EPIC CYMRU… A little taster.

I thought I would share my blog on Epic Cymru with you all, there is a slide show at the top with a selection of images from the event. Hopefully they give you a little taster of what the event was like and what to expect if your toying with the idea of entering next year.

I loved the whole week and can’t wait for next one, a chilled out week that just brought together a really cool bunch of people that all love the world of MTB. We even had sun and dusty trails for most of the event 😀

Epic cymru blog[/url]

Great images and it looks like a fab event with a real mix of riders and bikes.

That kind of format might be right up my street, as I can’t seem to decide what sort of racing I want to do.

There was a good mix of everything, to suit most styles of riding I would say.

Awesome mix of trails, great bunch of guys to hang around with / chat to whilst on linking sections, seriously well organised, and a really nice feel to the whole event. Definitely top of the list to do again next year! Some ace pics in the blog there too.

Thanks Tomh1980. To be honest, Stage 3 broke me…. I so wanted to ride that day 🙂

we can ride it whenever we want Pease dude you know that

I know…. but nothing like a race environment and we can’t ride them trails closed 😉

Great blog, and I now have a whole load of images to trawl through to look for more moments of my averageness…!

I’m suffering a bit of a post-Epic comedown at the moment, so it’s good to look back. I’m already planning next year, not least in terms of fitness!

Those of you who raced, tell us a bit more about it please.

🙂

More details please chaps

I really want to do this but the cost is a bit of a shitter for me currently. Plus I imagine it’s not much fun on your own (got no mates, I’m too miserable)

@chakaping

If I say that the racing for overall position (rather than targeting the gravity sections of the Trail King/Queen) was probably aimed towards a short’ish travel (say 100/120mm) full suss, then that probably gives you a flavour.

If you cycle a loop, you generally make more time on the ups, than you can regain on the downs, and this is where the course design for an event like this is critical, and was so good here. It balanced out the up vs down such that a bike at any extreme (ie xc hardtail or enduro) was unlikely to be the most competitive overall. In other words it’s neither an XC race, nor a gravity Enduro. Even the downs had some reasonable sections of up in them!

You have to be really fit (ie xc racer fit) AND pretty competent going downhill if you want to be up there, and that’s what make it so enjoyable to me. Often, xc racing is pretty limited from a technical point (for good reason) and you don’t get long descents to let rip, but this had plenty of it, which was great fun.

Overtaking was not really an issue, as the length of the linking stages created ‘self ranking’ through the field. The faster guys were faster on the linking stages and therefore when they got to the timed stages didn’t have slower people ahead of them. The guys targeting the Trail King / Queen probably had to pick their moments, but I don’t think anyone had any major problems.

The racing was great, but it was also the great riding, the friendly rivalries, meeting new people (including some MTB ‘celebs’!), the chatting/banter with those around you – at the end of timed stages, during the linking stages etc – and the scenery which was a major part of the enjoyment.

Do it if you get the chance peeps. It was awesome…

Interesting – ta for that, so were there mass starts or was it all done with transponders like a sportive style event?

Transponders were used for all race timing.

Mass starts each day apart from the first/prologue day, where people were set off at 20 intervals based on their randomised bib number to spread people over the short 10k course. Mass starts were pretty relaxed ie no formal grid, so you could start where you wanted really…

EDIT

The linking stages were generally so long after the start, that even if you started at the back, you could pull through to the front pretty easily if you wanted to with a bit of effort. There was the occasional bottle neck, which spread the field out a bit, but as this was not in timed sections, it wasn’t a big deal.

Thanks Johnny 🙂 Hopefully I will get to see more new faces next year then 🙂

I did the Epic Cymru and I’d put it on the Regional XC/Wiggle MTB Sportive side of the spectrum. I was disappointed with quite a lot about the race.

In the launch and build the Trans-Provence was referenced a lot (this magazine!) – this was misleading and led to over biked competitors riding the endless fire roads that made up the majority on the 50+ kms each day. Epic Cymru was up to 50kms a day pure regional level XC with a few kms a day ‘descending’ (the kind that requires pedalling). Epic Cymru claimed to be 90%+ off-road, this is true but the majority of the off-road riding was on fire roads often up and down the same ones, Day 1 start on 15-20kms of fire road end riding the same fire road, Day 2 ride the same fire road out …

The timed ‘DH’ stages (called Trail King/Queen) were an open category while the over-all (xc race) was in the age categories you entered under, my impression was DH stages were of not of any real interest to the organisers. I over head someone from A Cycling telling a group of riders (who were dropping out due to the race being what they expected) that he ‘never said it was an enduro’ this is true but he never said it was an XC/Sportive either.

The riders may of spread out at times but for example on day 1 in Afan riders were set off 20 secs apart for a 1 km timed fire road climb which went straight into a timed Trail King/Queen stage – guess what happened? XC riders zoomed up the fire roads and were all over the Trail King/Queen stage with bigger bikes trying to get past, XC riders trying to maintain a good overall for the day ‘enduro’ rider trying to make one of just two DH stages that day count towards the Trail King/Queen category (and have some fun), XC rider is racing the other riders in his/her age category ‘enduro’ rider is racing everyone. After complaints to the organiser from the XC rand Trail King/Queen riders the organisers decided that the rider in front on the trail had right of way and did not have to yield to the faster rider (this is at odds with any other race I’ve ever done) the reasoning for this was that the rider in front might be defending the lead in their category (remember categories are in place only for the overall XC race) and should not have to lose time in the overall to a rider focusing on just the Trail King/Queen.

The Stages in BPW, again the organisers made much of using BPW (em let’s see it’s a bike park saying you will be racing there suggest the use of – gravity) In BPW the Epic Cymru went down one of the Red trails un-timed to the car park at the bottom turned around for the first timed stage of the day which was Up the BPW XC climb, with just one timed run DOWN (Wibbly Wobbly into Rim Dinger) before hitting the fire roads again.

If you want to do the Epic Cymru answer yes to all of these questions ?

Do you like riding around the edges of grassy fields in country parks?

Do you like big climbs in the middle of DH stages?

Do you like to ride Afan at the same time as 4 coach loads of riders head off on to the trails?

Do you get excited at the idea of being allowed to ride UP the final Skyline decent?

Do you go to BPW to ride UP the XC climb and get the uplift to take you down to do it again?

Do you optimise your bike set for fire road riding?

Do you get surprised when you see someone riding DOWN a trail you had only ever climbed UP

I did the Epic Cymru and I’d put it on the Regional XC/Wiggle MTB Sportive side of the spectrum. I was disappointed with quite a lot about the race.

In the launch and build the Trans-Provence was referenced a lot (this magazine!) – this was misleading and led to over biked competitors riding the endless fire roads that made up the majority on the 50+ kms each day. Epic Cymru was up to 50kms a day pure regional level XC with a few kms a day ‘descending’ (the kind that requires pedalling). Epic Cymru claimed to be 90%+ off-road, this is true but the majority of the off-road riding was on fire roads often up and down the same ones, Day 1 start on 15-20kms of fire road end riding the same fire road, Day 2 ride the same fire road out …

The timed ‘DH’ stages (called Trail King/Queen) were an open category while the over-all (xc race) was in the age categories you entered under, my impression was DH stages were of not of any real interest to the organisers. I over head someone from A Cycling telling a group of riders (who were dropping out due to the race being what they expected) that he ‘never said it was an enduro’ this is true but he never said it was an XC/Sportive either.

The riders may of spread out at times but for example on day 1 in Afan riders were set off 20 secs apart for a 1 km timed fire road climb which went straight into a timed Trail King/Queen stage – guess what happened? XC riders zoomed up the fire roads and were all over the Trail King/Queen stage with bigger bikes trying to get past, XC riders trying to maintain a good overall for the day ‘enduro’ rider trying to make one of just two DH stages that day count towards the Trail King/Queen category (and have some fun), XC rider is racing the other riders in his/her age category ‘enduro’ rider is racing everyone. After complaints to the organiser from the XC rand Trail King/Queen riders the organisers decided that the rider in front on the trail had right of way and did not have to yield to the faster rider (this is at odds with any other race I’ve ever done) the reasoning for this was that the rider in front might be defending the lead in their category (remember categories are in place only for the overall XC race) and should not have to lose time in the overall to a rider focusing on just the Trail King/Queen.

The Stages in BPW, again the organisers made much of using BPW (em let’s see it’s a bike park saying you will be racing there suggest the use of – gravity) In BPW the Epic Cymru went down one of the Red trails un-timed to the car park at the bottom turned around for the first timed stage of the day which was Up the BPW XC climb, with just one timed run DOWN (Wibbly Wobbly into Rim Dinger) before hitting the fire roads again.

If you want to do the Epic Cymru answer yes to all of these questions ?

Do you like riding around the edges of grassy fields in country parks?

Do you like big climbs in the middle of DH stages?

Do you like to ride Afan at the same time as 4 coach loads of riders head off on to the trails?

Do you get excited at the idea of being allowed to ride UP the final Skyline decent?

Do you go to BPW to ride UP the XC climb and get the uplift to take you down to do it again?

Do you optimise your bike set for fire road riding?

Do you get surprised when you see someone riding DOWN a trail you had only ever climbed UP

Reading this thread with interest – keen to do this next year if they put the event on again. I suspect the organisers will have learnt a huge amount from this year’s issues, and, with time, the event will streamline and morph into something that works well?

Or maybe not?

The ‘which bike’ decision would be the hardest of all

rotel – Member

In the launch and build the Trans-Provence was referenced a lot

Aye… I didn’t do it, but I nearly signed up based on the “UK’s answer to the TP” chat, very glad I didn’t from all the race reports… Maybe a lot of that chat came from outwith the race organisation but they did nothing to counter it, and it’s pretty much their job to make sure entrants know what they’re buying. The association with BPW was pretty suggestive like you say.

To be fair, I might have loved it, who knows.

Not really sounding like my cup of tea now 😕

I await the Uk’s answer to Trans-Provence, this answer will obviously never arrive, it’s an absurd suggestion.

Trans Tweed. Start at Glentress, ride a day there, ride to Innerleithen trail centre, ride a day there, relocate to the golfcourse (camp on the 18th hole, they’ll appreciate that), day riding up there, liaison to the 9th hole, more golfcourse, ride down to thornielee, ride there, ride to yair. Sorted. The transitions might be a bit extreme though.

Rotel makes some valid points – certainly I would have loved more timed dh in BPW, and definitely referred to myself as being overbiked – but I think it was pretty clear that it was going to be a mix of up and down from the beginning, anyone thinking it was going to be like T-P wasn’t really paying attention.

I also seem to recall hating the climbs Ash sent us up in T-P (on foot, carrying a bike, hanging onto roots) much more than the climb up Skyline 🙂

gary – Member

anyone thinking it was going to be like T-P wasn’t really paying attention.

People not paying attention:

http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/event_news/epic-cymru-new-five-day-enduro-race-324911
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/epic-cymru-wales-stage-race-2015.html
http://dirtmountainbike.com/news/epic-cymru-multi-day-enduro-comes-wales.html#krRgMJMsDokfpFfF.97
http://www.triridemtb.com/epic-cymru-enduro/

All from the press rather than the organisers of course… But ample opportunity for the organisers to correct it if it’s wrong.

Oh I agree the comms could have been better. But from the middle of the press release that those links seem to be regurgitating:

“will encompass several styles of riding and is aimed at the entire spectrum of riders, from Cross Country (XC) to Enduro and Downhill”

That’s what I was getting at.

So did you need a 650b bike in bright colours to enter?

Having also done the event i think the criticism is unfair. It delivered exactly what i was expecting. The original web site never promised an enduro style event and was always aimed at all styles of mountain biking. The press may have over egged it but thats just what the press do.

Personally i would have preferred more cross country/longer timed stages, although i appreciate this is difficult to organise when the trails pass over different owners land.

The fire roads were necessary to add the distance and climbing to the days. It was always marketed as an endurance event, not enduro.

I await the Uk’s answer to Trans-Provence

Could have something along the lines of a coast to coast along SUW taking in some of the 7stanes and natural trails along the route.

Come to think of it does anything like this exist?

rotel – Member
I did the Epic Cymru and I’d put it on the Regional XC/Wiggle MTB Sportive side of the spectrum. I was disappointed with quite a lot about the race.

Go on then, what bike did you use?

wow…. I remember now why I don’t really do forums much. A few people asked me about it, so I thought I would share my view and pictures from the event.

I heard so many great comments and yes some thought it was going to be different and more Enduro/DH based but this wasn’t advertised by the organisers from what I saw before hand. I understand that you can never please everyone but you have to understand the logistics of organising an event like this to appreciate that connecting 4/5 days of riding in Wales will have to include fire road sections. After the first stage many realised that if they wanted to go for the Trail King/Queen they had to either push on and get to the sections first or hang back and wait for a reasonable gap before they dropped into the timed sections. The XC riders just pushed on and treated it like a stage race and wanted to be first back each day and from what I saw most of the others enjoyed the scenery, riding and atmosphere of being in an event like this.

I ride Enduro races when not behind the camera and I would have enjoyed this event from what I saw. Most enduro races I have raced in have at least one stage if not more that have flat and uphill sections within it anyway.

I am sorry rotel that you didn’t enjoy although I feel some of your points are unfair. That is your view though and I am not going to argue. I am just a photographer that loves being outdoors and seeing others enjoy the outdoors.

Rotel, think you’re well wide of the mark, like @pease I don’t really do forum’s very much but go on I’ll have a crack at answering your questions…

Do you like riding around the edges of grassy fields in country parks?
– Yes, seems like I’m not the only one (Mayhem, Bikefest, 24/12 etc. etc.), only really did this in the prologue though, thought it was a properly good loop though, wish more xc laps were that much fun.

Do you like big climbs in the middle of DH stages?
Yes, to make up for my lack of ability downhill. Can’t remember any big climbs in these sections though (unless you’re calling 40-50m vert big?).

Do you like to ride Afan at the same time as 4 coach loads of riders head off on to the trails?
No. Nice of them to close the trails to everyone for us though wasn’t it?

Do you get excited at the idea of being allowed to ride UP the final Skyline decent?
Yes, never done it before and its a properly good laugh. Wish they’d allow it more often.

Do you go to BPW to ride UP the XC climb and get the uplift to take you down to do it again?
No, I go to BPW to ride up the climb, then enjoy the DH’s.

Do you optimise your bike set for fire road riding?
No, it’s boring. But sometimes you need to ride up something a bit dull to get to the really good stuff. Do you optimise your bike to hook it on a trailer?

Do you get surprised when you see someone riding DOWN a trail you had only ever climbed UP
Eh?

Summary – I absolutely loved it and thought the guys organising it did a superb job. Wish in some ways that the timed stages could have been longer but appreciate how difficult it’s been to get approval to race. Great mix of trails from XC course at Margam to many of the Welsh Gravity Enduro Series stages at Afan / BPW, and the old DH course at Mountain Ash. As originally described – “Mountain Biking”.

I think tomh covers most points, which is good, as I’m generally adverse to forum debate, especially as it never changes anyone’s ideas…

However- I loved it, obviously with an appreciation of the difficulties of gaining permission to race on an epic scale, so;

-Uphill elements in descent stages? Even UKGE stages have some short uphill sections- it’s Enduro, not DH.

also, there was no compulsion to charge off each day, especially if you were mainly doing it with an eye for the trail king sections. after the first full day, I and the spontaneously formed gang of tail-end-bimblers found that we could go out for a great day’s trail riding and then hit all the timed stages with loads of space. this is what the trail king contenders did and it was enjoyably social!

No-one considers the Dyfi/CYB/FOD/Gorrick enduros to be ‘ENDUROOOO’, so any examination of the ascent/distance each day would have given a fair idea. I was on a reasonably light, slack short-ish, nimble 29er, and I reckon that was the tool for the job, up and down.

I did think it was more oriented to the XC; I would have liked to see more trail king sections, and there were some good rooty/steep/loose chutes which could have been part of timed trail sections, and this was a real test/block for some of the more XC riders- if they had been part of stages, but with a (longish) B-line diversion for less technical riders, that could have been a good test as part of an event which has the potential to be a test of all elements of riding…?

I thought it was excellent. I spent a lot time thinking about what the perfect bike would have been, then concluded that there wasn’t one. It was epic cross country riding where any bike would have struggled at times. For a first event it was well organised, and i’m looking forward to next year. If they change the format and stages or not i’d still enter as I like challenging big rides. The only problem with it is the weather: this year was good, but if it had rained for a few days it’d soon become a slippery, muddy slog.

I loved it. Doing a stage race in the UK is always going to have to contend with the no-racing-on-bridleways law so the timed sections had to be a) not on bridleways and b) have permission from the landowner. I think the format was a clever answer to that.

And there was a real mix of trails – I don’t recognise the criticism of the Bikepark Wales day, I saw noone else on the Rim Dinger descent and one person on Mountain Ash (which was proper awesumz). I’ve not ridden the area and it opened my eyes to the sheer variety of trails.

But then I was carrying an injury so bimbled around having a laugh with people at the back and we all tried to make sure we’d give each other a clear run.

The long fire roads where there was no racing made for a relaxed, cheery and chatty experience, as was the catering. I don’t think I’ve been to such a friendly race. Met loads of really ace people.

I’m not sure how to judge value for money for the entry – however, last year we did a French stage race in the Alps – although the entry fee was only about £100 organising all our own accommodation, transport and food was more than comparable to Epic Cymru and a lot more stressful. Although I did enjoy the riding in France, I came away from Epic Cymru feeling really happy and quite relaxed.

I’m sure the organisers will be listening to feedback and the format will be tweaked. But no one bike will ever be perfect for all of it.

Oh and the only real criticism I have is that I didn’t get a decent coffee until we got to Bikepark Wales. A coffee van would have cleaned up as espresso-starved mountain bikers emptied their pockets in exchange for precious elixir of life.

my little blogette if anyone is interested

http://www.7oakstriclub.co.uk/members/news/2015/08/28/epic-cymru-%E2%80%93-south-wales-charlie-mortleman

Enjoyed that Charlie – good to see the Pyga in action 🙂

Nice blog Charlie and thanks for the pics Anthony.

I enjoyed the event a lot and would recommend it.

It was advertised as a cross between enduro and XC and it was. There was actually a slight bias towards enduro, because ultimately it was the best descenders who won the day in the overall race as well as in the Trail King competition.

Ignore Rotel, he’s exaggerating hugely. The technical level was on a par with the gravity enduros I’ve done, and there was a lot less congestion too. But good fitness definitely helped.

I rode a 100mm XC hardtail, because that’s all I own, and that was absolutely fine even on the downhill track, but a light 120mm FS would’ve been ideal I reckon. That said, some of the top 10 were on bigger bikes.

I’ll post a link to my own blog once I get round to writing it.

Pease, I’ve seen your photos on your blog, but I remember you taking so many more that the four that are posted.
Are there now pics that you haven’t submitted or are they just not usable? I’d like to buy some but not if all ok a sudden Ainge not get posted up!

Piesoup, have you seen these: http://www.anthonypeasephotography.co.uk/epic-cymru-2015/

Anthony, have you got any more end-of-day podium pics that haven’t been put up?

FYI Rotel only rode the Prologue & Stage 1.

Chrispo, yeah, those are the only pics I’ve found. I certainly remember trying to look more #enduro more times than there are pics. Especially on Stage 2 on that awesome bermy downhill singletrack, but no pics of me! Maybe I needed an orange POC lid and flouro shorts!