Race report | The Ard Rock Enduro, More than ‘Just a Race’
For its third consecutive year, Ard’ Rock was to be held up in the beautiful rolling craggy hillside of Swaledale, North Yorkshire. For its previous two years this event had been growing in popularity, as had its entrant numbers. This year they had allowed more entries for the weekend, with three separate events going on during the weekend. It was sold out extremely quickly; over one thousand competitors keen as mustard to get back to this, our UK Editor’s favorite event of the year. So was it to deliver the goods again in 2015 as Jim and crew headed up for this big festival style weekend, all full of excitement?
It was upon us again, the event I tell all my mates about, the one you just HAVE to do; the most fun, the fastest, toughest and most enjoyable. The Ard’ Rock is put on by a great team of people, headed by Pro Ride Guides’ Joe Rafferty and as we arrived on the damp Friday evening to the stacked pits and huge brimming campsite I realized this year it had become massive. Back in the day we had the Malvern Classic, a big MTB festival in Worcestershire, but this seems to be filling it’s boots now in England, with that festival vibe massively noticeable from the moment you entered the site. There was a great presence from Santa Cruz (the main race sponsors), also on site were Julby Eyewear, Mavic, Sram, Sweet Protection, Pro Ride Guides, Xposure lighting and another publication who’s name eludes me! These stands all surrounded a live band area with hay bail seating, food stands and the all-important bar!
We got set up on the edge of the camping field, I had the family in tow, as this really is a classic family event, full of folk young and old. We hit the hay pretty early after a quiet beer, ready for the chilled-out day’s riding to follow.
Saturday brought gorgeous summer weather, as we had a relaxed breakfast with the family and our crew, Doose (ladies man), Coynie (bruiser), Baker (Gent), Isac (snapper) and Coop (dog man); all buzzing to get out on our bikes up those big baron Yorkshire hills. This race differed from the two previous years, as we were only able to practice stages 1 and 4, with 2, 3 and 5 raced blind on the following day. This format was to avoid two massive 45k days in the saddle and to let Saturday’s two other events take place unhindered, these were an All Mountain Challenge (35k timed xc loop) and The Enduro Sport (stages 2, 3 and 5 raced as a shorter enduro). These other two events had 650 entrants between them plus 950 were entered for the following day’s enduro proper; now that’s sporting big numbers only dreamed of by other UK race promoters!
We headed out for our 28k practice loop of the two stages, the climbs were grueling as ever, but so worth it when at the top of the huge ridgeline overlooking what just seemed like endless hills surrounded by open, unforgiving terrain. We hit up stage one, me trying desperately to follow Doose at high speed, his ‘three times a week’ pump track training paying off as my heart-rate hit the roof! Like all the stages it was open with nasty limestone rocks everywhere, just waiting to destroy tyres, wheels and riders alike. This stage however, had a short but steep section at the bottom, which was different than all the others, because for the first time they had sent it through the trees; with small woodlands being a rare site in this baron foreign-like landscape. It was rough, fast and gnarly as I had remembered and hoped for and at the bottom of stage 1 we were all buzzing like little kids in a toy store.
Onwards we went from there, down picturesque footpaths alongside a small river until we arrived at a tiny old-fashioned village pub. Overwhelmed by the unusual amount of custom the pub finally served us up some beer and pork pies to fill our bellies ready for the long transition up to stage 4 along the roads, lanes, quad tracks and footpaths; you really did feel like you were in the heart of the English countryside here, as our banter kept us feeling fresh and in good spirits. Stage 4 was eventually reached, starting out at the top of what looked like an old bomb-hole from the war. This stage (like the rest) was incredible, strewn with more rocks, fast gullies, drops and grassy turns being some of the many skills testing features; again at the bottom we buzzed with chat and descriptions of our runs down; we were loving it. We headed off back to the arena, tired, but happy we had ridden such great tracks and had such a social day out on the bikes, all keen for the following day’s racing, but not particularly buzzing about our 7.45 start time as the front-runners!
Now I have to admit, as I’ve got older and more into the riding, then my drinking legs have got a lot less tolerant of the stagger juice, but the events of the evening just cried out for a drink or three. The live rock band pulling out some of the best covers mixed with the hilarious ‘rodeo bull’ style plastic sheep made for a great night’s entertainment. All and sundry seemed to be in the main arena as the drinks flowed and the music played, some getting especially rowdy before the 11pm music cut-off time, Then the following day racers hit the sack ready for Sunday’s big day in the saddle.
We were up and getting sorted at 6.30, not being a big drinker I had a head-ache and felt so tired, as Kyle (my video making friend) wired my helmet for sound to go with the GoPro footage of my runs (watch this site for these). The signing-on procedure was carried out by a team of helpers, with military precision, so we were all well readied prior to the start, when we headed off on the big 45k loop with 1350m of climbing.
After the night’s frolicking and limited sleep, coupled with wearing a full-face helmet (needed for the sound recording) the first long climb was a real killer for me, I had my usual first hour climbing blues. As we ascended to the top of the ridge line things just got better from there as we spent the next 4 ¾ hours rattling through the stages together. Our mate Baker was on a later start time, but had been replaced with another friend Lee Hawden, a flat-out rock blaster and great company too. Up the huge transitions we kept each other going, as we plodded on, for me a real mental battle in places, not used to such long climbs, going through highs and lows in my mind, but always buzzing at the crest of every accent.
The downhills on some of the transitions were at times as much fun as the stages and some of the ‘hike a bike’ scenery was just out of this world. We raced each other down the stages, myself mostly trying to keep with Doose or Lee, it was just the most fun ever. We cranked on through it, the transition back from stage 4 to 5 being the final leg killer, removing whatever excess energy we had left, fortunately stage 5 was mostly insanely fast DH stuff, the type of stage you can only dream of. It was big handshakes, fist bumps and high fives at the end of stage 5 before we headed back down the lane to the race village. Coop, Myself, Isac and Lee had put good runs in all day, the same couldn’t be said for Coynie and Doose, plagued with punctures and crashes.
We came in, handed our blipper over for an instant stage times and current placing, but being the front squad our placings were just an indication even though we could all compare times. Eventually, way after we had packed away, tents, the EZ-up and all our kit every rider had finished, revealing the full results. I was very pleased with 7th Vet out of 220 and 33rd overall out of 850. As for the top rollers and shakers, here they are = Vets Women winner – Ruth Bowman, Master Women – Gemma Ingall, Senior Women – Sophia Carter, Grand Vets – Joe Buckworth, Vets – Martyn Alderson, Master Men – David Read, Senior Men 3rd – Martyn Brookes, 2nd – Sam Shucksmith, 1st – Liam Moynihan.
Again this event delivered the goods as my favorite race weekend by far, the organization, tracks, atmosphere and prizes were second to none and really worth any racer/rider to make the trip up to the next one. With talk in the UK of Insurance, full face helmets and health and safety in other races this had none of those ‘over the top’ compulsory rulings and on such gnarly tracks with over 1000 racers the only injuries sustained all weekend were a broken wrist and broken arm. For a great family or friends weekend away I literally can’t recommend this enough to anyone, but believe be, to avoid disappointment you will need to be on the ball for entries next year, as this thing is bound to sell out in a flash!
Full Results – here
Event website – here
Words | Jim Buchanan
Pics | Isac Paddock & digitalswaledale.com
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