Mountain Bike Rider Magazine October 2018 Back Issue

ROCK STARS: HOW ARD ROCK PUT THE FUN BACK INTO RACING AGAIN
There are plenty of mountain bike races going on up and down the country
throughout the year. But not since the heady days of the original (and recently reborn) malverns Classic has one struck a chord like the Ard Rock. It’s a winning combination of enduro racing and Yorkshire grit that’s riding the crest of a wave as riders seek an event in tune with the sport’s broader direction of travel. things change, things stay the same, but it’s clear that many of those same people that happily dossed in cheap two-man tents and drunkenly back-flipped their Pro-Flexes into the malverns lake two decades ago haven’t lost their appetite for riding hard and partying harder. now, however, they turn up in convoys of posh camper vans, sip artisan lattes served from Citroen h-vans and happily pay a premium for a wood-fired pizza where in a previous life they would have been content with chips in a polystyrene tray and a carrier bag of Fosters.