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Just sat in Richmond having a full English in the wetherspoons reminiscing on what a great weekend!
There was times out there yesterday where I was really struggling but we made it. What a great day. Didn't quite get as high up the order as I wanted but hey sub 20 mins and still alive. Hope you all had as much fun!
Totally destroyed me. A week riding and walking in The Lakes probably wasn't the ideal preparation.
Obvious they're upped the tech over last year. First four stages definitely harder ('arder?) than previously.
Ripped sidewall halfway down stage 3 put paid to beating even my previous mincetastic times. Lost about 15 minutes...
Loved it overall though, and the Rocket took its first competitive outing in its stride. Amazing bike.
After driving 2 hrs home it would appear my right thigh is not at all happy! I expect the aches for a few days....
In compression wear on the sofa, olympics on, contemplating accessorising with a cold beer! What a superb day out yesterday though, makes all the aches and pains worthwhile.
Absolutely loved it..probably the best days riding I've ever had!
Loved the timed sections, loved the climbs, loved the countryside!
Brilliant on the hardtail too 🙂
I would liked to have done better than 19.45 but dropped a chain on section 2, and rode the last half of 5 just on the rear rim after tearing out a nobble on the rear tyre..that made the off camber sections interesting!
Definitely need dual ply tyres next time!!
DrP
20:18 for me, several silly mistakes cost me time so will be back next year hopefully for a sub 20. Great event again, though they really need to have some more showers and general camping facilities IMO.
Hope everyone got round in one piece, I think I saw the air ambulance at least once though!
Air ambulance yesterday early evening g was for a roadie of all people who had rode into a wall 😯
Awesome weekend of riding, drinking and heckling. Got a time of 21.09.
Brilliant, a great event as a whole topped off with proper rocky trails and an amazing tour of Swaledale. Kept having to stop to take photos! 18:42.
Had to bail after S2. Front brake in the process of giving up making life interesting and riding partner bonking heavily and unlikely to complete.
There seemed to be a lot of hanging around apart from the obvious and understandable delays to let the Mountain Rescue do their thing for whoever crashed hard on s2.
23:25 for me - I knew I wasn't going to do all that well. Just didn't have the fitness for the short pedally bursts.
Still I really loved all of the stages. Will come back quicker next year (mind you I said that last year and I'm slower 🙂 )
Cracking event love the atmosphere
Did the Sport today. The wind was ridiculous. Did it in 26:00.03, so slower than you lot but still pleased that I made it around all 5 stages, first time ive done anything like that and the stages were miles harder than anything I've ever ridden before
Got eaten alive by the bastard midges Marshaling at the bottom of stage 2 on friday and my little helper needed some shade
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burnt to a crisp at the top of stage 3 on saturday
and then very windswept today again at the top of 3
had a great weekend and happy the rain did not arrive
I also did the sport today. As mentioned above, the wind made it very difficult on both climbs and descents. Stage 2 & 3 were closed when we got to them because they were extracting broken people. Bizarrely they decided to let everyone leave at once when the stages reopened so we had to queue for some features which made for very slow times. A crash on stage 1 didn't help either...
Cracking day out though
DNF Saturday. In fact hardly bloody started. 😳
Ongoing issue, with tendon. Made matters worse on S1 and S2 in Friday practice. Looks like very little serious riding for a while.
Hats off to all who completed.
Great weekend - quality atmosphere, nice people, great band and pretty cool stages
Punctured on stage 1 and dropped my chain twice. Dropped again on stage 2 and then learnt to keep it on the big ring at the back and keep my speed up!!
Stage 3 - 5 much better and set some good times but 21.28 was pretty woeful 🙁
My own fault for skimping on drivetrain costs 🙂
Will certainly be back next year!
I had a walk up stage 1 this morning to spectate. It was chaos. Loads of riders getting off at the top of steep sections and walking down and then getting in the way of people still on their bikes.
One poor bloke had to take avoiding action and went otb hard into the rocks when one pusher got back on his bike wobbled in front of him. Resulted in deep lacerations to his thigh and abdomen, but could've been much worse.
Myself and Mrs ws went up to watch stage 1 today and even she said there's some people who are a bit sketchy out here today. I do think in parts some of it must be pretty daunting for the not so confident rider. Watched some great overtakes however where we were. Perhaps a bit of a grading system in place next year similar to when you do a half marathon and you give a rough idea of your expected time?????
Not long back after a weekend of marshalling did not see much of the action as I was start marshal on The BOOZER stage . Volunteered for the furthest point so I got to ride my bike and rode most of the stages good crowd, was expecting lots of egos but everyone was cool.Got hammered in the evening and had a rocking headache to ride out with to be battered by winds all day. Shout out to the Shimano crew for giving ma free xt mech so I could keep going Sunday.
Will ride it next year hopefully.
Rich
Enjoyed it, even if I was far too unfit for it. 18:36 in the end.
Fantastic day out. V pleased not to have died... thought that the wind might achieve this on a number of occasions where the bike stopped moving in a forwardly direction and started moving in a sidewaysly way.
Lack of sleep (battered by sides of tent being blown into face all night!) and a cock up / misheard start time meant we did stages one and two whilst still half asleep and without coffee. Stopped at the pub for instant coffee and bacon frazzles. The breakfast of champions...
Had a great day on Saturday, pretty much an identical time to last year to within a few seconds. Pretty happy with that since I almost backed out after the flu meant I'd managed a full 10 miles riding in the last month. Went up to stage 1 this morning to provide moral support (AKA heckling) and had a great time too. Some proper sketchy riding from people who I think we're shocked by the tech level, god help them when they got to Stage 2! Marshals radio was super busy with calls for broken riders, must have been manic for the medics and mountain rescue. Saw air ambulance arrive again, maybe to stage 2 just before I left at at 14:00.
Were any of the photographers official? Will you be able to purchase shots? ... Asumming I look Enduro enough in them
wind made it very hard today, blew me into a marker post just into stage 5 which then got tangled in the mech so had to stop and rip it out. had a little off in stage 2 trying to pass a slower rider. apart from a wait at the top of stage 1 didn't have any hold ups on the others.
didn't think there was anything very technical in the stages, just a few sections that needed a bit of commitment so was quite surprised by the amount of people stopping at features and pushing down steep bits.
considering the amount of time i lost catching other riders at bad points of the stages i was reasonably happy to be just over 20 minutes.
Were any of the photographers official? Will you be able to purchase shots?
should be up on roots and rain website
Photos up on roots and rain now..
Some cracking ones too!
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Me pink sockin' it up!
DrP
Really enjoyed the stages but made a few silly mistakes on most of them...
Had a small crash on stage 3, and got held up by riders on a couple of stages. Ended up with a time of 18:37 on the Saturday.
14 mins 25 in the sprint, like others had issues with people dismounting and general traffic on the trail, was a bit like the Mega in that respect. Had to take completely the wrong line at almost a standstill on the bit on stage 2 with the catch fence due to traffic and stop on stage 3 for an injured rider, hope they were OK. Great event though
Rode the sport enduro on Sunday, the wind was horrendous. All of the stages were excellent, although with the high winds it was very much a wheels on the ground day!
Big thanks to Troutie and Postie marshalling on stages 3 and 4. Had a brief but pleasant chat with both of you.
The Mrs had a big off on Stage 3, which ended her day though 🙁
Did the Saturday event. First stage, third corner in I spot a bloke fixing a puncture - 'christ, thats unluckly' I think to myself as I then hit the same rock he had and nailed the tyre and wheel. Then punctured the now inner-tubed rear wheel again on stage 3 which meant a walk pretty much from top to bottom. Which was annoying as it easily looked the best stage of them all. 29.something for me which is obviously bobbins, if I look at the time my brother did, I was quicker on the three stages I completed than him and he did a 20.52.
Really really good event though, excellent atmosphere and the heckling on the last corner of stage 5 was awesome! I also wish I had shares in Santa Cruz...
I also wish I had shares in Santa Cruz...
Chuckle..it was the bike du jour!
Stage 3 was puncture carnage - I made it down fine, my riding buddy had to pop a tube in, and about 20% of riders coming down (for the time i was there) rolled in on a flat rear!!
I agree - it was my favourite stage.
I actually rode the 'unpracticed' stages better than the practice stages - my time on 1, 2, and 5 were faster on Friday!!
DrP
had a blast on the 30km sprint, stood in lastminute.com for a mates missus who bailed. the stages way were may more techy than I imagined and had a fair a few 5p-10p moments but got down everything without incident on my old skool yeti 26r.... echo the sentiments about santa cruz, bronsons and nomads...theyre the omnipresent ride of choice it seems.. loved the pub stop between stage 2-3, so much so we managed two visits for a recovery cider. lots of folk wondering round with slings and leg bandages on too
From the marshals POV big thanks to everyone for good humour, cooperation and patience during delays.
Was glad to get off that hill yesterday once we'd finally got everything packed up though!
I was disappointing to only get entered into the Sprint Enduro but I have to say, it was a great event. I would have liked to have done the whole loop but having chance to 'session' the two open stages on Friday and then a leisurely 13:15 set off time made it a pretty chilled weekend for me. Big crash in practice meant a bar and lever swap on Saturday morning but everything else was spot on.
Getting past slower riders or out of the way of faster ones is all part of the game and I doubt anyone gets a perfect run in that sense. So long as it's all friendly and considerate passing, everyone should be happy.
Oh, and chuffed to bits with 11:42 and a 4th place in the Masters category! Bring on 'Ard Moors - although I think I'm doing the whole loop so will be back to my mid pack troubling ways, I would think.
Punctures on 1 and 2 meant no chance of putting in a decent time but the rest of the day went well. Had a great weekend, and chatted to lots of friendly people as I spent most of the day riding alone.
I think the organisers would benefit from emphasising how difficult the stages are and how long the loop is, there were a lot of people that were well out of their depth.
Big thanks to the marshalls, it's a long old day to be sat on a remote hill on your own!
+1they're upped the tech over last year
I did last years' event and this year's one was definitely far more techy, especially stage 2. Not complaining - but one of the reasons I did the event again this year, was that the course last year was (comparatively to other Enduros) not mega-techy and a fun ride for those of us of lesser skills 🙂
Minced my way round, happy to finish still feeling ok. Found my fitness was ok, but I really need to get better leg strength and body position for next year, as my legs were giving out on me half way down some of the stages and sitting down ain't an option.
Kudos to those who did well, many thanks to Marshals and organisers. Great event, fabby atmosphere, lots of friendly people having a great time. Hope to be back in 2017!
The wind on Sunday was just silly!
Stage 2 became a bit of a joke as because of an injury and rescue, it was shortened then delayed, so they sent everyone off with tiny gaps which resulted in a big queue down the hill!
All good apart from that though. Crossed the finish line and then my rear tyre went flat 🙂
29th In Sport Vets - 21.04
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It was really windy saturday night so was pretty happy to have raced saturday!
Courses were good although not a lot of stage time for 5 hours on the bike?
Good ride, amazing place but shit race. Punctures and constantly stuck behind people meant a result was impossible sadly.
So as my first go at something “enduro” that was a bit interesting. I must say the best thing about it was how friendly people were though. Had an awesome time.
I was a bit worried when we got up there on the Saturday afternoon to see mountain rescue and air ambulance taking people off to the hospital, one chap with his leg in pot and a couple with slings. We bumped into one of the chaps from ritz rebbles (nice chaps) and he told us how we were probably going to die. Knowing that im a bit of a crap / unfit rider and all. Tales of woe, death and fun also followed into the night where potentially I had a few more beers than I should have.
9am start and it was all go. A nice gentle climb to start and a que for the first stage. I had no idea what to expect really. I set off and it all went downhill literally. It wasn’t the steepness that worried me but there were some pretty scarily looking sharp rocks all over the place. 2 guys in front of me stopped and had me stood on one of the drops for a while as they sorted themselves out. I wasn’t going to be barging past anyone on this as it just seemed too dangerous for a novice like myself so I stood about for a bit. This happened on nearly every stage but it didn’t bother me one bit. I was there just to have a bit of fun. I did feel sorry for the guys on stage 3 and 4 though as the marshals were shouting at them to get out of the way. It wasn’t me honest!
It was great to have such a positive response from the guys at the start of the stages and my the guys marshaling. I had guys at the start saying it was good to see guys from calderdale up here! And even people shouting well done as I ride through the stages. This was probably because of the amount of foul language and screaming like a girl I was doing though.
Totally great day. Took it easy but it still pushed my limits significantly. You could see some folks were clearly in their element and some of the riding was just majestic. Some folks were also clearly out of their depth and I just hope they got home ok. Made for a great day though. Still buzzing and will be for a few days I think.
So much fun and made so by all the people that were there. No egos or anything. Just a fab day out with some good friends and we amazingly made it back in one piece!
But oh my god those transitions! 45mph winds didn’t help at all!
"B- could do better" as a teacher might say
Stage 1 was about survival after crashing there in practise
Off on Stage 2, then flatted at the start of Stage 5 so rode it on the rim
~23mins all in, more pleased with ~3h40 for the whole thing so maybe I should have done the sport instead?!
Great event though, loved the riding and the whole festival vibe
I'm hearing good things about this event and fancy entering next year *BUT* will I be under-biked on my 120mm Trail FS?
I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me they rode it on a rigid unicycle with a broken leg, but realistically... Will I die!?
It wont be the bike that makes you die 🙂
Plenty of hardtails about. Not much in the way of big obstacles, mostly just steep. Toughish tyres will help more than a couple of extra inches of travel imo.
Well there's a hardtail category.
there were guys there on very very expensive carbon bikes that they were carrying. There were guys there with knackered hardtails that were flying.
My brother and I had a chat with a bloke on a very slack hardtail (think it was a whyte) riding the climb to stage 3. He looked thoroughly pissed off and had already been over the bars on stage 2. Fair play to anyone doing it on a HT, I wouldn't fancy it.
Apart from the Endurobro's (Nomad, Enve,Fluro kit and sizeable gut) bikes seemed quite varied. As mentioned though, make sure you have decent tyres and plenty of tubes, whether you're starting the day tubeless or not. And don't use Ardents, trust me.
Fair play to the dude from Cotic that seemed to be riding round with no bag or water bottle. I did four litres of water and still didn't go for a pee until about 8pm after a fair bit of beer....
I absolutely loved it, did the sport yesterday. Highlights for me were stages 1 and 2, and 5 was a nice one to finish on with those big grassy turns. Glad we got through ahead of the stage closures and diversions etc (hope those involved make a speedy recovery)
finished on 19:54.10 in masters cat.
I faired well on a pair of maxxis with exo casings, run tubeless. No tyre related issues at all for me.
Got stuck behind the odd person, but I'd say generally people were really good about pulling off line to let past. With small start gaps and no seeding catches are going to be inevitable.
Coming from Norfolk and getting very little riding in lately I was pleased to have survived. Sundays weather also added another dimension to the unreal (for me) terrain. I've never ridden anything remotely that steep before.
30 mins was my veteran time on a 2006 5 spot, which dropped it's chain on 2 stages.
Definitely going again next year.
Hope the injured person on stage 3 was OK.
nope , thats dave and chris.
Im much fatter/ shorted less skilled and look like this.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider107648/andrew-bradbury/photos/
how did you get that photo without a watermark?
Saturday main event for me - got round with no mechanicals, punctures (tubeless thicker sidewalls), crashes or offs - passed a few people, didn't get passed myself & finished in the middle of my group of about a dozen mates (about 19:30 in masters).
I chased & nearly caught mates on stages 1 & 5
I got a little held up by a couple of other riders on stage 3, but managed to get past eventually
I chased & caught one of my mates on stage 4 - gave him a little gentle encouragement when I did, which resulted in a faster pace to the finish
I'll be back next year assuming I can get an entry
how did you get that photo without a watermark?
I stood on a hill shouting at people for 8 hours straight in biblical winds 😀
Coming from Norfolk and getting very little riding in lately I was pleased to have survived. Sundays weather also added another dimension to the unreal (for me) terrain. I've never ridden anything remotely that steep before.
30 mins was my veteran time on a 2006 5 spot, which dropped it's chain on 2 stages.
Definitely going again next year.
Hope the injured person on stage 3 was OK.
I stood on a hill shouting at people for 8 hours straight in biblical winds
worth it 🙂
Did the Friday practice and Saturday race. Big group of us with varying skill levels but everyone got round despite a few tumbles. Loved the big rocky chutes and the off camber sections on the grass were interesting.. Stage 5 was hilarious and flat out. Punctured on Stage 3 on the front and had a mare trying to fix it which balls'd up my results, the transitions were pretty long, god knows what it must have been like with strong winds on the Sunday.
Enjoyed the atmosphere and chatted to some nice people in some lovely scenery with the sun in our faces and we had a giggle, would do it again.
Ive never been photographed so many times in my life! However the roots and rain page is poo to navigate. If youre searching for someone in the middle of the alphabet I can only seem to go 3 pages at a time? Any tips?
[quote=wrightyson ]Ive never been photographed so many times in my life! However the roots and rain page is poo to navigate. If youre searching for someone in the middle of the alphabet I can only seem to go 3 pages at a time? Any tips?
main page. top left. search for rider name?
this you?
https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider50856/mat-wright/results/
Find their race number on the results page, click on their name and you'll get a link to any photos which have been tagged
More & more photos are being tagged, so keep checking or sign up for auto notifications for when new photos are added
Rode Sunday- 24.58, that's my longest ride this year, definitely need more saddle time before next year. Chain snapped on stage 3 and fell off, rolled most the way down and had a 30 minute stroll afterwards to go find it. Other than that I'm out of excuses.
Great day though!
My first Ardrock and the first time I've done anything remotely competitive, and loved every minute of the the sport on Sunday apart from that wind and the monkey on stage two who didn't understand rider or can I pass please, I must has lost a minute on there because of that.
Anything sub 25 minutes in my eyes was a good number to finish on for my first event and the wind lifting me on the top of stage one set the tone, I thought I was ready for a face full of rock but my momentum carried me through, I finished on 24.04 which for me is a win and i finished overall 360th so well within the top half..
The four of us and never ridden there before and all of us finished within 4 hours without a single problem, a cracking weekend and having a lazy bike was day today
Roll on Ardrock2017 and a top 150 place for this Vet
Ardent on the rear and third place for me. Must have scrubbed most of the nobbles off on the steep stuff!
Finished 38th in Masters on Sunday's race (20:02:39). Got held up a few times but no biggie...had a lot of fun overtaking when I could, and good to ride with mates down the stages together.
Loved every one of the stages, all had something a bit different. The wind was most heinous otherwise was was a cracking weekend - well worth the 7 hour drive back to Cornwall after!
Bad news for one of the guys riding on sunday 🙁
Anyone have any updates on the guys condition?
Very sad and I hope that guy is okay. I also hope the organizers don't dumb down the course for next year, racing comes with risk and nothing on that course was crazy dangerous.
I raced on Saturday. As I couldn't get down on Friday and had not done the Ard Rock before so I was racing blind. It was also only my third ride on my new bike (Yes, probably not a smart combo). First stage I took pretty steady until I hit the woods section which is a section I felt quite confident on. After that I got a bit of a feel for things and really enjoyed the rest of the day. Best race I've ever been to.
Congratulations on your podium place - fantastic!lapierrelady - MemberArdent on the rear and third place for me. Must have scrubbed most of the nobbles off on the steep stuff!
That sounds rough - positive thoughts going his way.yorkshire89 - MemberBad news for one of the guys riding on sunday
Anyone have any updates on the guys condition?
Thanks AlexSimon! Was dead chuffed.
Had a top weekend, plenty of practice on Friday led to me putting in an 18.25 on Saturday's race. 73rd in masters.
My mate came off on stage 2 sunday, shoulder was uncomfortable but managed to finish the ride. Hospital visit yesterday and he has a small cracking in his clavicle and tendon damage.
There were a few people walking around with slings and bandages on 🙁jaylittle - MemberMy mate came off on stage 2 sunday, shoulder was uncomfortable but managed to finish the ride. Hospital visit yesterday and he has a small cracking in his clavicle and tendon damage.
There were lots of areas that looked like a fall would hurt a lot.
Hope your mate is back riding soon!
I hope all injured, especially those with more serious injuries are ok.
I too hope the organisers don't feel compelled to make the stages a little less extreme. I do wonder if the Ard Rock is a victim of its own success, and is attracting riders without the requisite skills to stay safe. Lots of riders seem to be discussing getting caught up behind people walking technical parts of the stages, and the amount of injuries seems high.
Perhaps the organisers should think about filtering race entries by requiring previous race results from a recognised series such as PMBA to enter the race proper, otherwise as a first year entrant you have to ride the sportive.
I've never done the Ard Rock as there always seems to be a date clash with something else, but I really want to give it a go next year.
Any of you lot the poor bugger immortalised in ungainly flick-book style here?
@darkside - that happens for some of the longer fell races: you have to show that you've completed a race of sufficient length/difficulty for your application to be accepted. In these days of on-line results it's not too hard to check, if a little time consuming. Obviously if you've done the event in question before then you are likely to have the experience.
The only other way to handle it is to have a prologue type filter on a separate timed section - the fast riders go in the race, slower ones in the sportive. Does add to the complexity of the event for the organisers though given the number of riders, maybe just do that for first time entrants.
Awesome weekend again, Rode the sprint on the saturday (As I never got into the big event, despite not missing one yet - Can we do away with the nonsense 8 folk being entered at a time pish?).
Finished 50th of 225, despite the fact I've not ridden much at all and was blowing out my hoop on the pedally bits. Had a peach of a washout on stage 1, cost me at least a minute, but hey ho, lots of other folks have similar stories, all part of the race.
Bellend of the weekend has to go to the guy that thought it was okay to bring half a dozen huskys and chain them up at his tent for the weekend. ****.
Brilliantly organised again, can't believe how big it was compared to the first year.
Yes, there are a lot of mincers riding - I'd never get anywhere near that kind of result at a Scottish enduro series race, but everyone I caught allowed me to pass with no issues, again it's all part of this type of race.
See y'all next year.
Hope all injured are on the mend.
I did ride all the sections blind and would have loved a few runs on the Friday or even last year but I have to agree even though my times not the quickest on here the amount of people bailing on some of the stages worried me , just for the reason they stopped at the worst moment or right on the steep stuff ,causing problems for riders behind.
I think the fact that there was a massive up in Mbuk(iirc) just weeks before the booking was opened added to the influx of people not prepared for what was in store. I hope that the event doesn't become a victim of its own success
Wanged my experiences of the weekend up on my blog if anyone's interested - [url= https://orena45blog.wordpress.com/2016/08/09/race-report-ard-rock-enduro-2016/ ]Ard Rock enduro race report[/url] 😀
I too hope the organisers don't feel compelled to make the stages a little less extreme. I do wonder if the Ard Rock is a victim of its own success, and is attracting riders without the requisite skills to stay safe. Lots of riders seem to be discussing getting caught up behind people walking technical parts of the stages, and the amount of injuries seems high.Perhaps the organisers should think about filtering race entries by requiring previous race results from a recognised series such as PMBA to enter the race proper, otherwise as a first year entrant you have to ride the sportive.
Unless I'm wrong all of the events over the weekend used the first three stages, so the sprint or sport event didn't get any easier technically, when compared to the main Saturday event.
I'm sure the organisers will be analysing what worked well and didn't this year and they have a lot of experience to draw on, to make any adjustments needed for next year.
I think perhaps one of the things that attracted a fair number of riders to the Ard Rock weekend is that the course last year wasn't as full-on or raw as perhaps some series-based Enduro's such as PMBA etc. So it was seen by some riders perhaps as more of a 'Funduro' with tough transitions, rather than a mega-gnar event which would be way beyond their skills/capabilities, or beyond the level of risk they are prepared to take .
I'm sure the faster riders will not want the course dumbing down for the main event, so perhaps a suggestion for next year would be to have some hard(er) stages for the main event (as per stage 2 was), but also have a few easier stages just for a sport event, aimed at mincers like me 🙂
I'm not saying that Ard Rock should be turned into some type of XC marathon event, but I'd guess that there are a lot of riders from this years event who will never ride a mainstream Enduro event, but would like to see a technically easier Ard Rock course aimed at the lesser-skilled rider for next year.
Either way the organisers will ultimately decide, but it would be a shame for this particular event to become more and more technical and therefore beyond the skill (or risk) level of many. There are plenty of events already catering for the top guys.
Since the stages aren't accessible outside the event could anyone give me an idea of steepness/technicality of them, basically a comparison to other bridleways or descents.
None of them were harder than Black trail centre level, and the steep parts didn't last long, mainly chutes.
None of them were harder than Black trail centre level, and the steep parts didn't last long, mainly chutes.
I disagree, perhaps my perception was clouded by racing and being knackered but I found stage 2 especially tough compared to anything I've ridden** I'd say 20% of stages 1,2 and 3 were way harder than a trail centre black.
As above, I don't claim to be a good rider. But my point is, if you took the average trail centre rider who was very comfortable on reds and could do blacks, I think they'd really struggle on many sections of this years course. Not that they couldn't ride them, but they'd really struggle.
** Sierra Nevadas, Calderdale local trails, Lakes, Peaks, BPW Reds and odd black, Llandegla, Gisburn, etc, blah, blah
example - Blue Pig in Hebden is relatively easy and not very steep, compared to parts of stages 1,2 and 3Since the stages aren't accessible outside the event could anyone give me an idea of steepness/technicality of them, basically a comparison to other bridleways or descents.
Possibly a little harder, but nothing on the course wasn't rollable, at no point did you 'have' to launch off anything, and I can't for the life of me recall a steep section that was anything longer than yer average trail centre chute/bombhole.
There was a fair bit of off camber stuff on stage 2, but as it was dry, it wasn't a problem, would've been different in the wet mind. I suppose a difference could've been that there was quite a few of the top sections in 1 and 2 that felt exposed, trail centre warriors could find that very off putting.
It was definitely techier than all the previous years, but that's got to be a good thing.