Paul McPherson's Ard Rock

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Ard Rock 2023. We got the band back together for another weekend of fun in the sun. Well, that’s what I’d imagined when we did the scramble for tickets in November. The reality was a bit different. This event has become a bit of a must in the mountain biking calendar, so tickets - for the Enduro especially - are a little scarce.

This year, after lots of asking around, I had managed to get an entry for the Enduro. So I was looking forward to doing all 7 stages. In the week leading up to Ard Rock it was clear that my sunnies and cap wouldn’t see much use and I’d be better off packing the wet weather gear, but we’re not made of sugar, are we?

As always, the camping and festival sites were well organised - loads of big brands present and everything you need available. The same can’t be said for our little camp. Locks for the bikes forgotten, a fancy electric car that had no electric and general disorder were the theme for the weekend, with 6 people hiding under a small awning for the majority of time.

On Friday, as the competitors in the Epic got underway, we got our number boards and winched our way up to practice stages 6 & 7 in relatively dry conditions, followed by 1 & 2 in the afternoon. These stages being familiar to anybody who has done Ard Rock before, they’re a good way to warm up and get familiar with some of the rock chutes and grassy turns ready for Saturday.

The rain came on Friday night and drenched the valley and it was clear pretty quickly that things would have changed on stages 1 and 2 with their long, open grassy sections and off-camber grass turns. It crossed my mind that slinging a mud tyre on the front might be a good idea, so I made a mental note to bring one next time and let a few psi out instead. This made basically no difference. My tyre filled with sticky mud, I lost the front end on one of the off-camber turns towards the end of stage 1 and rearranged my handlebars. It made the rattle through heckler’s wood extra exciting. I love the energy in there - it instantly took my mind off the crash.

Stage 2 was not much better for me. I passed a few riders on the long off-camber traverse across the grass and, as I crossed the wooden bridge, the back end of the bike stepped out, gripped again on the grass and torpedoed me off towards the ditch with a wet ‘plap’ as I landed. One of the riders I had passed had some sound advice for me - “careful” he said. As is usually the case after a couple of crashes, the personal pressure is lifted and I just enjoyed the ride.

We set about that long old drag to stage 3, bumping into Peaty and Danny Mac at the Red Lion along the way. Ard Rock is pretty cool like that. Everybody is mixed in together, so you might meet one of your heroes along the way and get chance to have a quick chat.

The rest of the riding was smooth sailing. Great stages with much less mud made for some good times. We got back to the main site and caught up with my wife, Danica, who’d been out on the Hope Women’s ride and was already getting stuck into the beers with a few of the girls who’d been out on that -  that’s another great thing about Ard Rock, all of the extras that surround it, like the pump track challenge and airbag, and my daughter’s favourite, the Hope Tech Academy bikes, and my little girl is desperate to get involved next year after seeing all of the academy bikes around the place.

Another successful ‘Ard Rock for Hope Technology, with Ferg and Joe taking 1st and 3rd in the Masters, but not without some casualties- after a big smash on stage 1, Woody took a visit to the local hospital.

Sunday broke ready for the Sport and Intro events, but unlike Saturday there was constant rain. The tracks were sure to be wild. Danica was having her first taste of riding the Ard Rock in the Ard Rock Intro. I checked out some of the nearby stages and conditions were savage. The bottom of stage 1 reminded me of Danny Hart’s legendary run at Champery - “stay on your bike Danny” - and the off-camber parts of stage 7 had chocolate milk coming down them. What she lacks in experience she makes up for in sheer determination though - a true passenger to her Spectral she shot down the bottom of Stage 7 and took 3rd in her category, grin full of mud and clothes full of water. My daughter didn’t even recognise her, she was so covered in dirt!

In the weeks running up to Ard Rock I have a vision in my head of a beautiful sunny weekend spent pedalling around with my mates, bike banter and beers, good food, great laughs and generally just enjoying that festival feeling with like-minded people. The reality is slightly different, but only slightly… so let’s pray for a sunny one next year, but I will pack a mud tyre just incase!