The 2016 Ard Rock Enduro was epic! Last year was the first time me and Tom Makin of the Steve Peat Syndicate enduro competed in this race, with high expectations of another amazing race we weren't disappointed. With five timed stages over a 45km route, this was a big day on the bike, with plenty of banter with the other riders it wasn't long before we were on the transition to the final stage. Unlike other races this one is much more relaxed and feels like a festival with some bike racing thrown in!
Been allowed to set off with your mates makes these blind stages even more fun, chasing each other down the trails as you pick your lines with the sound of heckling marshals is what it's all about. Photo @jwdtphotography
7:50 am start allowed for the morning sunrise to guide us down stage one. Photo @samtaylorphotographyTom Makin grinning at the thought of a pint all the way down stage 5. Photo @docwardGood times all round!We're already excited for next year, cheers to all the people involved in this event it truly is how racing bikes should be! Photo @docward
MENTIONS: @TOMGRICE
Agree a lot of people probably didn't expect it to be quite as technical and steep as it was and to be honest I was probably one of them! But there's something to be said about riding with a massive group and people watching/hecklin Spurs you on and you just go for it haha but there was a lot of people walking parts of it which were actually easier to ride down than walk but guess it's a mental thing
Awesome fun though can't wait for next year!
Transition patrol with a push 11-6 shock.Probably overtook ya ????
Heres a quick edit from the day
www.facebook.com/davidedwards1984/videos/10154490218981209
The good stuff:
- AWESOME stages
- Amazing scenery
- Nice festival atmosphere
- Riders super friendly
Now the bad stuff:
- We got put into the second last group (start 11:45am)
- 40 min wait at stage 1 due to rider accident - but we didn't get this time extended for the 5.30pm race cut off
- SLOW riders - many people clearly not fit/technical enough to race the downhills. Had to overtake a lot and people also did not move to the side.
- Finally made it back at 6pm (due to wind, cramps, rider accidents etc) and the beer van and all but the pizza van have left!?
- Got some grub then headed to the showers, which were just about to close (at 7pm)!? Managed to get a shower but the staff were not too happy.
- Overflow camping is miles away from the only 10 showers (for 1000 riders?)
- Not enough toilets in the further away camping fields
I think the event got too big too fast. I will have to think hard if I would go back up again (5 hour trip for me).
I had similar feeling about the finish. Riding solo it was very depressing rolling back into the shell of the event village.
I think the media has a lot to answer for about the riders. MBUK were pushing it as The event everyone should do once in there life. It really needed to play up a couple of things though.
The technicality of some of the sections. If it wasn't for a youth spent riding in an abandoned quarry I don't think my current riding (Peak district trails and trail centers) would have prepared me at all for some parts.
The climbing. It was tough going and despite spending hours riding you never really covered any forward distance, only vertical.
Add those two together and you find people who would struggle on the technical sections, now exhausted, slowing sections of the trail that you really needed to be carrying speed through.
Looking back though all I remember is the fun and despite being lonely I am going back next year. Only a 2 hour drive for me though
But as I sat alone in my van I overheard the stories coming back from Saturdays riders. The crashes, people getting off and pushing and people dropping out on the third stage. It did not fill me with confidence because,as far as I was concerned, if you were doing the Saturday then you knew what you were doing.
Sunday rolled around and there I was, top of stage one, facing 60mph winds and relatively no idea how steep it was going to be. Turns out it was very steep. Those first rocky bits were not hugely technical but the wind? f*ck the Wind man. Turned my wheels into sails that wanted to steer me into every nasty looking rock pile it could.
Then when you had done that there was the drop in the woods! I enjoyed it but that was several levels above what I expected to find.
End of the day I cleaned the whole course although not very fast. Total time of 25:01.70 placing me 204th and an odd desire to do it all again next year
There are a lot of people in this section, I assume, waiting for a crash. I don't know what it looked like on day one but by the time I went down it had taken a beating. It's very steep, the left line (that they wanted me to go down, had some nasty rooty steps but the right wasn't much easier. Pretty sure plenty of people hit it faster and better than my slow roll down
www.rootsandrain.com/photos/1660291
Looks like the guy behind me on the turquoise nomad (number 3446?) had a gopro, would like to see that vid!