Well grounds open a week today and I’m still knackered from Ard Moors, should be a cracking weekend regardless

Yep. Heading down probably on Saturday morning.

yes, doing the ‘Lite’ but hoping that practice on the saturday will allow riding of some of the full sections too.

@riklegge – sign-on closes at 10am on Sat apparently so better be up there in time! Seems unnecessarily early to me but I can get up there in an hour so should be ok.

@joemmo – thanks, I had spotted the times, it does seem a bit early but I’m going to struggle to make it on the Friday. I’ll just have to set the alarm a bit earlier…

Yeaaahhhhhhh, can’t wait.

cool. I’ve borrowed a tent of dubious waterproofness so want to minimise the time spent inside it 🙂 Camping sounds basic, I’m bringing a large bucket to wash the worst of the grime off on saturday.

ME!
Hoping for better weather than ‘Ard Moors got…

Me too! and also hoping for better weather than Ardmoors.
its currently raining up North…

I may not be able to race. Assuming tickets can be changed, anyone miss out?

There’s a post on their Facebook page saying they aren’t doing any more exchanges but you may be able to do a cheeky one.

I was going to pop over and marshal if i was able to but now working Saturday, so maybe Sunday but probably not marshal now.

Drac ..so you must know Barry?
Have you ever marshalled at the 101?

We’re both in for the full one but my OH has borked his shoulder from a stupid crash on Sunday so he might not be riding 🙁

I asked about buying somebody elses ticket on FB at the weekend and the organisers said it was too close to the event. I’ve put it in my diary for next year.

Drac ..so you must know Barry?
Have you ever marshalled at the 101?

No don’t think I do.

No never done the knock off Kielder event. 😆

😆
They are all knock off events ..
Ian Bells The Bike Place Marathon series was the original ..4 races a year ..happy days and all proceeds to charity ( KTR & Air Ambulance )

Weathers looking canny for Sunday … Ard Moors Rd 2 😀

Well, that was… interesting! I rode all the stages on Saturday (by “riding”, I mean “got to the bottom”).
Stages 1 and 6 I enjoyed a lot; 2 and 5 were pretty good if a bit loose and steeper than I’m used to. 3 and 4 felt horrific to me, very slippery, steep and scary. I crashed a few times on these and elected not to ride today.

How did everyone else fare?

Bobbins. We both fell off and hurt ourselves on Saturday on stage 2 and ended up just coming home for a hot bath and comfy bed* 😆 Meh. It was too hard.

* edit- and beer. Lots of medicinal beer.

Did the practice yesterday but only did 3 stages and raced today and it was better than I thought, the rain held off but S4 was trickier today and S6 was just bonkers ! Overall a cracking day out apart from getting to S2 first and having to wait 30 mins for the marshals to get ready ! Oh and S3 and S4 and S5

As its the 1st one you’d expect teething problems but having to wait around wasn’t good

It’d be interesting to know out of the 400-odd entries how many didn’t sign on and how many DNS/DNF.

Well I’m one who DNS. Barking cough all week and ended up on antibiotics after a trip to the Dr on Friday… disappointed but it didn’t seem like the best thing to attempt in the circumstances.

Did the general turnout look lower than 400 Kayla? Or did you get the impression it was more technical than expected and there were dropouts on the day?

Glad to read your injuries weren’t too severe, no point knackering yourself for fun.

Must be tricky to get something like this off the ground and I hope the organisers can run something next year.

Awesome weekend.

I’ve ridden that valley a lot over the years so knew what to expect from the steep stuff but that teflon grassy bastard that was stage 6 had me flying off both times down it 😀 one over the bars and one slide for 20ft down the hill on my arse…. Hilarious

It’s tricky to gauge- there were loads of vans and tents and stuff on Saturday morning before the trails opened and there were loads of people out riding but we packed up around dinner* time on Saturday after we’d got back to the van to head home so I don’t really know.

One lass, who I asked if she was ok cos she was just stopped at the top of a nasty non-rollable drop as I slid gracefully past on my arse, said she was a total beginner at it all. Bit of a baptism of fire!

I was just thinking that if the field was made up of 50% red/black at a push trail centre nobbers like me (possible) who expected a challenging-but-not-impossible enduro then they might have had quite a high rate of DNS/DNFs on Sunday.

The general feel of the thing was great and I hope they get a better balance of difficulty if it’s run again because if they use the same trails I’d bet a load of people wouldn’t enter again which’d be a shame.

* not tea

Think Kayla has the jist of it, will be interesting to see the full lists of DNS and DNFs, from asking around I think at least 25 to 30 percent.

Think the fact that most folk will have had two really nice evenings plus a Saturday ride in good weather, will have made them think that they still had a good time even if they didn’t race on the Sunday.

No doubt that conditions made it tough going for anyone who wasn’t a seasoned slop or off piste rider, and it was a tough loop to do two days on the bounce. I did ok day one, but was just spent for Sunday in tougher conditions.

I survived, just…
Lots of people seemed out of their depth and couldn’t see the funny side of it, some like me, just laughing their way down the daft ness of it all! A small few looked like they were actually racing!

Would have been a different story in the middle of a dry spell but slidey mud roots and steepness meant if you weren’t confident enough to stay off the breaks and just stick it in, you slid off and crashed….

I crashed a lot in practice, then switched to flats for race day, and seemed to be grippier conditions with less clag.

Stage 6 saw me off and sliding down the hill wondering if I would ever stop!

Only 228 finishers (full course) according to Roots and Rain results.

272 now all in, although the women’s 30+ & 40+ Lite categories aren’t up yet, so currently just under a third of the 400-odd entries either didn’t sign on or DNS/DNF.

Not up yet, or no entries?

Not up, but that’s possibly because those who entered didn’t sign on! There was at least one lass I know who’d entered the 30+ Lite class but her name’s not there.

🙁 I rode the Saturday – actually really enjoyed it.
Got to almost the start gate on sunday and my crank arm (left) was loose – and wouldnt tighten – no start for me – Gutted!

Thoroughly enjoyed the ride though! stages 3&4 were certainly…testing..!

My pal’s done a race report…

Muddy hell! It’s The Naughty Northumbrian

Good Report … So true ! bout S6 tho brake and you go faster !

Just over a week to go before 2018 Naughty, anyone racing, and any locals care to comment on trail conditions? Don’t think I’ll be leaving my minion ss on regardless.

I’m in for my sins again, its a bit loamy up here at the mo as my riding area is not far away, whatever the weather it’ll be good again plus theres some changes for some of this years stages, Shorty for less slides

We’ve had very little rain for months like most places, what there has been has ran straight off. I’ve not been up the valley but it should be pretty dry.

We were going to but we’re doing the Eastgate TT/DH in a few weeks instead and OH is doing a trackday at Cadders on the 29th. I hope you have fun though, it should be a bit drier than it was last year!

I’m in. Looking forward to it as last years was a cracking weekend.

Fingers crossed for good weather..!

Weather conditions ..can’t vouch for that particular spot ..but less than 20miles west as the crow flies and things are starting to get a little squelchy in Kielder Forest ( in places ) ..and the immediate forecast looks as if there is a bit of rain to come ..

What are people running up front? Debating whether a shorty or mud tyre is required?