered for the Enduro and we were off at 8am.

Cheers Si! 👍 Likewise, was hoping to bump into you and your ‘crew’ 🙂 Best hit up Cottingley Woods Steep Side a bit in the next 12 months 😆

This was my first year at the Ard Rock, was given a Marathon entry by someone who couldn’t make it so I really have no room to complain.

However, the first thing that annoyed me was that the camping pitches weren’t on a first come first served basis, when I was directed onto the field I was told to go in a line which I wasn’t really happy with, I asked to go on the perimeter but was told I couldn’t even though there was [plenty of room which was filled shortly after I set up my tent. I ended up having to endure two nights next to the noisiest bunch of tw4ts I’ve ever had the displeasure of sharing a campsite with. That said, that could have happened anywhere on the site and the lesson I’ve learned is if you want to camp with your mates, you must arrive together.

Secondly, the distance of the Marathon was much shorter than advertised, this meant me stopping for food at about 28 miles, thinking I had another 10 miles to do when in fact it was only another 3, I reckon I could have knocked 30 minutes off my time had I known how much shorter it was going to be. I did enjoy the course though.

Food and drink wasn’t an issue as I’m a seasoned camper and went fully loaded with my own stuff.

The marshalls did a great job and maybe their payments should increase in line with ticket prices.

A good event which I enjoyed and will be returning to.

Guy walked to front of bar queue when I was there and tried to get served by paying extra, bar staff rightly refused to serve him. His reasoning was he was only getting a pint.

a great event, first time as got injured the day before last year.

a little wipe out on stage 1, let off the concentration after the quarry bit, silly, crashed hard on my hip so had a dead leg for the rest of the day, was hot and busy (sunday)

mate picked a fight with the wrong tree stump stage2 so stopped with him, the marshalls, mountain rescue, medic and doctor all excellent, friendly and just got on with it, they know exactly why we ride..

i then tried to make up time to finish, pedaled upto stage3 and 4, legs cramped upto 5 and then upto 7,

stages 4,5,6 favourite by a country mile.

at the end I disappointed my faster mate and arm bandaged mate at the final jump on s7, i slammed on and rolled it, ‘garbage’ was the comment..

just happy to get around. 59 mins on s2 didnt help the placing ;0) but my mate is ok and damaged ribs, arm ok.

a great atmosphere, 3 beers for under £12 at local pubs, took a few tinnies into arena as wasnt planning to queue..

think everyone had the same idea saturday afternoon, quick pedal on an ebike as a warm up for sunday, non left.

till next year

£60 + £5 a night camping, is a great deal in my eyes, do people complain at the price of glastonbury .. yes

I couldn’t ride this year as bust a couple of ribs a few weeks back.  Took photos on both the Saturday (Stages 1 and 2) and a few on Stage 1 (woods) on Sunday.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/unsponsored-media/

I had the impression that there were way less riders on Saturday.  More space between.  Sunday were setting off 25 every five minutes.

Atmosphere was great.  Little girl loved it. I will be camping next year with some riding and photos mixed in.

First year for me.  I heard from a local it was a *lot* bigger this year and suspect the good weather meant more non-competitors coming along.  Definitely needed a second bar but we still got fed pretty quickly – the food from the Yorkshire food van was great but they were being ignored as they didn’t have a big sign.  People are thick.  DBC always seemed short queues as well and great value.

We walked up to Reeth both days and had some beers at the pubs there – not far away and no queues at all.  Did mean we didn’t spend the evenings on site though.

Camping at £5 a night is cheap but a tap in each field really is a minimum requeirement.  Likewise showers for each field for a mtb event.  We bodged something with a £15 submersible pump and tarps round the van doors but wouldn’t have been any fun if it had been cold.

Can’t see any logic at all in the start times given out. “Fitter than average” got me 11am but “just hoping to get round” people got 8am on Sunday.  We’re they actually trying to give less fit people more time rather than letting faster people off early? (But putting pros/contenders out early on the Saturday race?)

General comment on state of UK mtb today – does no one actually ride their bike uphill any more?  Not bragging but that course was pretty much 100% rideable – except for a few very short super steep pitches (I mean 10 or 20m at most). Yes, a fair few 100m+ sections that were steep but the vast majority of riders on both Saturday and Sunday seemed to walk pretty much everything with any gradient  at all.

“General comment on state of UK mtb today – does no one actually ride their bike uphill any more?”

There are plenty of places where it’s less exerting and not much slower to walk which makes sense for people in survival mode, and of course there were the unrideable (for the vast majority) sections like out of S4, but I was also surprised at the amount of pushing up the tarmac sections like up to S3 and S4 and also many of the harder, smoother, flatter sections of the access tracks.

Hats off to anyone that pedalled all the way up the climb from S1 back up Fremington Edge to S2.

There are plenty of places where it’s less exerting and not much slower to walk which makes sense for people in survival mode, and of course there were the unrideable (for the vast majority) sections like out of S4,

Sure, get that, and would expect people pushing on those sections –  I’m sure that riding everything was why i was quite so broken at the end.   The majority seemed to be pushing from the very start of the S1-S2 climb and were even pushing on the traverse along the ridge between S3 and S4.  Ultimately riding is more efficient than walking so walking all of that is going to result in being more tired (and does my back in).  I had a decent rest before starting the descents (standing around in the queues as much as anything).

Hats off to anyone that pedalled all the way up the climb from S1 back up Fremington Edge to S2.

That was the toughest.  Rode up on our Saturday loop and got within a few metres of the top before spinning out. On the Sunday the guy holding the gate open half way up gave me a cheer and slipped his grip on the gate and took me out….

General comment on state of UK mtb today – does no one actually ride their bike uphill any more?

I think the heat was a factor in it as well. I battled with it

yeah alot of people cant ride up hills, but big suspension bikes dont climb as well as the brands would have us believe. i did it all on 130mm trail bike, it coped surprisingly well.

toilets nearer to the stage and more beer tents, would make it better.

i sometimes wonder if people have watched the youtube clips before entering I saw a few people walk down the majority of stage 2 and the tyres looked inflated :0)

was chatting to a marshall who knew chips/rafferty’s and he was saying they plan to keep boltby bash small scale which is good news, is ard rock getting too big ?

My first year and I absolutely bloody loved it, did practice on Friday and Enduro on Sat.

I wasn’t worried about my fitness, I can bang out the distance and that climbing and more without huge difficulty, but I was worried about the terrain, I have steep and rooty trails by me but nothing with such big rocks as Fremington Edge. However, I loved it and beyond one cock up on a S1 bend in practice I got through everything while having huge doses of fun.

For the most part I rode the climbs, but we I did bail on that rough one between S1-2 on the Sat (got most of the way up in practice) because it felt more efficient. There were a lot of people pushing at all stages though, which is fair enough, I prefer to ride personally. The exception being that pig of a bit after S4, that was definitely just a push up until it opened out and you could get pedalling again.

Got overtaken a bit, but gradually less as the day went on and we seemed to find more people out of their depth on the later stages as the day wore on. With all but one exception overtaking was good, both to pass and to be passed. I did see a chap go the wrong direction on S7 and force another rider up the bank, unfortunately this folded the passing riders mech up into the wheel and it trashed that and the wheel. He rolled down (he was on a black Nukeproof mega) and was buzzing by the end so we had a good laugh considering the drive train was trashed.

Like others said, the start time of 11:30 for my group felt frustrating, but not the end of the world, I’d just rather have set off earlier.

Organisation was good, camping a bit random but we got a decent marshal and he allowed us extra space to allow later arriving cars to slot in. There was a cock up with my timing chip, I was number 1108 and when I went to collect it they had coded that number to another rider. In the end I got a new number (42) and the timings all worked fine and have been credited to the right name so all good.

I don’t drink, so bar queue didn’t really cause me any issue, however it seems mad to have one bar, it meant a lot of time waiting for friends.

Grabbed a lap of the demo loop on the new Kona Process 153 (a 29er though) and that was a nice way to finish off Friday’s practice day.

Never queued for the shower once!

I thought it was an excellent trip/event/experience and will be back to improve my times on the Enduro next year for sure. In the end I was 309th in my age cat (out of 406) and 709th out of 967 overall could be a lot lot worse. I’m curious to do a Welsh Gravity Enduro in September at my local (Eastridge) to see how I get on, so I’ve entered.

Food queues on Friday were ok, Saturday was insane, I was trying to convince friends to go grab a curry in Richmond but a) I guess that defeats the purpose of attending in one way and b) they cited cost which is ironic given how much we spent on food Sat night. Still, we cooked breakfast and probably next year I’d be a bit more organised and take good food supplies and kit, generally we were winging that bit this year as we were too obsessed with getting the bikes and that kit right.

To me it thoroughly deserves its rep, the atmosphere in the arena and more importantly out on the stages was epic, people were (mostly) very friendly waiting and chatting about all sorts and then buzzing on the bottom of stages. I spoke to a few really lovely folks and we kept seeing them all day and it was just the sort of friendly positive vibe you generally get with MTB. (Miserable tossers at Roadie events I’m pointing at you)

Well worth the money, and to be truthful, if it was more I’d probably still pay it, just to go again. Will be back next year (if we get tickets).

Re walking uphills, big tough tacky tyres don’t lend themselves to climbing. Full face lid and pads didn’t help and a heavy backpack with spine protection.

I walked some of the transition up to stage 2 and up to stage 5?

Really wish I hadn’t lost so much fitness this year as I put the winter miles in, that’s injuries I guess.

Did the sport on Sunday,  there was some pushing and some riding! Stayed in reeth with Mrs. Kennerley and the little one so had an extra night last night.  Thought it would be rude not to go for an evening blast up the edge,  actually rode way more of it than the previous day! I’m so jealous of anyone who has local riding like that,  mountain biking to me is always a day out in the car,  nipping out for an evening ride it’s a real treat.

I’ve recently gone from a 28t with 11-46 cassette to 32t oval with11-42 cassette.  I’m finding this set up way better for climbing,  I’m getting up stuff much more efficiently than ever before,  don’t know if it’s purely down to the oval or more to do with keeping up more momentum.

I more or less cleaned garburn pass climb the other week and I’ve never managed that before!!

Anyway,  hope to get in the sport again next year,  Mrs. K really enjoyed the festival atmosphere while I was riding and there was loads of kids and toys knocking about in the big tent for baby k which was cool.

I saw an instagram post from ardrock the other day saying “best behaviour,  channel 4 are here.” anyone know what that’s about!?

Loved the new Ts! glad I could get a slightly different one.

Sport entry for me, got out early, all good – until a rock decided to penetrate my rear brake hose (under frame routing….theres a downside!)

Realised I had brake issues on S3; playing with it all the way up climb to S4 – flipped the bike over to check and voila – dammit…..

my 3rd time; no issues previously, and at least it was the bike and not me that broke!

always next year!

I had a quick ride up Fremington Edge today, (I say ‘ride’ 🤔😉) and was really quite impressed that other than tyre marks there was no sign of Ard Rock. All the litter id seen was gone! Nice!

Im currently as skint as a church mouse and was suprised to see I was the only one in the large queue who tipped the Stans lads for retaping my wheel and tyre fitting. Maybe I just queued up with some tight arses! 😂

To quote my dad who had to pass a lot of riders along the riverside from langthwaite in a land rover “They were all polite but the fat ones looked tired!”

Anyone know who the photographers were on the jump at the on stage 7?

Feel like I absolutely launched it, and I think there were 2 photographers there so would love to see the shot. It’s not on R&R, but there may be a bit of a backlog in uploads so guess I need to be more patient.

They were all polite but the fat ones looked tired!

Not just the fat ones believe me. 🙂

tbh ill be going again regardless of cost, so long as my mates are. Thats the best thing about ard rock is it not so much a race but a race between mates. half of the competitors are like me and have no clue about racing, half make me look fit (which is no easy task) but all of them are great.

apart from the guys that i possibly upsetted by shouting at their mate “hey look at that its like a penis but only smaller” maybe i should save stuff like that for friends…… sorry about that

tbh ill be going again regardless of cost, so long as my mates are. Thats the best thing about ard rock is it not so much a race but a race between mates. half of the competitors are like me and have no clue about racing, half make me look fit (which is no easy task) but all of them are great.

This. Had great fun racing against and with my mates, we’re not going to be troubling the podiums so it’s a race within a race. Also great chatting to other riders out on course or around the site, a very chilled vibe with everyone having a good time. This photo sums up my racing…..

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/3159684

Get off the brakes Mark90, that was flat out (may have been braking too).

I’m the one in blue, between a couple of my mates, pretty much as it was most of the day.

Not saying I’m not a brake dragging mincer though 🙂

Does anyone know where i can find the photos for the marathon? I only ask as they aren’t on roots  & rain and i don’t remember seeing any photographers on the course.

After a few days of quiet contemplation after the event now I have to say id love to do it again, because this year my shoulder and worry of making things worse really put a downer on it for me, not feeling it or getting ones MOJO till stage 3 ment that looking at the times I could have easily been top 200 on the day in the sport.  But I will wait to see what price hike the 2019 will endure as I felt this year corners were cut a little (monetary not strava lines ). May be tempted to do the ard moors for a change

Does anyone know where i can find the photos for the marathon? I only ask as they aren’t on roots  & rain and i don’t remember seeing any photographers on the course.

I don’t think they bothered having photos for the Marathon. It really was the 2nd class citizen event 🙁

Impressed at the auto numbering on Roots and Rain but some of the photographers are a bit steep – most want £5 but someone was asking £9!

Some of the photographers have done a cracking job. Shame I appear to have ridden the entire event with a teeth bared permo-grimace! 😂

I think this photo sums up my weekend; Speed > Conering ability:

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/3233782

Definitely going to train for next year, about half way down stage two I leant where my triceps were and by the end of stage three I was having to straighten my fingers off the brakes! (I know: less braking!)

I don’t think they bothered having photos for the Marathon

The photographers are there for themselves. If you’re hoping to make a couple of quid, where do you shoot? On the Enduro course taking 1000+ riders per day on exciting terrain or on the Marathon, with what?

 on the Marathon, with what?

Well in hind sight, not much at all, there were a few jumps in the demo loop bit though. However assuming they didn’t know how lousy the course would be any sooner than the rest of us I’ve done plenty of marathons with “exciting” bits in them to the extent that the ard rock one is distinct by being far and away the most dull mtb marathon I’ve ever done. (It had a few nice bits but 45 out of the 49k were shooting track)

[Edit, I’ve a nagging suspicion that when i did the ard rock in 2014 the Saturday was branded as a “marathon” – it was a single timed loop over all 5 stages – before being rebadged to the sport the following year and the days swapped.]

@dangeourbrain yes you’re almost right, in 2014 first thing on Saturday there was the ‘all mountain challenge’, which was a mass group start timed race of the full enduro loop. Practice went out straight after the challenge then the full enduro race on Sunday.

They did put on a marathon event up there in the past but I think it was a stand alone event on a different weekend to the enduro.

That’s the one sl80.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/3241918   Cheeky start for that camera

yep the marathon ride was an added extra and didnt sell out for a week, i guess its better than not going to ardrock but, a dissapointment if you were expecting the stages.

last few years we’ve done some 20 mile loops on the friday and they have both been dull.

first year a moor and quarry to the north west and this year moredon road (local riders favourite) (i should have brought my lefty 29er).

the demo loop singletrack is good, what other rides are decent for the area, I’m thinking something like the dark peak, oxenhope loop or pennines/calderdale style riding

The issue with Swaledale is that the nature of the landscape means reaching a lot of the decent descents involve plugging across the moorland on shooting track, as opposed to the intersecting steeper packhorse trails that make peak and pennine riding so distinctive.

Inevitably it will mean the riding is more XC in nature, and I’m sure local riders will be mixing in a fair bit of cheek to liven it up.

I’d agree with you that Moresdale Road/Schoolmaster Pasture is pretty dull fare unless you head off into the mining hushes and gullies here and there to find some interest.

The Gunnerside Gill area is the most obvious place to find a bit of tech.